Rick Reilly calls out ND
Didn't see this posted so had to share:
http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8264769/notre-dame-irish-relegated-insignificance
Harsh, but can't really say it's untrue.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:14 PM ^
"To hell with Notre Dame"
August 15th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
The TV deals and whatnot are based on fan base, and Notre Dames is exceptionally large. But the BCS/Playoffs thing is bullshit.
If ND was a chick at the bar, she'd be the 42 year old divorcee who was a beauty pageant winner when she was 16 with a bad boob job and a nasty temper. Smoking Pall Malls.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:26 PM ^
I feel like there is still a little something missing. I'm thinking that the ND personification probably also has untreated syphilis, but acts like it's really chic because of the historical longevity of the disease.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:26 PM ^
An unfortunate run-in with a really bad, Beverly Hills surgeon, a la ...
August 16th, 2012 at 9:12 AM ^
This is so nasty I puked in my mouth a little.
August 15th, 2012 at 4:48 PM ^
beatuty pageant winner who is 42 but still looks really good to tons of guys--the reason I say this is that unlike any other school in America with a comparable lack of relevance for 20 years, they still undeniably recruit. I can't understand it, but year after year they get top players
August 15th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^
Notre Dame football just got...
*sunglasses*
...Rick Rolled.
Please neg away.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^
I'm pretty sure that is Rick Reilly's new title.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^
I only wish there were comments on ESPN Featured Articles. I would love to see that play out
August 15th, 2012 at 1:18 PM ^
I scrolled to the bottom of the article to start reading comments. Alas, I was quite disappointed to see no such thing.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:10 PM ^
While I enjoyed my lunch, I read this on my iPhone. The comments section appears when viewing it there, but not on my computer. There are so many homers losing their minds over this article. It made lunch taste that much better.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
I guess in some ways I don't really get what his point is. It is nice to see someone in the media actually call out ND for what it is and has been, but I don't get what he is trying to acheive by listing solutions that will never happen. As long as the public tunes in to NBC every Saturday, I don't see anything changing.
Anyway, I thought this line was great: "That hurts your feelings? Watch 'Rudy' 'til you feel better."
August 15th, 2012 at 2:59 PM ^
I think his point is that even an (ex-) ND fan like himself can't deny it anymore - ND's relevancy is past its shelf life.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
To be fair, the descent into irrelevance could also be said about Rick Reilly.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
Let the hate flow through you.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:55 PM ^
People still care about Rick Reilly? He's like the Notre Dame of columnists.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^
At least their graduation rates for athletes is typically in the top 2-3 (including football)
August 15th, 2012 at 1:52 PM ^
just BOO !
Go Blue!
August 15th, 2012 at 3:03 PM ^
I never understand the fascination people have with graduation rates. Sure, we want people to graduate. But when schools dramatically lower their standards to let athletes in, isn't it a little dubious when those athletes go on to graduate at "normal" rates?
I suspect that there is a lot of UNC-style academic fraud going on around the country, and it might be all the more rife at private schools, which have less public accountability. (Remember the old saying - "You can't flunk out of an Ivy League school.")
August 15th, 2012 at 1:16 PM ^
But most of this isn't ND's fault.
From now on: • Notre Dame no longer gets its own television deal with NBC. • Notre Dame no longer gets to be the only school in the country with an inexplicable seat at the BCS decisions-making table. • Notre Dame no longer gets its yearly undeserved hellahype in preseason rankings and preseason All-America teams.
- ND has a deal anyone would take. Blame his media people at NBC for paying big money for bad product (though I'm guessing they find a way to make it profitable, so they're not complaining)
- This is true, because you know ND is pushing hard for it. But there's zero reason to cave to their demands. Where are they going to turn to? "We're not going to play in your bowl games at all?" Give them what they give everyone else. Why should ND say no?
- And again, explain to me how the media doing the same dumb thing over and over again is ND's fault? If anything it hurts them by raising expectations that are crushed year after year.
It seems like he wants to yell at ND for not living up to what he and his fellow media members create year after you. He's really saying "ND get great again so we stop looking stupid year after year."
Edited: because "pay" is not "play". But considering the topic, not that far off...
August 15th, 2012 at 1:25 PM ^
Totally agree. Wasn't Rick Reilly also one of the biggest self-flagellators regarding Penn State? The dude seems like he can't stand it when he unecessarily tongue-bathes someone or something and then it turns out that that someone or something didn't deserve it and so he looks foolish.
Rick, try writing something sober and fact-checked and maybe you won't have to write these ludicrous mea culpas 10 years after the fact.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:36 PM ^
Totally agree. I do think that the ND faithful act as if the program has been consistently better than its record the past decade or so, but the points Reilly harps on are silly. If NBC wants to keep airing ND games, then by no means should ND stop taking that money. The BCS bowl position is a little iffy, but until someone says no ND should keep pushing for it. And whose fault is it that ND is ranked in the top-25 every season? Certainly not ND, who has at most one opportunity to alter a poll via Kelly's coach's vote.
