OT: Notre Dame declines bowl bid | Page 8 | The Boneyard

OT: Notre Dame declines bowl bid

ESPN with the season long hype makes the FBS playoffs seem like the Alabama invitational. Notre Dame should join a conference. With their current schedule they get hit if multiple teams have down seasons whereas if they were in a conference they would make the championship game to go to the playoffs. With the huge leagues things are screwed up as teams in league don't play the same opponents. This would be solved with regional leagues of 10 teams where the winner gets into the playoff and there would be no need for a championship game. But we are never going back there. Unfortuately.
 
It’s part of the ongoing swirl down the toilet. ND should be ashamed of itself for disrespecting the sport. Any school declining to participate should be banned from the CFP the following year. Likewise any player that goes into the portal and doesn’t play in a bowl should be banned from any CFO games. You watch how fast people get in line, schools and players alike. These collective pigs fail to realize the trough they eat from is fan revenue.
 
It’s part of the ongoing swirl down the toilet. ND should be ashamed of itself for disrespecting the sport. Any school declining to participate should be banned from the CFP the following year. Likewise any player that goes into the portal and doesn’t play in a bowl should be banned from any CFO games. You watch how fast people get in line, schools and players alike. These collective pigs fail to realize the trough they eat from is fan revenue.
I agree. I sort of understand a blue chip player missing a bowl game for NFL combine prep, but a school should never turn down a bowl. Period.
 
I can see how everyone at ND is upset because they were ranked as a CFP team up until the final decisions were made and they believe the ACC was at least partially to blame. Irreparable damage.

It seems to me if ND wants to remain football independent there will always be conflict with a P4 conference partial membership. It would be very reasonable for ND to join the Big East. Like minded institutions in a more regional footprint, much more NYC/Northeast focused, and only 11 current members. It's a win-win. Programs like cuse and bcu would certainly rethink their situations because the ACC route just isn't working and they'd want to continue playing ND. UConn joining the ACC would really make things interesting. Not saying anything would happen but there is certainly the potential.
 
All I'll say is that I'm sick of this conversation about whether or not Notre Dame's rejection of the ACC bowl spot is justified turning into an opportunity for talking heads to pontificate on how no one wants to see a G5 team in the college football playoff, nevermind two of them. They live in a damned bubble. "No disrespect to Tulane or JMU, but no one wants to see Tulane or JMU because they're going to get destroyed and the game will be boring."

Those are the games I find most interesting, personally.
 
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I can see how everyone at ND is upset because they were ranked as a CFP team up until the final decisions were made and they believe the ACC was at least partially to blame. Irreparable damage.

It seems to me if ND wants to remain football independent there will always be conflict with a P4 conference partial membership. It would be very reasonable for ND to join the Big East. Like minded institutions in a more regional footprint, much more NYC/Northeast focused, and only 11 current members. It's a win-win. Programs like cuse and bcu would certainly rethink their situations because the ACC route just isn't working and they'd want to continue playing ND. UConn joining the ACC would really make things interesting. Not saying anything would happen but there is certainly the potential.

Except for the money and the exposure they would sacrifice, and the fact that every other conference would line up against them (a reality they've just accelerated) this sounds like a great idea. The "irrepairable damage" they want to project onto the ACC with this tantrum has been exacerbated by their reaction to it. I have no idea how this works out but IMO the days of ND laying down terms to power conferences while not being in one are coming to an end. There are situations in life where being right is not the only consideration when choosing your battles. ND has been the exception to this rule and may try to extend their autonomy indefinitely when in reality there is a degree of co-dependence with other leagues outside of their exclusive network contracts. I guess we'll find out if it's realistic but it seems there are cracks emerging in a strategy that has benefited them until now.
 
The optics are bad for Notre Dame in the short term. They have a written guarantee that if they are ranked in the top 12 next year, they're in.

They'll have a solid recruiting class, a good schedule and a nice deal with NBC that pays them.$50 million annually.

I'm sure the CFP will revise the rules to expand to 16. Either way, although there's disappointment, when you look at the whole picture, this is a minor setback.

Until the CFP makes a definitive statement that to play in any bowl, you need conference affirmation, Notre Dame will always find a way.

Unfortunately for UConn, being the only other independent left, if we want to shoot for the CFP, we have to join a conference. Realignment ramps up in 2029.
 
All I'll say is that I'm sick of this conversation about whether or not Notre Dame's rejection of the ACC bowl spot is justified turning into an opportunity for talking heads to pontificate on how no one wants to see a G5 team in the college football playoff, nevermind two of them. They live in a damned bubble. "No disrespect to Tulane or JMU, but no one wants to see Tulane or JMU because they're going to get destroyed and the game will be boring."

Those are the games I find most interesting, personally.
Sure didn't mind seeing Boise St take down Oklahoma.
 
Join the ACC and play the 9 conference games. Traditional rivals BC and Stanford are already in the ACC, so they can easily be made permanent opponents. That leaves 3 OOC games for USC, Navy and one other team of choice. But if you join a conference you are forced to play more away games. I guess they could schedule ACC games at the neutral sites.
 
