anti-ND blather (was Re: [NU Sports] Sugar Bowl ...)

[Arthur Miller]

Stephen, you just won't shut up when it comes to Notre Dame, will you?

"entitlement", "stealing", "hype, "deserve", "exceptions", blah blah blah.  
You want to believe the evil scheming people at ND are secretly engineering 
the actions of the bowl system to their advantage, along with the media who 
eternally conspire to trumpet the ND myth.  But remember Occam's Razor: the 
simplest explanation is usually the best one.  So, since you clearly haven't 
figured it out yet, allow me to let you in on a couple secrets:
1) Bowls are about money.  Period.
2) Notre Dame has a lot of fans.  Period.

A program with a large fanbase is always, always--yes always---going to 
receive preferential treatment.  Bowl committees are acting perfectly 
rationally when they choose to pass up a #9 team in order to select a #11 
team that is certain to bring more fans & attention to their game.  You can 
bang your spoon on your highchair until next week about The Unfairness Of It 
All, but it is what it is.

Then you state that if ND joins the Big Ten, you'll "drop your grudge"?  For 
crying out loud, since when is being a member of a conference somehow more 
noble and righteous than being independent?  Give it a rest, already, or 
think of something original to say for a change.

-Art Miller




>From: "SjT (Stephen J. Truog)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
>To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
>Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Sugar Bowl ...
>Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 17:46:00 -0800 (PST)
>
> > ideas.).  ND's  putative
> > "entitlement" to be invited to the BCS "Dance" is
> > just a further  indictment of the
> > whole system and does nothing to enhance Dome U.'s
> > reputation.  I have never
> > felt the visceral hate that some of you have for
> > ND--probably because I grew
>
>That's it right there -- I certainly don't hate the
>institution itself. It's a fine school and beautiful
>campus/stadium. A friend of mine from high school went
>there and it's a top-notch education all the way.
>
>But the reason I may enjoy throwing in a few jabs now
>and the (OK, maybe more :) ) is their sense of
>entitlement from their football program. Do they have
>an amazing history? Yes. But it's a new era in college
>football and they need to stop getting these free
>passes -- regardless of whether it was used in this
>year's selection, it's ridiculous that it's even
>there.
>
>And what irks me and others even more is that these
>special exceptions are just feeding the ND monster
>because it guarantees a $17 million payday that they
>will not share, unlike every other BCS team that has a
>conference. Yet if they fail to get into a BCS bowl,
>they somehow fall into the Big East's bowl ties. I
>don't know why the Big East agreed to this, but it's
>ridiculous to let them have it "both ways" and have
>their own hype machine, er, TV network.
>
>Would I drop all of this grudge if they woke up,
>listened to their academic faculty and joined the Big
>Ten? Yes. It'd be great for the league and for Notre
>Dame (c'mon - why play for the Commander in Chief
>trophy every year ... play for a Big Ten
>Championship!). But in the meantime, they get to have
>their cake and eat it too and are stealing millions of
>dollars from BCS coffers that they really haven't
>earned on anything other than past glories.
>
>You'd hope sooner or later the Big Ten would wake up
>and stop giving ND two or three respectable games per
>year ... or that the BCS schools would wise up and
>stop letting them slip in the back door to take money
>away from their conferences ... or that instead of the
>constant hype during yet another nationally televised
>blowout of the Irish that the commentators would
>actually dare to ask the question hanging around the
>BCS bowls like a 2-ton gorilla: DO THE IRISH DESERVE
>TO BE IN THIS BOWL GAME?
>
>But until then, we'll just have to rant on the 'net
>and take delight in watching the likes of Oregon
>State, NC State, LSU and Ohio State hand out thorough
>beatings to Irish teams that come into the game
>complaining that they get no respect. When you haven't
>won a bowl game in 13 years, you gotta earn it!:) And
>in a league like the Big Ten, you can, as we did
>coming from nowhere in 1995. But until NBC and the BCS
>stop feeding the ego, I guess that won't happen.
>
>Next year's schedule starts out challenging as usual
>thanks to their "half of a Big Ten schedule" tour
>(games at PSU and Michigan with a new QB could be like
>what we saw for PSU heading into South Bend and
>Columbus this year) ... but tapers off quickly except
>for USC's visit to South Bend. But they'll probably go
>9-3 and head for another BCS berth.
>
>GO CATS!!!
>-SjT
>
>* * * * * * * * *
>STEPHEN J. TRUOG
>sjtruog at yahoo.com
>GO CATS!!!
>
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