http://wsucougars.cstv.com/sports/m-foot...07aaa.html

TerryD Wrote:http://wsucougars.cstv.com/sports/m-foot...07aaa.html

What in the world is White thinking? Washington State Cougar fans do not travel all that well and ND is not THAT big a draw in San Antonio that they can carry this type of regular season game on their own.

Lord, even the Alamo Bowl game that featured Michigan and Nebraska (two great traveling fans teams) wasn't a sell-out. If this game gets much more than 50K attendance, I'll be shocked.

Cheers,
Neil

Maybe it was a deal ND had with the Mexican government to come closer to all the hispanic Irish fans.

Texas. Recruiting.

ND is also supposed to play a "neutral" site game against Baylor in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in the future.

Kevin White's idea is to have "home" games in prime recruiting territories like Florida (Citrus Bowl), Texas (Alamodome, Texas Stadium) and New Jersey (Meadowlands), etc......

BTW, a lot of ND fans do not like this concept. They would rather have eight home games or make the "neutral site" games against marquee opponents like Florida, Alabama, Texas, etc...

I understand the game location due to recruiting, but Washington St as the opponent? The Cougars lost in South Bend in 2003, and I presume took cash home since they received no return visit to their small stadium. So I have no problem seeing why the Cougars accepted the invite, but why did ND choose them?

I agree with Omni here. A solid majority of BCS opponents would have been a better draw and plenty would have been a near sure win similar to WSU. Or were the Irish ensuring the "home" game would have less than 500 rooting for the opponent?

For my money, I'd like to see Notre Dame play all of their games at neutral sites.

Another example of Notre Dame taking care of Notre Dame and screwing the Big East. The football playing schools of the Big East are having trouble filling out their schedules and the idiot Irish go half way across the country to play a terrible team from the other end of the country. Moves like this alone should get the Irish shown the exit out of the Big East.
It is my opinion that Big East schools should refuse to play their so-called conference mate in basketball, baseball or any olympic sport until the Irish schedule some Big East football teams at their place.
Then again after this season Notre Dame will have sunk so far down the college football food chain that playing the Irish would do nothing but hurt the SOS of the Big East's best teams.
CJ

TerryD Wrote:Texas. Recruiting.

ND is also supposed to play a "neutral" site game against Baylor in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in the future.

Kevin White's idea is to have "home" games in prime recruiting territories like Florida (Citrus Bowl), Texas (Alamodome, Texas Stadium) and New Jersey (Meadowlands), etc......

BTW, a lot of ND fans do not like this concept. They would rather have eight home games or make the "neutral site" games against marquee opponents like Florida, Alabama, Texas, etc...

Lucky for Rutgers that we control the ticket distribution for your "home" games in the Meadowlands and as I understand we only have to play 2 out of the 3 games that are supposed to be at the Meadowlands at the Meadowlands if we have an on-campus stadium with 60K+ capacity.

TerryD Wrote:BTW, a lot of ND fans do not like this concept. They would rather have eight home games or make the "neutral site" games against marquee opponents like Florida, Alabama, Texas, etc...

Because ND is "above" having to play true road games.

If ND (or anyone) makes a habit of 8 home games then I wish them all sorts of suffering. With these neutral site games acting as default home games anyway ND could guarantee the minimum level of true road games: 4. That's pious... or chicken. I like having ND good enough as a lightning rod for the sport, but if you can't survive on a budget with 7 home games like the rest of society then be off with you.

That's the one aspect of scheduling I wish the NCAA could mandate. At no point should home games, or neutral sites where you command greater shares of revenue, count for more than 60% of your schedule. Otherwise it forces the have-nots into financial servitude to far greater lengths than the BCS and bowl system.

I love the concept of the travel game for ND at neutral sites but really there needs to be some geograhic base connected to the game. This game would be a good at the seahawks stadium but as for the alamo dome, its crazy. You got Texas,Tex A&M, Tex Tech, SMU,TCU, Houston,Rice, or UTEP which would be more worthwhile than Wash State for this location. Up next, ND vs KAN STATE at the georgia dome?

Our Lady of Guadalupe. People want to see Our Lady in the greater San Antonio area.

I'd rather see Lady Godiva riding bareback on her horse myself.

GunnerFan Wrote:

TerryD Wrote:BTW, a lot of ND fans do not like this concept. They would rather have eight home games or make the "neutral site" games against marquee opponents like Florida, Alabama, Texas, etc...

Because ND is "above" having to play true road games.

If ND (or anyone) makes a habit of 8 home games then I wish them all sorts of suffering. With these neutral site games acting as default home games anyway ND could guarantee the minimum level of true road games: 4. That's pious... or chicken. I like having ND good enough as a lightning rod for the sport, but if you can't survive on a budget with 7 home games like the rest of society then be off with you.

That's the one aspect of scheduling I wish the NCAA could mandate. At no point should home games, or neutral sites where you command greater shares of revenue, count for more than 60% of your schedule. Otherwise it forces the have-nots into financial servitude to far greater lengths than the BCS and bowl system.

Are you new to college football?

College football isn't fair?

What's the next great discovery?

Earth is ROUND?

Of course college football isn't fair...its always the haves vs the have-nots (BCS Teams normally get 94% of all the Bowl Revenue).

One BCS Team has their own NETWORK (not cable) TV Contract! (ND).

Some teams play up to EIGHT home games in stadiums that seat 80,000-100,000 plus...and earn MILLIONS of $$$$$ per home game...even if they play Div I-AA teams.

