[NU Sports] Season (was: Hoeppner)

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> > But I digress:) ... our schedule has so many
> 
> 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 

Well, I honestly did not intend to touch off this much
of a storm on one of my little ND jabs that - as John
notes - I include often (even in the lean years - hey,
I was Bob Davie's biggest fan!:) ). Though I will say
that they usually are somewhat on topic - when a Big
Ten team plays them or when talking about Big Ten
foes.

>  If Notre Dame 
> were in the Big Ten, do you think that would help us
> have a more 
> successful season?

I do believe it would help the Big Ten - but it would
help ND more overall (though maybe not in football
because they'd actually have to play a consistently
tough schedule).

> 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 

OK - so take out NU. What about OSU? Michigan? Auburn?
LSU? No one has yakked it up about the schedules of
the top 10 teams combined than ND this year, and aside
from a Big Least team, I'd wager that every one of
them will play more top 10 and top 25 teams this year
than the Irish.

> Saturday Notre Dame 
> soundly defeated one of the best teams in the
> country; on the same day 

Best teams in the country? Sounds like you're buying
into that hype. PSU was one of the best last year -
but with a freshman quarterback, they're not a top 10
team this year. Maybe top 20 by the end of the year.

> championship.  On the 
> other hand, the commentators (like Lou Holtz) who
> think ND might win 

Just more ND bias.:) Between Lou and Jerome Bettis, I
think I heard that darn ND Victory March on every pre
and postgame show last weekend!

> cupcakes).  Having said that, I wouldn't call all of
> ND's non-Big-Ten 
> opponents cupcakes, like Ga. Tech, UCLA, and USC.

I included USC in the tough. UCLA is a mid-level Big
Ten team as is GaTech. Top 40, but not top 20.

> 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 

Hmmmm ... let me count the ways ...

1) They won't come to Evanston to play us.
2) The subway alumni.
3) The holier than thou attitude.
4) The special TV contract that no other school gets.
5) The special bowl deal with the BCS that no other
school gets.
6) The special recruiting advantages that said NBC and
BCS deal afford the school.
7) Did I mention the subway alumni?
8) Their snobby snub of the Big Ten despite the
approval of their academic departments.
9) Constant hype for a team that beat one top 25 team
last year - and that was a down Michigan squad.
10) A radio announcer who says that the skies are
clear today because "God wants to see his team play."
11) Oh yeah ... the subway alumni!:)

Besides that, they steal any coverage we can get. Last
Saturday, 2 hours before gametime, ESPN Radio Chicago
was all ND all the time ... then brief OSU/UT mention
and a blurb about Illinois playing today along with
Iowa's game, Minnesota's game, Wisconsin's game. NO
mention of NU.

And as a former journalist who usually loves defending
the media against bias claims, it's hard to dispute
the AP polls traditional bias in ranking ND a spot or
two ahead of the coach's poll consistently. But again,
that comes with all the pub when you have your own
network to broadcast your games and then hype them the
rest of the week.

Or maybe I'm just frustrated that the Big Ten
continues to schedule ND and feed their hype machine
when they spurned us - if we'd refuse to play them,
they'd lose a lot more than we would.

But seriously, it's just the sports-talk jabs of a kid
who grew up a Maize and Blue fan and now bleeds purple
and was in South Bend to see the coach who couldn't
even remember our coach's name lose 17-15 in the last
game we played vs. those Irish. I'll take jabs at OSU,
USC, Michigan, etc. during the season but when the Big
Ten is playing ND, it's GO BIG TEN! for me - plus, I'm
just sick of hearing about their great schedule when
it truly is half of a Big Ten schedule.

I have a friend in high school who attended ND and
marched in their band, and I ribbed her the same way.
Is Notre Dame a great academic school? Yes. Are they a
football team who people love to hate? Yes. Do they
bring a lot of that hate on themselves ala the
Yankees? Definitely.

> academic standards and graduating nearly all of its
> players.  Isn't 
> that something that we applaud as Northwestern fans?

Eh, we don't need to ... they get enough attention for
it as it is. I don't aspire to be ND at all - I like
that we're competing in the Big Ten, one of the two
top leagues in the land, consistently while keeping
OUR higher standards, something that's tougher to do
than when you're an independent with your own TV
network.

> (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.)

No, but we play Madison, Iowa City and Ann Arbor ...
plus State College. So give them the home game vs.
Iowa and still call it twice the schedule they have
now but comprable to any Big Ten schedule.

Anyway, sorry to get the Irish-hate started ... just
some Big Ten boosting and ND bashing that slips out
from time to time ... mostly on topic when we're
talking about league games of the day or picks for the
coming weekend (or talking about difficult schedules
and how tough ours is this year in comparison to one
that the pundits seem to believe is tough). Notre Dame
is a wonderful school, but that won't stop me from
hating their football team with a passion for all the
smugness listed above and so much more that non-ND
fans who've lived in Chicagoland can understand!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

BTW - favorite ND story (and yes, it involves NU):

I hate the Packers with a passion too, but I'll admit
that there's no better place to watch a game than
Lambeau Field. Well, Notre Dame Stadium is a beautiful
mecca of college football and a great place to take in
a game. So in addition to the '95 game, I attended the
1993 game with the NUMB pep band. As we're walking
through the beautiful campus, one of the ND tailgaters
says to his wife: "they don't *look* like they have
higher SAT scores than us." :) Not quite as funny as
the OSU tailgaters asking us if we "dotted the I in
Northwestern," but each story seems to fit the school.

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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