Old Fashioned Ass Kicking - Notre Dame

I didn't see last night's game, but based upon the final score of 42-14, Ohio State fans can understand Notre Dame's embarrassment. Going into last night's game, the Irish were undefeated and ranked No. 1.

Six years ago today, Florida pounded the undefeated and No. 1-ranked Buckeyes in the championship game 41-14. The Gators scored 34 points in the first half.

8 of the last 10 BCS National Championship Games have been won by the SEC, but by only four different SEC teams. Nick Saban won his 4th championship as a head coach. He was the head coach of LSU during the 2003 season, and, of course, he has been the head coach during Alabama's current run of title wins.

Season - BCS Champ:

• 2003 - LSU
• 2004 - USC
• 2005 - Texas
• 2006 - Florida
• 2007 - LSU
• 2008 - Florida
• 2009 - Alabama
• 2010 - Auburn
• 2011 - Alabama
• 2012 - Alabama

Nick Saban was the head coach at the University of Toledo for one year:

Last week, the Cleveland Browns fired their head coach. After failing this weekend to convince Oregon's head coach to join Cleveland, the Browns or at least their fans were hoping they could lure Saban back to Cleveland, but that ain't happening.

In the classroom, the Notre Dame football team continues do well among FBS (Division 1) schools. Here's a story from last spring that I think was based upon the previous year's data.

Top 10 Football Grad Rates: FBS (Graduation Success Rate)

1. Notre Dame 97%
2. Northwestern 94%
3. Rice 93%
3. Duke 93%
5. Boston College 93%
6. Navy 91%
7. Rutgers 89%
8. Army 88%
8. Miami (Fla.) 88%
10. Stanford 87%
10. Penn State 87%

Michigan 71%
Alabama 69%
Ohio State 67%

^Grad rate stats are a tad revealing

revealing of what?

no way in hell is Miami (FLA) grad rate TRULY 88. No. freakin'. way.

You can view the football graduation rates for all Div 1 and 1-AA schools for the 2011-2012 school year at this link:

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/newmedia/public/rates/index.html

Top schools
Dartmouth College - 100%
Bucknell University - 98%
Columbia University-Barnard College - 98%
Yale University - 98%
Cornell University - 97%
Furman University - 97%
Northwestern University - 97%
University of Notre Dame - 97%
University of Pennsylvania - 97%
Brown University - 96%
Davidson College - 96%
Harvard University - 96%
Lafayette College - 96%
Boston College - 94%
University of Dayton - 94%
University of Miami (Florida) - 94%
University of Richmond - 94%

Elsewhere
University of Alabama - 75%
Ohio State University - 74%
University of Michigan - 69%
University of Georgia - 69%
Texas A&M University - 69%
University of Oregon - 64%

Bottom-dwellers among the major conferences
Oregon State University - 60%
University of Mississippi - 59%
Purdue University - 59%
University of Southern California - 57%
Florida State University - 55%
University of South Carolina - 55%
University of Arkansas - 54%
University of Oklahoma - 47%

Mid-American Conference
Miami University (Ohio) - 84%
Northern Illinois University - 83%
Ohio University - 74%
Bowling Green State University - 69%
Western Michigan University - 67%
Temple University - 66%
University of Toledo - 64%
University at Buffalo - 62%
University of Akron - 57%
Ball State University - 57%
Kent State University - 57%
Eastern Michigan University - 52%
Central Michigan University - 47%

There are plenty on this list that are not interested in educating sports stars but renting them for a year or two before they go pro.I think you should have to wait till your class graduates before you can become a pro athlete in any sport.

I think that right should be left up to the individual like it is now. Lets face it some of these athletes wouldn't even go to college if it wasn't for the sport they play. If they choose to cash in when aloud more power to them. It's their personal decision and it's their right to do so.

The only good thing about this game was that it was such a blowout early that I could safely turn off the TV and get to bed a decent hour.

I read that the average NFL player is out of money two years after leaving the league.

Barring a major injury causing brain damage or Alzheimer's an education is never lost.

As for the game, thank God for a playoff next year!

I'd also add, I think a rule should be made allowing players to transfer and maintain full years of eligibility if the coach they signed leaves but still have to sit a year out.

Like a returning a year of medical redshirt is keeping that eligibility year should hinge on that player graduating on time.

