Last week, Rick Reilly wrote a column about the Notre Dame football program that brought about a controversial and fiery response from former Notre Dame defensive tackle Mike Golic. Reilly wrote about what Notre Dame meant to the college football world, and gave what was pretty much a scathing criticism of not only the school, but also the NCAA for treating Notre Dame in a very different manner than any other college football program in the country. As a graduate of Notre Dame, Golic obviously took offense to Reilly's article, and he lashed out at Reilly on-air on his Mike & Mike radio program. While Golic is completely biased when it comes to this subject, I agreed with him on some points, but I also agreed with Reilly on others.
Let me start off by saying this: I hate Notre Dame. I cannot stand how the university believes that it is above the rest of the college football world. They have been hardly relevant over the past 20 years, but they still promote "Touchdown Jesus" as the greatest monument in the history of sports, and they refuse to join a conference because they can reap the financial benefits of being an independent team. They are like the collegiate version of the Dallas Cowboys. Promoting tradition and past success, while also refusing to acknowledge their present mediocrity (at best). If it weren't for Justin Tuck, I would have zero to like about Notre Dame football.
Reilly seemed to agree with me on this. He reiterated my claims that Notre Dame is in fact irrelevant in the college football world when it comes to on-field performance. They just simply are not any good as a football program anymore. Sure, there are a lot of powerful college programs known for great success that go through periods of mediocrity, but those periods do not last decades like has been the case for Notre Dame. Despite all of these on-field failures, we still are continually inundated with Notre Dame football news and coverage.
Why does this happen? Why should we see so much coverage of a team that, aside from what it did decades ago, is just not any good right now? Why is it a big deal when Notre Dame plays Army? This isn't 1940. Those teams have no relevance in the college football world. I would rather watch the two worst teams in the SEC during any given year play as opposed to most Notre Dame games.
Reilly said the same things, but some of his solutions to these complaints were outlandish. What he basically said was that Notre Dame should voluntarily give up the perks that they are granted by various companies and groups. He said that Notre Dame used to be about doing the "right things" and that, had they continually fielded such a below-average team in the past, they would have admitted that they were getting too much coverage and money and would have refused to take the benefits that they are given. In theory this sounds great, but in reality, come on Rick, do you really believe that the university would do that?
Notre Dame has an exclusive television deal with NBC so all of their games can be nationally broadcast. Reilly said that he thought Notre Dame should do the "right thing" when the current deal between the network and the university expires, and turn down any new deal that they might be offered. Why would Notre Dame ever do that? In fact, why would any university ever do that? If a television network came to any school, any cast of actors, any family of people, anyone, anywhere, and offered to pay them in order to promote and broadcast their games/lives/shows, it would be asinine to turn that down, and that is where I agree with Golic.
If it were not for Notre Dame's exclusive television contract (the only university in the country that has an exclusive deal with any national network for an entire season's worth of games), it would be likely that most Notre Dame games would not be televised anywhere outside the state of Indiana. Despite the fact that Notre Dame is not a good football team, they still play on national television every Saturday. Since Notre Dame is only mediocre at best, it even makes it more of a reason for the university to continue to accept any TV deals that NBC might offer them. The university isn't making money going to BCS bowls because of its on-field performance, so why not make up for that by taking money that is offered to them by a national network? I don't care what any university might say hypothetically, but the fact remains that if any other school were given the same offer, they would sign the contract in a second.
Next, Reilly said that Notre Dame should do the "right thing" and relinquish its spot on the BCS bowl committee. Because of the fact that Notre Dame is an independent, it gets it own seat on the BCS committee along with the commissioners of the other BCS conferences. This seems grossly unfair, and it is just that. Why should Notre Dame have an equal say in decisions that the BCS committee makes? The best conference in the nation right now, the SEC, has the same stake in these decisions that one, mediocre team has. It is almost a foregone conclusion that the BCS championship this season will include at least on team from the SEC. Last year, both teams in the championship game were representatives of the SEC. Notre Dame? They lost in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Why in the world should NotreGolic. Notre Dame isn't forcing its way on to this committee and imposing its word upon the rest of the members, they are being invited into the room despite the fact that they were nowhere close to a BCS bowl last season. Once again I ask, would any other school turn this offer down? And once again, the answer is a resounding no.
Reilly is correct here in terms of reality on the football field. Notre Dame is just not very good. If this were any other college football program in the country putting up these repeatedly average seasons, there would be absolutely no chance that they would receive the perks that Notre Dame receives. However, based upon reality in 2012, Golic is correct. If Notre Dame keeps getting these opportunities, why in the world would they turn them down? As long as the university keeps getting these lucrative offers, no one should blame them for continuing to accept them.
As is the case many times in the sports world, we forget that it is still a business. Collegiate sports are obviously a different kind of business than professional sports, but there is still a business aspect to the games. Notre Dame is doing what is best for its university, and any other school in the country would love to get the perks and financial benefits that Notre Dame gets from its football program.
Until NBC stops offering to pay Notre Dame to broadcast its games and until the NCAA puts it foot down and stops giving the school all of these financial advantages, Notre Dame would be idiotic to turn down any and all offers they get that would benefit their university. The problem with that is, there are still people watching these games, and the NCAA still feels as though the school deserves to have its say, despite the fact that the football team just isn't very good. I try to make it a point to avoid Notre Dame broadcasts on NBC at all costs, but its obvious that there aren't many people like me.
If you are out there though, and you do agree that Notre Dame should stop getting all of these unwarranted perks, then do the same thing. Down with mediocre football programs living off of their distant pasts!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Coming off a sweep of the Astros in Houston, its back home for the next 10 games in what could honestly decide how our season will end. Four with the Marlins, and then three with both the Padres and the Reds. At 4.5 games behind in the division race and 41 games left to play, there is no more time for ups and downs, we need to win consistently. The Giants and Dodgers begin a series tonight so the good news is that one of them will definitely lose. The bad news is one of them will definitely win. No matter, we just need to win our games first.
Jason Kubel hit a first-inning home run to make it 1-0, and that's how we stand in the bottom of the second inning. Let's Go DBacks!
Daily Giants Update: This past weekend featured a game that included the defending Super Bowl champions, the team that is mentioned on pretty much every radio talk show that talks about the NFL, the team that ESPN has followed non-stop throughout training camp, and the team with the most talked-about quarterback duo in the NFL. One team won. The other team scored three points. You can all figure out the teams that those categories describe.
Talk is cheap. Play the game. 16 days until the season opener!
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