Now, if he wanted to harp on ND's purported moral and educational superiority that has been proven numerous times to be false, then that is an angle to attack them on. As others have pointed out, ND takes top-notch recruits (usually from good prep and high schools), nurtures them in a good environment, and then trumpets pumping out kids who graduate and (maybe) play in the NFL. Congrats ND - you are UM, NW, Virginia, USC, Vandy, Texas, and all the other major college-programs with decent-to-good academics. But to act as if you are doing "God's work" because you are Catholic is (to this Catholic) slightly offensive and simply redundant.
August 15th, 2012 at 12:39 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
Can't blame Notre Dame for their TV deals with NBC. That's based off of its fanbase, which is among the largest in the country.
Notre Dame will never be pegged down to an FCS or DII level. There is simply way too much money involved. Yeah, they're irrelevant, but they sell tickets, both home and away. If Notre Dame went to go play Kansas at Kansas, a school which traditionally looks at football as a way to pass the time until basketball season, that game would sell out. KU fans would pack the stadium. Why? Because its Notre Dame. They're the money-makers, they make headlines, irrelevant or not.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:40 PM ^
Irrelevant may be a bit strong of a term - they still field a bowl-quality team most years. I mean, it freaking Rutgers and Duke are allowed to keep fielding teams, I don't see why ND shouldn't except to be treated as a decent BCS team. They just aren't at the level of USC, LSU/'Bama, etc.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^
For context, Michigan has won 99 games "this century," including 2000.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 1:10 PM ^
I don't need a talking head to tell me that ND sucks.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:18 PM ^
Notre Dame is still relevant because every fucking year people are still talking about whether or not they're relevant.
Every team that beats Notre Dame still acts like they've beaten the defending national champion.
ND still attracts talent, sells tickets, a shit load of merchandise, has a national following, has a gorgeous campus, and is a top notch academic institution.
How are you guys going to rip on ND when we've BARELY beaten them the last 3 years, and have gone apeshit for each one of them?
August 15th, 2012 at 1:39 PM ^
I hate Notre Dame with an intensity bordering on madness, but I agree with this 100%. College football fans, both those for and those against Notre Dame, make Notre Dame relevant, even if they haven't been competitive. "Irrelevant" and "bad football" are two very different things. Notre Dame possesses the same cache that all the college football blue bloods have. Takes longer than 20 years, apparently, to lose it. I think those of us who were young in the 80s and 90s will have to die off, with the Irish continuing to suck in the meantime, in order to make them truly irrelevant. Maybe not even then because the media love for Notre Dame may perpetuate the hate to new generations, without ever having to lose a football game to them. College football loves and hatreds (a new word?) get imprinted in you and they don't go away. I''ll hate Notre Dame until I go down for the dirt nap, I don't care how bad they suck. Beating them is my second favorite win, next to beating Ohio, and it always will be. There was actually a time....granted, a misguided portion of my youth... when I hated Notre Dame even more than Ohio.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:58 PM ^
As a "future" generation I can tell you that I don't hate Notre Dame. Not nearly as much as it seems you old guys do (Ha! Had to do it). I think it stems from the fact that we have beaten Notre Dame three years in a row. That's a major chunck of my vivid memory. It also keeps Notre Dame fans who are my age a little bit more in check. They still buy into the "Notre Dame Arrogance" but it's more mild than their parents' or grandparents'. I love beating Notre Dame, and would hate losing to them, but I don't hate them. MSU on the other hand...hell if we don't beat them this year, their fans will be unbearable. I don't think I'll ever hate Notre Dame as much as I hate MSU (or OSU).
August 15th, 2012 at 4:30 PM ^
To put it in perspective, imagine losing 4 in a row to MSU, and MSU not being a way worse school, with practically no history, and were in fact the program that came closest to equaling ours... and at the same time they were beating us they won a National Championship, tons of NFL players, and a coach who wasn't just real good but great. At the same time we weren't actually bad, and MSU suddenly became a program that got all the calls. Oh, and all the hype over the program wouldn't just be in-state, but nationally. Then you have an idea what it was like.
August 15th, 2012 at 8:23 PM ^
Well those of us who were young in the 80s and 90s now run the networks, college football, and, yea verily, the entire world. We've got the cash and the power (for now) which means Notre Dame will be loved and hated to obsession, over played, and over hyped. They're the Yankees/Red Wings/Cowboys of college football until we pass the reins to others who may not recognize the shining stain that is Notre Dame.
To be honest, I think it's kinda sad. Oxymoronically (another new one?) hating Notre Dame is one of the things I love about college football. Like us, they embody college football tradition and pagentry, from a time when those things carried more weight than maybe they do now. Hating Ohio is in our DNA. If I can pass hatred of Notre Dame on to my children.... well now... that means I've been able to pass on something that goes beyond plain instinct.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:47 PM ^
To be fair, if we had beaten anyone (excepting IU or a MAC school or something) the way we've beaten ND the last three years it would still be exciting as hell.