"As for the game, thank God for a playoff next year!"

Not next year. The four-team "playoff" for Div 1-A college football is planned for the 2014 season, which means the three games will be played in January 2015.

Jan 7, 2013 ESPN story

Simple.

The four teams will not be determined solely by the final rankings. You know, taking the top four-ranked teams. Nope. That would make too much sense.

A committee will select the four playoff teams. I'm guessing the committee will be larger than the four teams that they will select.

With a committee, I suppose that it's possible that a #5- or #6-ranked team could be chosen over the #4-ranked team, especially if one conference has two teams in the top 4, or if a minor conference has a team ranked in the top 4.

Determining this committee could be a bigger issue than whether a playoff of any kind exists.

Here's more of the simple explanation about how the playoff and the other major bowl games may function, according to the above ESPN story:

All the above new rules are simply about adding more money to coffers of the sports programs of the schools. I happen to like sports but enough is enough.

"Neither conference affiliation nor a possible rematch will have any effect on the semifinal pairings. If it works out that Texas and Oklahoma meet in the semifinals, so be it."

Bullshit.

Now we have these super-conferences, like the Big Ten has become the Big I-lost-count, and they have a CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP. If Ohio State and Michigan are undefeated in their divisions up until The Game, and the loser is still top in their division, and they play AGAIN for the Big whatever-we-are-up-to title, and the previous loser wins, and they're still #1 and #2 nationally, do we really need YET ANOTHER REMATCH? NO. Someone won the title, the loser's fans can go be butthurt and talk about what-ifs all they want, give another school a shot. And fuck that bullshit about locking the Group of Five out too.

There are 120 teams in the FBS.

There are 11 conferences plus the independent teams.

Let's either make 7 or 8 16 team super-conferences. We'd either have to kick 8 teams out of FBS, or find 8 teams to come into FBS. This also means Notre Dame has to finally choose a conference.

Each conference has 2 8-team divisions.

Each team in a division plays their division-mates. That's 7 scheduled games a year.

Each team plays 2 or 3 teams on from the other division. Like Ohio State plays Michigan guaranteed. I don't know if all the games have to be a guaranteed match or rotate through the other division, I'll leave that up for debate.

Each team plays 3 or 2 (depending on above) teams from another division that had a similar record to theirs last year (but not a rematch of any playoff game). No more undefeated team beating up on "Little Sisters of the Poor" creampuff teams. If Ohio State or Michigan happen to stink it up, next year they get to take on the bottom of the MAC and Mountain West and give those teams a shot at a huge morale victory of defeating the storied Big Ten teams on somewhat equal footing.

Now you have your 12 game season set.

Figure out appropriate tie-breakers if two or more teams in a division finish up with equal records. Perhaps losses to a "bowl-ineligible" team won't count. I leave the exact structure of tiebreakers up for debate.

Division winners play for a conference title.

Now you have 8 conference champs. This gives you a quarterfinal round of 4 bowls, a semifinal of 2 bowls, and a final bowl.

Let's take the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowl, and say the Sun or Cotton Bowl, that's a game in California, Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, and Texas. Bring in the Liberty Bowl (Tennessee) as the next oldest bowl NOT in any of those states (or fire Chick-fil-A's homophobic name and bring back the Peach Bowl in Georgia). Set these up to be the quarterfinal and semifinal games. Rigid structure or rotate, I dunno. I favor rotating them.

Quarterfinals is game #14, and semifinals is game #15.

Final game is just "FBS Championship Game". What we do, is we say fuck you to the bullshit warm weather policy, and we put some incentive on winning it all by letting the champion pick the location for next year's FBS Championship Game, with the two rules being 1) you can't pick home field and 2) you have to pick a suitably sized venue. So then if Ohio State wins it all, next year's championship game gets played in Cleveland or Cincy or if Michigan wins, Ford Field, if Wisconsin wins, Green Bay, etc. May have to make an exception for say Hawaii, and you also can't pick a venue already hosting one of the playoff bowl games either. And if this also means that say Alabama and USC are freezing their asses off in Green Bay or Foxborough in January, so be it. Pretty sure the clothing manufacturers will love the big spike in Alabama and USC sweaters and heavy coats and hats being sold in the week before the game.

Who's with me on this? Anyone?