Right behind Coastal Carolina.
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Playing 6 games in a pretty weak conference isn't exactly very impressive, especially considering that Indiana, by all rights, should have played in that championship game.
Changing the rules at the end of the season to bend over backwards for tOSU shows the spineless nature of the Big Ten.
Now, that being said, do I think that tOSU has the talent to be in the top 4? Absolutely, but when you don't abide by your original rules, the hypocrisy reeks indeed.
Clemson is going to open up a big ol' can of whoop-ass on them, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Justin Fields laying on the ground on many occasions.
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The top 4 teams are right where they belong. Eliminating teams because they haven't played enough games would render the playoffs meaningless. Can you imagine if Clemson or Alabama didn't, by no fault of their own, play enough games and were kept out of the playoffs for that reason? It would turn the playoffs into a joke. If by any miracle, Notre Dame won the whole thing, I would want it to be the real mccoy, not a diluted playoff with an * next to it.
Results are supposed to matter. Are we supposed to assume OSU was going to win the games they didn't play? It isn't like one or two games, it was 5! The argument that it wasn't their fault, that they shouldn't be "punished," is one of the lamest, most irrelevant ones I've heard in a long time.
OSU played 6 games. OSU played roughly 1/2 the schedule other teams did. Assuming 11 games, that means they didn't play 5 games they could have lost, they didn't play 5 games where players could have gotten injured, their players played 1/2 the games their prime competition did play meaning they have much less wear and tear on their body. 3 times, literally half of their games, they had two weeks to prepare for an opponent and recover. The notion that OSU couldn't control it's schedule is totally irrelevant.
Even though I think you are overrating OSU, I'm not dissing your opinion as a fan re: OSU. But choosing the top 4 needs to be based on more than "opinion", more than passing the eye candy test. imo, conference winner Oklahoma is as good as conference winner OSU. Yes Oklahoma lost 2 games but hey they actually played 4 more games than OSU did.
There are probably 4 teams that "deserved" the final two spots ND, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and OSU. Personally if I were using a "deserved," eye candy argument, I would have picked Oklahoma over OSU.
OSU and ND got in over Oklahoma because Oklahoma had 2 losses against teams nowhere near as good as Clemson. ND got in over Texas AM because A&M really only had one quality win, with one nasty loss, much worse than ND's, and a bunch of blah the rest of the season. ND objectively was better (more points per game on offense, less points per game on defense, etc) than A&M was. Really close but ND gets it.
like the guy.
What he was saying was certainly in Clemson's interest. Having ACC with two teams in playoffs. Having ND seen as a top flight team.
I agree, he seems to respect ND. He grew up in a catholic household and actually rooted for ND. But his recent posturing has been politics for sure.
teams, though. Maybe I just don’t pay enough attention to press conferences etc since they are usually a bunch of cliches. I’ll even add in the fact that he’s probably grateful that ND came along and joined the ACC since Clemson was really the only school that wanted to play this year up until that point. Probably some politicking involved for sure but I think that there’s probably some sincerity and respect involved in it as well. Just nice to have someone on NDs side when the national media and many other coaches seem to have such an irrational disdain...
About the ND bashing from the media, this year, I think the national ND bashing has been minimal. I think there was a consensus at the beginning of the season that had ND not joined the ACC this year, the season may not have gotten off the ground.
So, yeah, there's probably some of that thinking from Dabo when he speaks of ND
Dabo's father hated ND because Bear couldn't beat them...
It was that he is very good at politicking because he comes across so affable. And he is catholic and seems to respect ND and what they stand for. I really like that.
I do like the guy. I don't have a problem with him taking a stance and trying to influence from where he is. I just try to see it for what it is.
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Based off of his comments over the past several years, he has great respect for Kelly and Notre Dame as an institution.
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Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8pnNlnyOw8
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