The "back in my day crowd" regarding schedules is annoying. Mostly the same crew that didn't want a stadium expansion, turf, or a jumbotron. Two playoff appearances later, life goes on.
Navy was awful back then and no different as a tune-up game now. The only difference was ND had history with Navy. You know who else sucked in the 80's? Rice. Played them. Guess who else was terrible? Purdue. Just because they are from a P5(ish) conference doesn't mean they weren't terrible and easy games back then. I'm in my early 40's. I saw it with my own eyes. They weren't stories. A team like CMU isn't great for your season tickets, I understand that. Want to know what else sucks? ND's out of conference home basketball schedule. NFL preseason games. A lot of the ACC teams that come into ND Stadium. Take the tune-up and the W and realize its just CFB in this era.