Once you accept that college football "isn't fair"...its much easier to understand the business side of the sport (TV contracts, scheduling strategies, stadium deals/expansion, etc....).

It is interesting to see that ND is working closely with a number of bowl committees to schedule these games. (Citrus Bowl, Alamo Bowl)

I wonder if ND is moving towards separate non-BCS bowl game deals in anticipation of the Big East football teams splitting off and ND staying with the Catholic schools for other sports? It already has a separate Cotton Bowl deal in place.

BTW, Gunner...why did you pick 60% of home games as the gold standard for the NCAA mandate?

Why not have them mandate 50/50%, only six home games and six away games while you are at it? That seems "fair" to me.

I also wonder which "barnstorming" venues will be announced next?

Georgia Dome (Peach Bowl committee)? Gator Bowl? Any others?

I know ND has a game scheduled for Dublin, Ireland in the future.

One poster on NDNation made me chuckle.

He wrote:

"Why doesn't Kevin White just schedule a game on the moon? That way, with low gravity, we can be assured that one of our kickers will finally put a kickoff in the end zone for once."

Notre Dame's days of automatic bowl invites may be coming to an end, unless they can reclaim their former glory - which I seriously doubt they will in the age of scholarship limitations. Some kids will gravitate toward the Irish for the history and all, but fewer do every year.

Yeah, you are right.


The latest Rivals team recruiting rankings bear that out.....



2008 Team Ranking

ALL TEAMS BY CONFERENCE
Football > All Positions | Last update: 7/19/2007 6:00:06 AM




PROSPECT COMMITMENTS


School TOTAL
Commits
Commits
Commits Avg Stars
Points
1 Notre Dame 18 1 12 5 3.78 2,011
2 UCLA 22 0 13 8 3.55 1,991
3 Texas 19 0 11 7 3.53 1,784
4 Georgia 17 2 7 6 3.53 1,685
5 Oklahoma 15 3 5 6 3.67 1,619
6 Florida State 12 2 5 5 3.75 1,319
7 Southern Cal 10 3 4 3 4.00 1,299
8 Miami-FL 13 1 6 6 3.62 1,239
9 Michigan 11 0 8 3 3.73 1,093
10 Ohio State 9 1 7 0 3.89 1,035
11 Texas A&M 18 0 4 10 3.00 886
12 Clemson 11 1 3 4 3.18 762
13 Alabama 10 0 5 3 3.30 665
Nebraska 11 1 3 4 3.00 665
15 Wisconsin 18 0 1 10 2.56 585
16 LSU 10 0 3 7 3.30 568
17 Ole Miss 15 0 1 7 2.60 407
18 Arkansas 9 0 2 4 2.89 379
19 Arizona 10 0 2 5 2.90 374
20 Pittsburgh 7 1 1 3 3.14 370
21 NC State 8 1 1 2 2.88 345
22 Penn State 4 0 2 2 3.50 284
23 Tennessee 7 0 1 5 3.00 274
24 Virginia Tech 13 0 1 8 2.77 265
Oklahoma State 14 0 0 5 2.36 265



ND's days of automatic bids may be coming to an end, you say?

This after two straight BCS games (joining only Ohio State and USC to do this) and a 19-6 record with no depth and with six guys left in last year's junior class since Willingham couldn't recruit?

ND will have a downturn this season because it will play lots of sophomores and freshmen, but Weis is working on his third straight top ten recruiting class after Willingham finished #36 and #40 his last two years.

I really don't pay any attention to the recruiting services. Their rankings are subjective and often miss the mark. According the rivals.com and scout.com, Pitt has had the best recruiting class for 6 or 7 years running. Why aren't they dominating the BEast?

Check back with me in a few years and we'll see how right you and the recruiting services are...

recruiting services are overrated and are geared to keep getting fans of big schools signing up for membershipsto internet sites.
Here is an example as soon as Florida offers a`player that athlete gets bumped to a 4 star. Why? well the thinking is that if UF is offereing he MUST be that good. So basically the stars are mainly given by how much attention a kid gets from the major powers. What that accomplishes is that ALL the big name schools will be in top 25 yearly.

TerryD Wrote:ND's days of automatic bids may be coming to an end, you say?

This after two straight BCS games (joining only Ohio State and USC to do this) and a 19-6 record with no depth and with six guys left in last year's junior class since Willingham couldn't recruit?

ND will have a downturn this season because it will play lots of sophomores and freshmen, but Weis is working on his third straight top ten recruiting class after Willingham finished #36 and #40 his last two years.

C'mon, TerryD. In 2005, ND deserved their BCS Bowl bid, but last year they got there simply because they were ND - not on merit. And after two consecutive BCS Blowout losses, I'm not convinced the human polls will be as forgiving in the future. Are you?

And as the scheduling strength goes down in the future, I know the computer polls will be plummeting.

It's great that the Weis/Irish are recruiting so well, but two consecutive Top 10 classes for Miami in 2003 and 2004, didn't result in a Top 10 finish in 2006. And two consecutive Top 10 recruiting classes for FSU and Georgia in 2004 and 2005 may not ensure a Top 10 ranking for either by the end of this upcoming 2007 season.

It's all about what is accomplished on the field. And the lasting memories college football fans have about the Irish now are 5 consecutive losses to the Trojans, 4 of which were blowouts and 3 BCS Bowls since 2000 and all of them blowout losses.

Cheers,
Neil

Thanks omni...