If inbred skalski gets to play pretend urlacher, sure, why not.

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Inbreed boy just killed Fields.

As a tribute to his daddy/uncle apparently

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South Bend media is just too tough.

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Kelly is a top 10 NCAA coach but I’d give urban a godfather offer at this point if the intent is to win a national championship.

Otherwise he can keep rolling 10 win seasons and keep getting blown out in big games.

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Bro, with an 8 team playoff they’d get to the championship game off dumb luck.

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No. No they wouldn't.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Zero chance based on the past two decades of big games. 8 team gets them in and perpetually blown out absent better coaching.

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You know what RR?

I love to hate on ND, but I’d want to see them in an 8 team playoff.

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8 team playoff would suck

6-8 would easily be beat.

5 team is the only way to expand.

or do 6 team and give the top 2 teams a bye week.

but 8 is too many.

If only inbred skalski were playing, osu would’ve been held to under 10.

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So you don’t want more meaningful college football where the best nfl prospects aren’t opting out of bowl games because they have a chance to win a national championship?

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While I’d agree Urban is the better coach between the two I wouldn’t agree the results would be a whole lot different in big games against the very best schools. ND’s biggest obstacle isn’t it’s coaching right now (Kelly is a good coach).. it’s their academic standard limiting their recruiting options. They lift that, and you have a real game changer.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

No, I personally don’t need more ‘meaningful’ college football. The top 4 teams in a playoff is enough. It’s enough to decide which team is really the best that year, which is the point. I don’t care if some top draft pick wants to sit out of a meaningless bowl game, theres already enough film on them at that point.


The only reason college football would increase their playoffs is the same reason the NFL (stupidity and greedily) wants to expand their season -money. That’s it. It doesn’t increase the quality of the product itself to expand it, its fine as it is.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

I'm all for top picks sitting out anyway. It's disappointing as a fan, but they're playing for free and as we saw yesterday, right or wrong, their coaches aren't that concerned with a star player's (or anyone's) health.

8 teams

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This Texas stuff is why as an ND fan, as disappointing as it is to get curb stomped every NYD, I can't get behind firing Kelly, douchebag that he is. You're always one bad hiring setting you back a bit and then you never recover after you fire that guy and you're doomed to keep chasing the place you were disappointed in being in the first place.

Yep. And like I said in my 1st response -coaching isn’t what’s killing ND anyway. It’s their recruiting restrictions. What’s crazy is how high they manage to fly every couple seasons operating with those restrictions. There’s no other team in college football with their academic standard that’s as consistently as good as they are.


Lift those restrictions and then see how long the SEC kicks their ass for. But that’s on them, and it’s up to ND to undue that restriction.

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If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

Football players are dumb. No doubt about it.

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The modern world is divided between those that would numb itself to its meaninglessness through various substances and various hedonisms and those that realize it and go crazy

With minor exceptions, Nd’s football players are not getting into the classroom on academic merit. If they’re good enough at the sport, they’re in.

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This isn't true. Kelly can get virtually anyone without a felony into ND. They recruit the same players.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yeah I was trying to remember if it was ND who pulled back their academic standards some time in the 2000s, or if it was Northwestern.

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NW kind of has them but they are going after most of the same guys as teams like Iowa and Illinois when needed. They'll prioritize better students because that is their sweet spot in recruiting getting people who use football to get in when they are otherwise unlikely to.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Correct. The average Nd football player has as much business in the classroom as the average Nd student does on the football field.

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Barnett pulled them way back in the 90s. Have you heard Fitz talk? I kid but there was talk of him getting some kids through that really were pushes I don’t know if Waller or Fitz got the same slack as there were... problems during the late Barnett years.

Until I hear some specific examples, this is all speculation.

Not the same thing, but ND has a high graduation rate for its football players (75% or so). That's good because so many D-1 players leave school with nothing. Not just the SEC, but they used to be abysmal in this area. Georgia, LSU, Auburn specifically. The graduation percentages for the African American players was even worse.

You can see the offer list of Alabama/Clemson players. Most of them will have a ND offer too especially for the elite talent. How exactly do you think Notre Dame recruits? A top 50 player is out there and receptive to visiting Notre Dame as a junior and they are like "Are you a 4.0 student? If not, head to Alabama".

ND has a reputation in general as being nearly impossible to get into and nearly impossible to not graduate from. 95% of the people who go to Notre Dame graduate from Notre Dame. That's better than even a place like Northwestern and Michigan.

At Alabama, it's 68%.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

yeah, I think it's open season for the ND haters, but I think not only their average student athlete is above national average but their lower is above the low. I also think they take the academics pretty seriously once you get there and give the kids all the help they need to graduate.

Also agreed on Kelly. I don't like him but they could do A LOT worse and then be pining for the days of getting in the final four every couple of years.

I cannot believe I'm put in a position to defend ND.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I’m off the ledge on Kelly. He’s reliable and they can’t make perfect the enemy of good.

In terms of graduation, also keep in mind the players typically spend a big chunk of the summer there for practice. They rack up credits to the point most of them graduate with at least two majors. Giving the football team an education - or at least the appearance of an education - is obviously more important to them than the Bamas of the world.

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Dabo Swinney has been getting pilloried by the media over the past few days. I don't understand why.

He took a program that was probably 11-20 nationally since Danny Ford got there and turned it into the very best. His six-year run has been amazing. Clemson won 2 national titles and almost won a third, were in the playoffs six years straight, and wore out the SEC, something Clemson had never done (except in '81, those bastards). With his accent, his football goofiness, his "God doesn't say 'Oops,' He gives Opps" wisdom, his conservatism, and his outrageous salary, Dabo is an easy whipping boy. But he's run a relatively clean program, which hasn't always been the case at Clemson, and he graduates his players.

He's also made Florida State and Miami irrelevant. That right there is enough.