There are huge differences, you know?

Anyway, you are likely wrong about this, too.

ND will stop ND.

Many ND folks now think ND should not even qualify for the playoffs unless undefeated.

They are not going to want to sneak in now.

They would revolt if ND watered down its schedule.

Hell, many fans want to play the top ten schools every year and bitch like hell when ND doesn't.


This is the school that refused to go to bowl games from 1925-69 because it worried that a bowl game took away from academics for its football players.

This is the school that put internal scholarship limits on Frank Leahy and then forced him out in 1953 after he went undefeated for four years.

Its administration worried that winning "too much" would cause football to overshadow academics.

This is the school whose pressures and internal administration worries about "winning too much", academics and "scandal" (Ross Browner, Luther Bradley) forced Ara Parseghian to retire in 1974 while in his fifties.

This is the school that in 1980 hired a high school coach directly as its head coach, three years after winning a national title.

They did so because 1) He did well at Moeller High in Cincy 2) He had sent lots of recruits to ND and 3) Most "importantly", he was an extremely devout Catholic who prayed a lot and loved ND.

(Think Alabama would ever have those coaching search parameters?)

This is the school that in 1996 forced Lou Holtz out after he won "too much", but brought in a few questionable recruits.

It then raised its own internal academic recruiting requirements for football because it was embarrassed by recruits like Randy Moss.

This is the school that graduates its football players (usually the top school in that regard most years), makes them study during football season and makes them take real majors.

This is not an SEC type school, at all, ever. Never has been.

It is fairly much closer to and aspires to be more like Stanford than to Mississippi State.

If you don't think so, you don't know as much about ND football (or the school) as I thought.

Take a deep breath and let this all play out.

ND always stops ND. Nobody else can, or does.
















[Post edited by TerryD at 06/13/2021 2:19PM]