As I'm sure everyone else is, I'm SICK of hearing about Notre Dame all the time!!! Get over it College Football media, they don't deserve two minutes of coverage on College Gameday or any other program. Oh, I get it, because they're among the top 3 storied programs in college football they don't really drop out of conversation. Remember when Oklahoma and Alabama went through periods of losing seasons and every year fans were hopeful for a bowl game?
For Oklahoma it was the 90s just before Stoops showed up, I remember it was so easy to get tickets that when my family moved there in 97, my dad instantly had season tickets on the 4th row, 20 yd line. Two years later you had to be related to a player or coach to get into the building. It was the way college football media coverage should be, Stoops first year if you wanted to see the game, you had to go to the game. Stoops second year, they beat Texas decisively and the next thing you know College Gameday is setup about 50 ft from where I was sitting. I'll never forget it, Nebraska rolled in with Eric Crouch and all the talent on defense, Nebraska jumped on OU early and then Josh Heupel dissected that Blackshirts D like he was a brain surgeon. Oklahoma won the National Championship that year and since have deserved every bit of coverage they receive.
Alabama was good, then bad, then good again in the time that Notre Dames been just terrible and they received media coverage accordingly. Geez, even last year after they lost two you didn't hear much about Bama for the rest of the season, but Notre Dame was hoping for a bowl and we got Notre Dame propaganda shoved down our throats. What gives ESPN??? How is that when Alabama, arguably the most prominent college football program of all time, has a bad season the coverage drops off, but when Notre Dame has 15 bad seasons it's like they're always in the running for a National Championship?
It's the fan base, right, the biggest fan base in the sport? Yeah, I lived in Boston recently where I encountered a large number of Irish Catholic Notre Dame "fans," they barely watch the games, and they're certainly not college football fans in general. There's no question that Texas, USC, Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn State have fan bases as big as the Irish, real fan bases, that watch the games and like college football. Some of them actually attended the school, which is not something you can say for Notre Dame. So it must be something else, it's the money, Notre Dame has a lot of money.
For those that don't follow the financial situations of major universities, let me enlighten you. Only Harvard has more money than Texas, and number 3 isn't that close. Sure after Harvard, Texas, the Ivy League schools, you'll find Notre Dame, and the upper tier state schools like Virginia, Michigan, and North Carolina. Michigan's got just as much money, if not more, and while they get coverage each time they change coaches, it was hard to find Michigan games on TV before Shoelace showed up. Now Denard Robinson and a much improved defense take care of a highly overrated Notre Dame team and ESPN is claiming they're back. Is that all it takes to be back? Yes, since Notre Dame was a good team, Michigan has been good, bad, good, bad, and possibly good again, and with each season came a change in coverage time. If Notre Dame gets this much coverage when they SUCK, I don't want to see how far up Brian Kelly's hind parts Herbstreit and ESPN will be if they actually formulate a decent program again.
So what is it about Notre Dame that keeps people talking about them? How do you stay interested in a team that is hoping to make a bowl game year in and year out? Mississippi St, Texas Tech, Arizona, Illinois, and the plethora of other schools that "hope" to make a bowl game each year don't get mentioned a lick until they play a big time program, but not Notre Dame, not an Irish team that will be lucky to get a bid to the Sun Bowl this year. In my opinion, there are more than 30 schools better than Notre Dame and I want to hear about them, I'm a college football fan who watches the pregame shows religiously, watches the games twice so I can evaluate different players, reads ESPN articles every night and on my phone when I'm "reading a magazine." I thought I was the ESPN consumer, I thought ESPN was a network about sports, for sports enthusiasts. Remember ESPN, remember me? Remember College Gameday crew? Remember who wanted your show to go to an hour and then to two hours because they can't get enough college football analysis? The Notre Dame run is over, if they ever get it back I would love to hear about them, but there is SO much other stuff to talk about today, so please, if it's alright with you, talk about the Michigan State team that has a chance to win the Big 10/12, not about "what's wrong with the Irish." I can tell you what's wrong Herbstreit, THEY SUCK, and have for some time now. Next Topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment