[NU Sports] Season (was: Hoeppner)

Wed Sep 13 13:55:09 CDT 2006

Criticism of Notre Dame is always valid.

Notre Dame is a legitimate NC contender because they have a huge media army at their disposal.

"Last Saturday Notre Dame soundly defeated one of the best teams in the country" What ?  Penn State is 1-1 with a win over Akron.  Georgia Tech, last weeks powerhouse, is 1-1 with a win over Samford.

For years we have been told (incessantly) that ND is the pinnacle in football, the pinnacle in academics, the pinnacle in integrity, etc, etc, etc.

While ND syncophants are cursed with wearing the blinders that NBC, ESPN, the Chicago Sun-Times and most of the media yes-men wear, not everyone is resigned to wearing those same blinders.

Notre Dame decided several years ago that they were 'too good' to join the Big Ten, and thereby demonstrate a commitment to the highest standards of Academics and Athletics.  What they actually demonstrated was incredible greed, avarice and narcissism.  Any criticism of them is to be encouraged and welcomed.

It can only be hoped that Lloyd Carr wakes up from his somnolent state and beats Charlie Weis this weekend.

Chuck Herron   Tech '85

-----Original Message-----
From: johnl at mac.com
To: sjtruog at yahoo.com
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Season (was: Hoeppner)

> 
> I'd echo that - especially with our schedule. I hear 
> pundit after pundit on TV yap on and on about how 
> "tough" and "challenging" Notre Dame's schedule is 
> this year. In reality, ND's schedule is **HALF** a Big 
> Ten schedule. If they were like the 11 teams in the 
> league, their schedule would STILL include trips to 
> Madison, Columbus and Iowa City instead of the three 
> service academies and UNC. Gimme a break, aside from 
> the Big Ten teams and USC, this is cupcake city for 
> the Domers! A mediocre schedule at best. 
> 
> But I digress:) ... our schedule has so many big-names 
> that it's tough to look at it any other way than one 
> week at a time or you feel overwhelmed. Beat EMU! 

Digress, you do. Actually, I've often been puzzled about why it is that so many of your posts somehow manage to say something negative about Notre Dame, even when it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the subject at hand. What does the strength of Notre Dame's schedule have to do with our chances for a successful season? If Notre Dame were in the Big Ten, do you think that would help us have a more successful season? 

The fact that nobody's talking about the strength of our schedule and everybody's talking about the strength of Notre Dame's schedule has to do with the fact that Notre Dame is a legitimate contender for the national championship whereas we are not. Last Saturday Notre Dame soundly defeated one of the best teams in the country; on the same day we lost to a division I-AA team. While I would agree that our schedule is tougher, it's not really going to come up in the media unless we start to win some big games. 

It's also worth noting that most of the commentators who are emphasizing the difficulty of ND's schedule are the same ones who are predicting that they will NOT win the national championship. On the other hand, the commentators (like Lou Holtz) who think ND might win the national championship point out that their schedule is actually not that tough (because the hard games are interspersed with a few cupcakes). Having said that, I wouldn't call all of ND's non-Big-Ten opponents cupcakes, like Ga. Tech, UCLA, and USC. 

In any event, what I've always found puzzling is that as Northwestern fans I don't really see why we should be critical of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is able to have one of the most successful football programs in the nation while at the same time maintaining relatively very high academic standards and graduating nearly all of its players. Isn't that something that we applaud as Northwestern fans? 

Whether Notre Dame wins or loses, all I would really like to see is Northwestern win the rest of its games this season. Not very likely, I know. But that would get the media talking about us in a hurry. Personally, I'll expect a Northwestern victory each week, regardless of who we are playing that week, and regardless of who Notre Dame is playing that week, for whatever relevance that may have. 

(One final technical point, although Notre Dame won't be playing road games in Madison, Columbus, and Iowa City this year, nor will any other team in the country, not even in the Big Ten.) 

John Labbe 

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