[NU Sports] my blog today

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Oh Alan ...

Love the "take that" dig, but gotta disagree on it being better for football if ND were good.

I would say that it really doesn't matter anymore. I guess that's kind of sad for college football in a way, but it's probably a good thing too.

A decade ago, Notre Dame's success or failure would be a big deal. But now it's just shoulder shrugging and "after the first break" fodder for highlight shows -- after discussing the important issues of the day.

There's just a whole generation out there that doesn't know who Notre Dame is and doesn't care -- and unfortunately for the Irish, they're the generation that's being recruited now.

The last time Notre Dame mattered was that September day in 1995. They haven't won a bowl since. They haven't really made much news since except when they unjustly sneak into the BCS and get crushed or come oh-so-close to beating SC.

Other than that, can you really think of any Golden Dome moments in the last decade? In my childhood, you had the Rocket Ismail game at Michigan, the Mirer comeback vs. Michigan, the 1 vs. 2 game with USC, or with Florida State, the great series with Tennessee and Penn State and on and on. And generations before mine had many more.

But now it's just irrelevant. We even haven't discussed Weis much on the list this year. And we LOVE to kick the Doh-mers when they're down. Now it's just an afterthought - "oh yeah, Notre Dame lost today. Ha." Shrug.

College football fans have so much more to occupy their time than the fate of the Irish - from stupid B(C)S arguments to conference-strength shouting to the cinderella of the week to NFL draft prospects. I would bet that if you polled the under 30 crowd today on college football loyalty, ND wouldn't even be in the top 10 -- you have SC, Michigan, OSU, PSU, Florida, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, even probably FSU and Miami come up before the Irish.

So I guess that is kind of sad, but hardly something college football needs. It's good because we have more teams in the spotlight, more games on TV, more great stories -- school and individual wise -- and more fantastic regular season games. We need a playoff. Notre Dame being relevant again is merely a side story.

And yes, it's probably up in the air as to which happens first.:)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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