Actually, A Good Yahoo Sports Article

[philipm31]

Undefeated Notre Dame stuck at No. 3 and in need of help thanks to archaic preseason polls, BCS - Yahoo! Sports

Dan Wetzel might be the only writer in the media with the stones to continually call out the BCS for its fraudulent work on "deciding" who the two best teams in the nation are.

His biggest point is that if ND had held on against FSU they would have begun the year AHEAD of KSU and still be there to this day, but because of the loss, their results from THIS year don't even matter. There are other relevant points in here as well.

The next biggest one that I like is the idea that KSU has no history and nothing close to the brand that ND does, a smaller PR dept and less media coverage and yet all of ND's advantages are for naught simply because we lost to FSU last year in the bowl game.

#SMH

 

[tko]

The football gods will shake things up, don't worry.

 

[philipm31]

Well, I certainly hope so. I would have LOVED to play Bama for the National Title though, just to see where we stand in relationship to the "class" of CFB.

Personally, I think ND is on the verge of a dominant period in CFB again, regardless of how or where we end the season.

But a bowl win in a BCS bowl would be VERY helpful.

 

[johnnykillz]

The football gods will shake things up, don't worry.

Amen.

Here's to hoping we wind up on the positive side of the shake up.

 

[Fbolt]

Personally, I think ND is on the verge of a dominant period in CFB again, regardless of how or where we end the season.

Yep!

 

[BleedBlueGold]

I've been saying that preseason rankings are a huge part of the problem for awhile. Glad someone finally wrote about it.

Get rid of the SEC bias. Get rid of the preseason rankings. Get rid of the Coaches Poll (you know the one where the secretaries who don't even watch football have a say). Certain things need to be done away with. The whole system needs an overhaul.

 

[KieltoNeal]

I've been saying that preseason rankings are a huge part of the problem for awhile. Glad someone finally wrote about it.

Get rid of the SEC bias. Get rid of the preseason rankings. Get rid of the Coaches Poll (you know the one where the secretaries who don't even watch football have a say). Certain things need to be done away with. The whole system needs an overhaul.

BK always does his own poll. I saw it in Onward Notre Dame, so it must be true.

 

[BleedBlueGold]

BK always does his own poll. I saw it in Onward Notre Dame, so it must be true.

Yea, some coaches actually take the time for fill them out, but there are a lot who openly admit that they don't have time for it. They pass it on for someone else to do.

 

[dublinirish]

yeah well of course hes gonna do it when there are cameras there

 

[phork]

We were 3 spots behind KSU. Style points could have pushed us passed them early in the season. However, everyone was high on KSU for drubbing, as we now know as, bad BIG12 teams.

 

[ClausentoTate]

Then you get pundits like Jesse Palmer saying in front of thousands of people that 6 of the top 10 would stomp ND and we have no business being where we are. You also have people saying a one-loss Bama team deserves it more if they beat UGA at the end of the year than us. The bias is palpable.

To all those that said "I'm glad we're not ranked" or "Let's see where we are in December" to start the year -- this is why you want to start as high as possible. If we started at 15 instead of 22 or NR (wherever we were), we'd be sitting pretty and KSU would be on the outside looking in. We need help with pollsters and badly. We legitimately need to either blow out our next two opponents or have someone else lose. We need to root hard for Stanford this week and/or OSU the last week of the season.

If ND goes undefeated with the schedule we've had and doesn't go to the NCG, it's downright criminal.

 

[Kingbish01]

If ND wins out, they will be in the NCG. It's all about money, and ND brings it!

 

[philipm31]

The idea that you can have a bunch of ND haters on the WWL in BS be logical and unbiased about the SEC/ND argument is the worst.

Even worse is the fact that ND has not even tried to point out anything until recently when BK went out and pointed to the fact that ND has not been blessed with a week off, or three as KSU, UO or any SEC team has been.

