Everybody in front of us has a far tougher row to hoe… even Georgia is vulnerable with three tough SEC road games.
God forbid we somehow climb to #1… and then flame out in the playoffs because we were never severely tested
ND is still in a re-validation phase as a premier program.
Hope Marcus is the guy who can get it done.
Since we’re independent, we don’t get a bye.
All of the conference champions have to play an extra game. Seems fair to me that ND would have to play an extra game in the playoffs.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I despise the playoff agreement that Jack signed us up for.
It is not as if Jack acquiesced and accepted this - he actively promoted it and took a victory lap when the deal was done. He negotiated from a position of weakness, effectively apologizing for our independence.
I say nonsense. Because Jack left us with such an embarrassing schedule this season, it makes the argument for this arrangement even easier and plays into the hands of all of those over the years who have called out ND for not playing in a conference championship game. Because ND lacks that holy 13th game, the argument went, it is only right that they don't have the same access to a high seed as the other P5 teams.
So I guess the detractors would be OK if we scheduled a Mercer, Citadel, Nichols State, etc to build our slate to 13 games, like they do? Well, Jack again fucked us over there by scheduling our first ever FCS game against Tennessee State, so that argument is lost.
We have something to sell and it takes a strong AD to sell it. Call me old fashioned, but I think any AD would be very interested in a guaranteed sellout with massive national TV ratings. Witness the Georgia series, the Ohio State series, the TAMU series, the upcoming Sparty series. Without question, it is challenging, but ND draws eyeballs.
Don't be ashamed of who we are. Promote it. It is a competitive differentiator.
EDIT: Just came across this, which further supports my view:
Notre Dame-Texas A&M drew 8.2 million viewers, making it ABC's most-watched Saturday Night Football Game since Notre Dame-Ohio State in 2022, which drew 10.53 million viewers.
Question…do you think we should join a conference? I don’t think we need to as of now. If the current agreement changes and it adversely affects the Irish, we should consider it.
I have never bought the argument that we won't be able to schedule. We are ND - we draw eyeballs, period. Of course it is more challenging now with the conference realignment, but ultimately everything is driven by money. Notre Dame brings dollars. If that ever changes, then we have bigger problems than independence.
and 5 seed is a decent path to the big game.
You host round 1 against a G5 program, then play the 4 seed.
Once you get to the semi's, it's game on.
Sounds perfect to me.
