If we get embarrassed by a team like Georgia, it will only amplify the past exposure of the gap between us and the nation’s elite programs. Anything short of a national championship or (close loss in the title game) will serve as a stark reminder of that divide, forcing us to confront the reality of whether we can ever bridge that gap or if 1988 will remain our last title forever.
I think ND can win a title, but the following needs to happen:
-Admissions needs to stop being holier than thou with respect to not letting undergrad transfers in who are more than 1 year out of HS and are not coming from elite institutions. The fact that Stanford is more liberal than ND on this is infuriating. Stanford let a kid 2 years out of HS come in who started out at Northern Iowa.
-The staff or TPTB need to consistently drop bags for top 50-ish recruits. Those are the players they need and those players have a high rate of hitting. From the 2013-2018 classes on the 247 composite, over 71% of the top 50 recruits have either been drafted or played in at least 1 NFL game as an UDFA. If ND were to drop the biggest bag for 3 top 50 recruits and they landed them, statistically at least 2 of those 3 would “hit”, which would be a great ROI.
-The coaching staff needs to figure out what the “easiest” or least-demanding majors are and push those courses of study to the elite recruits.
-Let fans contribute to the NIL collective. Pretty much every SEC school as well as Ohio State allow their fans to do this.