How relevant will Notre Dame be in 20 years?
This question is not intended as a knock on Notre Dame, or even a criticism of ND's stance as an independent.
I just wonder if anyone - fans, television, media or anyone else - will look at Notre Dame in 2036 the same way they look at Notre Dame today. And in turn, whether that perception will influence the direction Notre Dame takes with its football program.
Notre Dame is a huge brand, no doubt. But I think it is false to say that Notre Dame's football brand is as strong today as it was in the 1980s, when it won its last national championship. And it is certainly not as strong as it was before the NCAA lost control and televised college football began to proliferate in the early 1980s.
The success of Notre Dame football has dropped dramatically since the early 1990s. Although Notre Dame has a really good season now and then and still usually gets the benefit of the doubt when big-time bowl bids are on the line, I don't believe many people still think of Notre Dame in the same way that they think of Ohio State, Alabama and even some of the brand-name schools that have slipped a notch, like Penn State.
Notre Dame is a relatively small school, particularly as compared to the giants of the Big Ten and some other schools. That won't change. Its alumni are passionate and comparatively wealthy. But how long will the non-alum ND fans continue in the same numbers if ND cannot compete for championships? Do Catholic kids still grow up wanting to go to ND even if they may end up at State U or a less selective Catholic or Jesuit school like, say, St. Joe's or Dayton? Are there as many Catholic kids today as there were in the 1960s? I don't know the answers to all these questions but I suspect some of the answers do not favor ND's future as a marketable, independent football "power."
I do not believe Notre Dame really wants to cut corners or lower standards in a way that would make it genuinely competitive with the upper echelon of college football.
Notre Dame today is not the Notre Dame of 1988 and it surely is not the Notre Dame of the 1960s.
I just wonder if, by 2036, folks will look at Notre Dame in much the same way as they look at Army and Navy now -- as a long-ago power from a respected institution that has glorious tradition and remains competitive at some level, but is no longer a real threat to compete for national championships. So, "yawn."
How long can ND football continue to thrive as little more than a gold-helmeted infomercial to things that Leahy and Rockne and Parseghian and Holtz did, but that college students were not alive to witness?
[Post edited by Tailgate Guru at 05/11/2017 12:33PM]
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In response to this post by Will Stewart)
Posted: 05/11/2017 at 12:33PM