Honestly, this is just flat out stupid. And of course the insanity won't ever end because the deal between the SEC and CBS/ESPN/BCS. Hard to believe that ND can get blocked out, even in a playoff format til you realize that it is still set up for the SEC to have multiple teams in the playoffs. Why else do you think that they made the provision that you don't have to win your conference to win be in the playoff? So that you can have 2 or more SEC teams in the playoff format.

As bad as some conferences are, if you are going to have a four or eight team playoff you need to make it MANDATORY that you have all conference winners and two at large bids, or whatever it takes to make sure that everyone in the top tier or CFB gets their fair shake.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

We were 3 spots behind KSU. Style points could have pushed us passed them early in the season. However, everyone was high on KSU for drubbing, as we now know as, bad BIG12 teams.

I doubt any amount of style points would have moved us past KSU in the human polls. The hierarchy of UO > KSU > ND was (arbitrarily) established in the preseason, and it simply won't change unless someone loses.

To all those that said "I'm glad we're not ranked" or "Let's see where we are in December" to start the year -- this is why you want to start as high as possible. If we started at 15 instead of 22 or NR (wherever we were), we'd be sitting pretty and KSU would be on the outside looking in. We need help with pollsters and badly.

Amen. After reading Dan Wetzel's article this morning, I thought back to all those posters who argued it was better to be unranked heading into the season. They got their wish, and now those low expectations will probably keep up out of the MNC game.

If ND wins out, they will be in the NCG. It's all about money, and ND brings it!

The BCS bowls are all about ratings and cash. The BCS system, however, has no such bias. How else could KSU be ranked ahead of ND at 10-0?

 

[philipm31]

All I can say is that after all the years of not living up to the hype, a lot of ND fans did not want to get their hopes up and be disappointed again.

But next year, the hype machine will be in OVERDRIVE, for sure.

I would really love to hear the first line everyone says about ND be, "Defending National Champion Notre Dame Fighting Irish..."

 

[philipm31]

I doubt any amount of style points would have moved us past KSU in the human polls. The hierarchy of OU > KSU > ND was (arbitrarily) established in the preseason, and it simply won't change unless someone loses.



Amen. After reading Dan Wetzel's article this morning, I thought back to all those posters who argued it was better to be unranked heading into the season. They got their wish, and now those low expectations will probably keep up out of the MNC game.



The BCS bowls are all about ratings and cash. The BCS system, however, has such bias. How else could KSU be ranked ahead of ND at 10-0?

Totally agree. The system, any system really, is biased against ANY team that is not affiliated with a conference, particularly the SEC (or B12 re: OU getting blasted by MIA in 2001 and shut down by LSU in 2003, when they did not win their conference either year). Just because ND is ND, that does not mean that they will get the benefit of the doubt in football, even if they play the toughest schedule in the land and end up undefeated. This year is a PRIME example of the continual bias ND will have to face for the foreseeable future.

 

[domerdude]

Here's to hoping we wind up on the positive side of the shake up.

THIS!

 

[eNDzone]

If you are going to use the argument that Kansas State should have been ranked over ND at the start of the year then remember K ST. lost its bowl game to Arkansas 29-16. Arkansas' record this year is 4-6, while Florida States record is 9-1.

 

[Kingbish01]

K. State will NOT beat Texas. I'd bet one months pay on it.

 

[philipm31]

If you are going to use the argument that Kansas State should have been ranked over ND at the start of the year then remember K ST. lost its bowl game to Arkansas 29-16. Arkansas' record this year is 4-6, while Florida States record is 9-1.

Yeah, I bet another reason that KSU got the higher ranking is because they lost to an SEC team, not an ACC also-ran like FSU.

#SMH.

 

[IrishinSyria]

There is some pretty serious football left to be played. Wouldn't get all bunched up about the rankings just yet. The Pitt game definitely hurt us in the eyes of voters and, to be fair, it should have. We were lucky to come away with the win.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

There is some pretty serious football left to be played. Wouldn't get all bunched up about the rankings just yet. The Pitt game definitely hurt us in the eyes of voters and, to be fair, it should have. We were lucky to come away with the win.