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Please... Little Giants is a true underdog story. Scrappy group of misfits takes on former Heisman winner coached team with unlimited NIL potential at Kevin O'Shea Chevrolet? Way better than Rudy.
Baylor just declined a bowl bid. What a farce. I guess they will be fined by Big 12.
 
ESPN with the season long hype makes the FBS playoffs seem like the Alabama invitational. Notre Dame should join a conference. With their current schedule they get hit if multiple teams have down seasons whereas if they were in a conference they would make the championship game to go to the playoffs. With the huge leagues things are screwed up as teams in league don't play the same opponents. This would be solved with regional leagues of 10 teams where the winner gets into the playoff and there would be no need for a championship game. But we are never going back there. Unfortuately.
Alabama is the Duke of CFB. Gets talked about and propped up like Bear Bryant was still coaching. Glory days this, glory days that.
 
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Bevacqua talked about how finite football is for the athletes. And then ND opts out of a bowl so that the players have one less game to play. Hard for me to reconcile that no matter how meaningless the game is. I always assumed that football players want to play football games.
 
I watched Bevacqua's presser and was underwhelmed. He came across as petulant and entitled.
The reasons for their collective anger and alleged shock at the CFP selections has migrated from "we deserved it" to "for 6 weeks we were told that we belonged". Well it is the last vote that counts and I submit the CFP Committee got it right. Simply put, perhaps they didn't belong.

As of the last poll, ND had beaten only one ranked team (#16 USC at home by 10 points.) Other than that and narrowly losing to 2 CFP teams, ND played essentially a "tomato can" schedule. 6 of their opponents were provided with their ACC scheduling agreement. Miami was the real deal and beat them game 1. The other 5, NCSt, Pitt, Syracuse, Stanford and BC, were reliable victims. ND avoids running any gauntlet because of its independence and ACC scheduling agreement. They are also benefited by lack of exposure to a conference championship game. Ask Kirby Smart and Carson Beck how important that is!

Also, ND has a hard time convincing me that they were relying on the CFP preliminary rankings when you look at their last 2 games - Syracuse and Stanford. Marcus Freeman does not strike me as the kind of a coach who would gleefully stomp a team 70-7! (Syracuse avoided the shutout with 8 seconds left.) Freeman could have throttled back and beat them 49-7 or 56-7. At Stanford, late in the 4th, ND was still throwing deep up by 29. Maybe they were thinking that the CFP would only be impressed with "Roman Colosseum" type victories given the quality of their last two opponents.

In any event, ND lost the two games that truly would have made a difference. Sure they ran the table thereafter against weak opponents (save USC), but CFP rates your competition too!
 
I watched Bevacqua's presser and was underwhelmed. He came across as petulant and entitled.
The reasons for their collective anger and alleged shock at the CFP selections has migrated from "we deserved it" to "for 6 weeks we were told that we belonged". Well it is the last vote that counts and I submit the CFP Committee got it right. Simply put, perhaps they didn't belong.

As of the last poll, ND had beaten only one ranked team (#16 USC at home by 10 points.) Other than that and narrowly losing to 2 CFP teams, ND played essentially a "tomato can" schedule. 6 of their opponents were provided with their ACC scheduling agreement. Miami was the real deal and beat them game 1. The other 5, NCSt, Pitt, Syracuse, Stanford and BC, were reliable victims. ND avoids running any gauntlet because of its independence and ACC scheduling agreement. They are also benefited by lack of exposure to a conference championship game. Ask Kirby Smart and Carson Beck how important that is!

Big deal if they thought they were in good position. It’s not like they made any decisions based on that perceived position such as canceling games like baseball to retain strength of schedule.

They were surprised and disappointed in not being selected. Most of us on this board have been disappointed multiple times. Life goes on. Get up, dust yourselves off and man up.
 
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I love this so much. The more they cry and whine, the worse they look, the better for everyone else. Why would the head of the ACC advocate for a team that is not in the ACC for football?
 
You’d think someone from ND would know the difference between dominate (a verb) and dominant (an adjective)

Is McMurphy and ND grad?

I'm reading as McMurphy typing what he heard Backlava say. Or, was there a press release which had it wrong?
 
You’d think someone from ND would know the difference between dominate (a verb) and dominant (an adjective)
I'm not sure if Bevacqua said that or if Brett McMurphy typed that. I do remember Bevacqua using the term "dominant" at least once. Yeah, I think he got it right



I don't listen to SAS regularly but he is entertaining

 
Join a conference ND. Or better yet, all P4 teams should drop ND from their scedule first chance. It might take a while since games are scheduled in advance. But I think ND signs on before that happens.
 
If you look at it, the comittee told them what was coming, in a very strange way anyway. For weeks they would answer the Miami/ND question by saying they were looking at groups or "pods" of teams, so the head to head was not the only consideration. They even came out and said that idle teams could move up or down depending on other situations. It should have been pretty clear when they put Alabama at 9 that they were not going to punish them for losing their championship game. So that created a group of BYU, Miami, and ND. BYU clearly was not going to get the leeway that Alabama had, so once they were out it was Miami and ND alone for that last spot, and that made it an easy choice. Now I think Alabama should be out, but no way is the top seed in the SEC regular season ever going to get bumped, not in my opinion anyway.
 
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