UTL was more special because of the ND rivalry, but I'd like to hear anyone say it wouldn't have been just as awesome if State had been on the losing end, let alone what we'd be saying if it was Ohio.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:00 PM ^
It's pretty awesome how closely the "famous for being famous" Hilton and your description of ND parallel one another--change a few words here and there, and the post is like a Mad-Lib for the post-prime set.
Except for the top-notch academic bit, of course. Not sure there's anything short of a complete re-write that'll make that one applicable to Ms. H.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:14 PM ^
One could make the argument that we really aren't in the position to rip on anyone given our cumulative performance over the past 5 years. Add in the Appy State and Toledo loss and we really don't have a leg to stand on.
However, I think the point is that ND has been a mediocre at best program over the past 20 years yet due to a confluence of factors (history, tradition, religion, no conference, tv contaract, etc) they continue to draw the attention that elite programs do.
We so enjoyed the victories over ND the past 3 years because 2 of them occurred in our darkest hours , and last year was UTL and Hoke's 1st signature prime time win. Also it was a miracle comeback against an historical rival.
Point being, they will continue to get a lot of undeserved money and exposure if you attempt to correlate on field performance and media attention. But for a media member who works in the industry that helped create the monster to ridicule the situation is a bit ridiculous. Just stop feeding the beast and maybe it will die off. Instead, now they write articles about how ND gets to much press, not acknowledging the fact that article itself is a form of press. Like a hall of cruel mirrors reflecting ND ineptitude into perpetuity. I like!
August 15th, 2012 at 3:13 PM ^
How are you guys going to rip on ND when we've BARELY beaten them the last 3 years, and have gone apeshit for each one of them?But that's not really fair, because ND is a rivalry game for us. And any fan would go apeshit when his team wins in the final seconds of a game. We all celebrate the Braylonfest game in '04, despite the fact that MSU was a 5-7 team that year.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:14 PM ^
wow. harsh stuff indeed, yet also very, very true.
August 15th, 2012 at 1:22 PM ^
Rick Reilly finally wrote down what everyone else has been thinking (so gloriously blunt). I say we should make Rick an honorary Michigan fan and thank him for ever so truthful words. Maybe he can enjoy winning for a change and write up something nice about Michigan Football. Thanks to the article, those delusional Irish fans can truely see how bad they have been and how irrelevant they truely are. The only people that think ND is any good or can be good is Lou Holtz and Alumni.
ITS GREAT TO BE A MICHIGAN WOLVERINE!
August 15th, 2012 at 1:23 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 1:57 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago, how even here in NOva Scotia I see lots of ND, USC, UM mechandise but never anything like FSU, Flor., Ala, Auburn etc. I can go anywhere in the world and see those other schools represented but never any of the SEC schools.
Just as I was thinking this I walked up to a guy wearing an Alabama hat and just about fell over. The curiosity got to me so I went over and asked if he was just a fan or an alum or what. He told me he was up from Alabama on vacation. I breathed a sigh of relief, convinced my preconceived notions were correct.
August 15th, 2012 at 3:10 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 1:26 PM ^
Even though I mostly agree with the substance of the article on the irrelevance of ND, I still don't like Rick Reilly. And beating up on ND is like shooting fish in a barrel. Even Drew Sharp or Rosenburg could do that.
As for comments on the NBC deal, it all has to do with product people will watch. That has to do with popularity and Nielsen ratings. This is true in every sport.
- Which Big10 games are on ABC, on ESPN, and on the Big 10 Network? Dictated by the ratings. (take a look, for instance, how often UofM & Ohio are on a major network, compared to Minnesota or Indiana.)
- Sunday & Monday night NFL football? Dictated by the ratings. When the Bears sucked, they weren't on national TV.
- What NBC highlighted in the Olympics? Dictated by ratings. I couldn't stand any more gymnastics, but I guess that's what other people wanted to see.
- Feature MLB games on Fox? Ratings.
Ratings drives money, and money drives almost everything. As long as ND is one of the most popular teams in the country, you can bet some network will give them a sweetheart deal.
However, I fully agree that the bowl situation needs to change. For that matter, I'm on the fence with Michigan's continuing regular game with ND, even though someone is selling me two tickets at face and I'll be in South Bend for the game.
August 15th, 2012 at 2:16 PM ^
August 15th, 2012 at 1:26 PM ^
"In short, until Notre Dame football starts winning again, it's Rice to me." - Rick Reilly
He might be closer to the truth than he realizes. Going back to 1990, Rice has won 112 games, and ND has won 170. Rice averages 5 wins each year, but although ND average 8, it should be noted that whereas the minimum and maximum number of wins for Rice are 2 and 10 respectively, ND isn't much better at 3 and 11 respectively. In each case, the standard deviation for each team in that period turns out to be 2 wins, so they are relatively consistent performers in their respective situations. Rice has also won more games in a season than ND six times in that span, and has tied their record in another four seasons. Notre Dame might be Rice with slightly better talent and coaching historically, in essence.
August 15th, 2012 at 6:56 PM ^
To hell with Rice too!