Irrelevant. Even if we had blown out Pitt and BC by 30 points a piece, we wouldn't be ahead of KSU in the human polls.

 

[ickythump1225]

Irrelevant. Even if we had blown out Pitt and BC by 30 points a piece, we wouldn't be ahead of KSU in the human polls.

That's what I don't think a lot of these people screaming for "style points" understand. No matter how much we beat Pitt, BC, and Wake by no one in the human polls is going to jump us over KSU or Oregon because of the quality of our competition. A win is a win and nothing for us has changed. Even beating Wake by 50 isn't going to help if Oregon and KSU win also. We're going to need Stanford, OSU, Baylor, Texas, or maybe even USC to help us out.

 

[kmoose]

Just don't, everyone.............. just don't start complaining about the polls. For decades, Notre Dame was the beneficiary of the good will it had earned, in the polls. Fans of other teams cried foul, and ND fans shook their head and said, "We're only rightly reaping what he have sowed, tended, and earned." Well, the situation hasn't changed: We're still reaping what we have sowed. During the past 20 years, the establishment gave us the benefit of the doubt, many times over........ and were almost always kicked squarely in the gut in thanks. So we have to overcome those bad seeds, as we sow good seeds, before we can really begin to see fruitful crops. So just, please.............. don't complain about the polls.

 

[PraetorianND]

That's what I don't think a lot of these people screaming for "style points" understand. No matter how much we beat Pitt, BC, and Wake by no one in the human polls is going to jump us over KSU or Oregon because of the quality of our competition. A win is a win and nothing for us has changed. Even beating Wake by 50 isn't going to help if Oregon and KSU win also. We're going to need Stanford, OSU, Baylor, Texas, or maybe even USC to help us out.

This is exactly right. Even if Oregon and KSU go to OT in each of their last games and we dominate by 40 points we're not jumping anyone. Voters hate ND. I mean, many of them didn't even vote us #3.

 

[PraetorianND]

Just don't, everyone.............. just don't start complaining about the polls. For decades, Notre Dame was the beneficiary of the good will it had earned, in the polls. Fans of other teams cried foul, and ND fans shook their head and said, "We're only rightly reaping what he have sowed, tended, and earned." Well, the situation hasn't changed: We're still reaping what we have sowed. During the past 20 years, the establishment gave us the benefit of the doubt, many times over........ and were almost always kicked squarely in the gut in thanks. So we have to overcome those bad seeds, as we sow good seeds, before we can really begin to see fruitful crops. So just, please.............. don't complain about the polls.

I actually don't agree with this. Despite not being good for 20 years we just went through one of the more insane schedules in college football. I don't care about the past. This is about this team this year.

 

[phork]

Irrelevant. Even if we had blown out Pitt and BC by 30 points a piece, we wouldn't be ahead of KSU in the human polls.

It is not irrelevant. KState was doing it early and often, yes against weaker competition, but they were only 3 spots ahead of us at the start of the year.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

It is not irrelevant. KState was doing it early and often, yes against weaker competition, but they were only 3 spots ahead of us at the start of the year.

And now they're only one spot ahead of us, and will stay there unless they lose. Major conference teams tend not to jump each other without a loss. Since our win over OU didn't get the voters to move us ahead of KSU, nothing will.

 

[FLDomer]

It is not irrelevant. KState was doing it early and often, yes against weaker competition, but they were only 3 spots ahead of us at the start of the year.

ND is gaining on em, only 1 spots behind em now!!

 

[Whiskeyjack]

We have to suffer through the NOT benefit of the doubt, until we reestablish ourselves amongst the elite.

Because kmoose says so? I didn't see anything like that in the non-existent guidelines used by the human voters.

This all comes back to preseason rankings having far too much influence on the final outcome. Poll stagnation is indefensible, whether you're benefiting from it or not.