UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

I'm an Irish fan so I get irritated at the constant conference p**sing contests. I have no dog in the fight but the SEC has 7 teams ranked in the top 19 of ESPN's power poll. Does ESPN hype the SEC due to their contract? Oh yeah. But I cannot disagree with those rankings much. Throw in the amount of Nattys won by different teams and they are hands down the best. Are they overhyped? Sometimes. Not debatable that over the last 15 or so years they are the dominant conference in the country and it's not even close.

The SEC is not the "Unbelievable Conference" that they are marketed as. Every year the top 1 or 2 teams are really good, there's another 2 that are good, and the rest of the conference sucks. The bottom end is bad. They get great marketing from ESPN and they schedule perfectly, and have a deal with the Sun Belt conference to play their crap programs. I'm not ragging on them - I think it's genius. ND just needs to do the same.

Take this year - Alabama, Georgia - really good, LSU, Florida - good, the next best team is Kentucky - really? and then what? Auburn, Texas AM, and then it drops off like a rock -Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, , Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State. Any other year looks the same. Since it's split into east/west - each side has 2 good teams, and 5 not very good teams.

They still might be the best conference - but they are not light years ahead of the Big 10, and Big 12. I think those 3 are closer than ESPN would have you believe.

They schedule great - they open up with crap to warm up, then they go on a 2 or 3 games in conference and either a bye week or a Sun Belt team. So in reality, they play 9 games - and after every 3 they get a bye or a Sun Belt team to take a break.

ND really needs to look at the SEC and schedule the same. Make a deal with Conference USA to open up with them every year - and then the rest of the year play 2 games, and then a bye or a crap team the rest of the year. That keeps your kids fresh, helps injuries heel, gives back-ups a chance to play, and you look great beating the Citadel 50 - 7 (I guess).

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Alabama, and Georgia are excellent teams. LSU is very good too, but I do not understand the love affair with Florida who lost 3 games. I do think Texas A&M is strong and will get better. Auburn I also consider strong generally and they have had some great moments. Mississippi State has been tough in the past but not now. South Carolina can be dangerous but inconsistent. This is not a description of teams in a conference that make it out of this world.

Yeah, they suck

It wasn't as strong this season as we expected, but still . . . quite a few good teams. Top-to-bottom, I'd take the SEC over probably any other conference even in this "down" year.

ND could obviously schedule better in terms of spacing and travel.

Not scheduling the early bye week next season for the week before Georgia is the stupidest thing I have ever seen. (So they can play Louisville on Labor Day night? Really?)

Schools had stronger SOS than ND this year....so they must being doing something right. We played Michigan and then you saw what that crappy team from the SEC did to them....

I think they finished the year with 6-7 teams in the Top 25

At least you acknowledged they were still the best conference

It's funny how everyone bad mouths the Big Ten, the schedule OSU plays, that Michigan plays, and then you conveniently forget that.

Clemson's opponent in their ACC championship game was Pitt with a 6-6 record. Tough conference.

It's not like ND lined up a bunch of soup cans. Nobody could have anticipated that Stanford, USC, Virginia Tech, and FSU would all be down this season. ND scheduled a very tough slate. That looked like a top 5 type schedule just a couple of years ago. It turned out to not be that great, though still respectable.

But it is what it is for 2018. 2019 doesn't look much better.

Odd to0 that a down year for the SEC is only 4 teams in the Top 10 and 6-7 in the top 25.

Sounds like a real wuss conference to me too.

We really didnt know exactly how good we were going into the CFP since we didnt play too many tough games. Same could be said for Clemson. Turns out beating Michigan really didnt mean much since Florida destroyed them.

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that you would make that comment since that is all that has been happening here at UHND since we got blown out

One excuse after another....

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Some indicating a few breaks and it wouldn't have been as embarrassing but all those post say ND still would lose.

Would love to see the abundance of excuses

A lot of woulda, coulda, shoulda's......

been according to the NFL top expert in a tweet then maybe it would have made a closer game or possible difference. That is hardly making excuses. I also acknowledged that we would have to play a very good game and that Clemson was a better team than us in order to beat them. You are something else Woodie but you got my response to your pro SEC, Georgia bias so I guess you won this round. But I think people see through you.

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were the initial fumble by Book that no one really possessed and should have been ruled down because the ball was dead under him, the fumble after our kickoff which could not be confirmed as definitely out of bounds, and the drop or not drop so called lack of football move by Mack on a pass to the 31 yard line of Clemson that would have been close to a first down and put us in 3rd and less than 1, in 4 down territory at that point in the game.

It had nothing to do with what they did to our D when Love went out, and wasn't going to change the outcome of a blowout where they had backups in nearly the entire 4th quarter.

1 - the ball rulled a fumble we recovered on the kickoff that was overturned was definitely a bad reversal as there was nothing to show conclusively the ball touched the sideline and math and angles and what not say a curved ball with only maybe a half inch hanging over the sideline like 99.9% didn't actually touch the sideline.
They got that one wrong.

2 - the Mack catch/drop is debatable...I thought it was a catch and a fumble, but it was close and there was great video angles of it so this isn't a definite they got it wrong, but I think it was wrong so this is where I give you a half.

3 - the Book fumble was absolutely 100% a fumble and Clemson did 100% recover it in a timely manner and Book absolutely 100% can not regain possession of a ball while laying on his back and putting his leg over it...that IS NOT possession and was actually something that happened earlier this year in one of our games but went our way as the other team tried to just lay a body part on the ball and we recovered it.
They got that one correct regardless of what whatshisname said.

with no one touching it before it comes to a complete rest, qualifies as a dead ball and as such remains with who had it, and was it indeed prone. Just not sure of rules now or if that idea was indeed the case. Your 1.5 seems fair although I think 2.0 is more accurate, because of the screwed up Mack ruling. Once again if Mack makes the catch cleanly and clearly holds on we have the ball in good position. But like I have said before on Mack, he blows the easy catches somehow.

Whatever, they were clearly the better and more talented team, especially in terms of playing up to their capability. If the two were not overturned it probably had the effect of only making it a closer game at which point maybe the ability to perform under pressure comes into play. We have no reason to think they would not have been able to perform under pressure.

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Going around calling Tim Tebow an idiot

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I see through most of the bullshit on this site including yours.

I have noticed a very disturbing trend, both in the NFL,and college to overturn calls on replay, the replay officials substituting their judgment for the on field officials, and ignoring the "inconclusive" or " Indisputable " evidence" standard..In fact, Ive rarely heard "replay is inconclusive " in games this year....the ND-Clemson game just being the LATEST EXAMPLE..No way , all those calls were conclusive..

So, if those standards are now out the window, Id like to see replay, (I know it wont be) sharply curtailed....Give one to each coach PER GAME, one to the field officials when they are sharply divided, one to replay officials, 4 in total per game...if I was boss, lol, that be it..

here ! Same crap after we got beat...

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