Notre Dame was very deserving of their place in the playoff. Undefeated regular season, then lost to another playoff team in conference championship. No, they are not quite at the very top of college football. They just don't have the glut of these over-the-top athletes that Bama, Ohio State and Clemson currently have. Not sure what their limitations are in regard to recruiting. Do their prospects face tougher admissions standards in regard to academic requirements than other schools ?
Yes they have huge recruiting and problems.
In no specific order:
1) rigorous academics both at the school and for admission. ND like any school has it’s easy majors and courses and athletes get some help, but compared to a lot of big football schools like
The two playing in the national championship they are actually required to get an education and to actually complete degree worthy course work. At least that’s what more than a few players have told me. Granted several schools face this as well. Stanford and Northwestern spring to mind. Other good schools like Michigan don’t have quite the same requirement because they are much bigger state schools.
2) it’s in northern Indiana. It’s cold and
Edited for profanity. Please do not do it again.ty out there and the nearest city is Chicago 2+ hours away. Granted several schools like OSU, Michigan, to some level penn state have weather issues but most of these schools are big enough to have real towns with things to do. Ann Arbor or Columbus vs South Bend isn’t even a discussion.
3) it’s a catholic school. They have single sex dorms and you aren’t allowed to be in the opposite sex’s dorm after midnight. Plus you have to live on campus year 1 and most scholarships require multiple years on campus.
Now there’s plenty of schools that deal with each of these factors individually and the occasional one that deals with two. But in the CFP era who had really outperformed ND?
Alabam, Clemson, OSU, Georgia, LSU and if you wanna argue Oregon I’ll hear you out but does 1 playoff win excuse years of just being kinda bad? None of those schools face anything like what ND does save OSU’s comparable weather. Not sure how much more can be asked of Kelly. He’s led them to two playoffs and a national championship game in the last 10 years with really only 1 genuinely bad season. Sure they get smacked when they get there but that’s really not a failing. They SHOULDNT be able to compete with these schools.
And I’ll end with saying Notre Dame deserves some apologies. This is the second time they’ve been ripped for failing in the semis only for the championship to be even more lopsided. Losing to Clemson in ‘19 and Bama in ‘21 wasn’t being exposed those teams were that much better than everyone. No one was giving either a real game.
Remember since 2018 they are 43-8 with 3 losses coming to playoff teams, two to national champions.
That’s the 4th best record in the timespan. Last 3 years it’s 33-5 with two losses to national champions, the others to Michigan and Georgia on the road and Clemson in the ACC championship. How much better can you really ask?