Final Poll

[Nothingman]

Wisconsin lost to fucking Illinois.

Hey, that's 6 win and Redbox Bowl runner-up fucking Illinois to you.

 

[Irishman77]

beating a bunch of nobodies every year doesn’t get us much respect in these polls. But hey we won 11 games and hired Rees. Weeeeeee

 

[phork]

Our resume does not "suck". We played no FCS cupcakes (something none of the other teams ranked above us can claim), own the 3rd most dominant win of the entire season, and went 11-2, which includes 5 victories over the FEI top 50 and a narrow loss to #4 Georgia.

Our resume is objectively better than Wisconsin and Minnesota's. The only way to justify putting them higher than us is by arguing that they'd beat us on a neutral field, which is not what these polls are supposed to be about.

I admit you had me scratching my head at the 3rd most dominant win. I clicked, looked, and laughed my ass off my chair, up the wall and back on to my chair. Navy?
Michigan's ass pounding of us is ranked 33rd.... I would say that was more impressive than slapping an academy around. Also just quickly searching that list. LSUs win over Clemson was much greater than their win at Oklahoma, everyone knew OU was a fraud.

beating a bunch of nobodies every year doesn’t get us much respect in these polls. But hey we won 11 games and hired Rees. Weeeeeee

Agree with point 1 and will add yearly embarassing loss. But I am ok with hiring Reese.

 

[ACamp1900]

beating a bunch of nobodies every year doesn’t get us much respect in these polls. But hey we won 11 games and hired Rees. Weeeeeee

LOL this is exactly why we should just schedule all the Eastern Michigan’s of the world,... if we are gonna ‘beat nobody’ every year let’s actually do it.

 

[ND88]

The problem is that we are arguing about whether or not we deserve a higher ranking than Wisconsin and Minnesota. Even if we were ranked ahead of them, it's sort of a big whoop. At the same time, the negativity about us being where we are at is pretty dumb. We had a good season.

If I was in my early twenties, then I might be fired up about a bunch of college athletes and the state of the program. It's like groundhog's day discussing Notre Dame when the only true power we have as fans is in the money and time we spend on games and gear.

Otherwise, you know what you're signed up for. We know why Notre Dame isn't LSU. It's Kelly and more than Kelly. It's admissions and more than admissions. It's South Bend and more than South Bend. It's lack of 5 stars and more than lack of 5 stars. It's a bunch of factors. Certainly, being negative and/or right on predicting failures is no accomplishment when you're a Notre Dame fan.

See you next season.

 

[Cali_domer]

The problem is that we are arguing about whether or not we deserve a higher ranking than Wisconsin and Minnesota. Even if we were ranked ahead of them, it's sort of a big whoop. At the same time, the negativity about us being where we are at is pretty dumb. We had a good season.

If I was in my early twenties, then I might be fired up about a bunch of college athletes and the state of the program. It's like groundhog's day discussing Notre Dame when the only true power we have as fans is in the money and time we spend on games and gear.

Otherwise, you know what you're signed up for. We know why Notre Dame isn't LSU. It's Kelly and more than Kelly. It's admissions and more than admissions. It's South Bend and more than South Bend. It's lack of 5 stars and more than lack of 5 stars. It's a bunch of factors. Certainly, being negative and/or right on predicting failures is no accomplishment when you're a Notre Dame fan.

See you next season.

I personally blame cats.

 

[dad4aa]

I also cannot find any justification for Minn and Wisconsin to be ahead of us. Four loss Wisconsin beat Minnesota by twenty-one.

Wisconsin lost to #3 Ohio State by 13. We lost to #4 Georgia by 7.

They also lost to OSU in the regular season by 31 and lost to 6-7 Illinois

 

[Circa]

When we win. Will all of you say we might be the best team ever created?
I'm just curious... If Clemson was the best ever last year after dominating Alabama.
This year LSU dominates Clemson and they must be the best ever...
I'll take our '88 team against most of these boys any day of the week.
It Is the media presenting... Some lame brain material.

 

[NDRock]

Seems like they are giving more credit for good wins. Wisconsin had 3 wins over top 18 teams. We beat Navy. Minnesota had two wins over top 14 opponents. We beat Navy. Is what it is.

 

[stlnd01]

Seems like they are giving more credit for good wins. Wisconsin had 3 wins over top 18 teams. We beat Navy. Minnesota had two wins over top 14 opponents. We beat Navy. Is what it is.

And it has always been thus.

Ever since the playoff system begun we've hung our hat on "good losses" ('14 FSU, '15 Clemson, '17 and '19 Georgia.) when what they pretty clearly reward is big wins. You're better off beating a top 10 team and losing to some dog than losing to the top 10 team and beating everyone else. And for a variety of factors those Top 10 wins have been hard for us to come by. We'll have our shots next year though.

 

[BGIF]

Seems like they are giving more credit for good wins. Wisconsin had 3 wins over top 18 teams. We beat Navy. Minnesota had two wins over top 14 opponents. We beat Navy. Is what it is.

The AP has ND 4 points behind Wis out of a total of 1550 points. Your they takes only one ballot to have ND 5 points lower. 1993 Bobby Bowden voted FSU #1 and ND #7 although ND won the head to head match. Bowden's stink vote for ND won him a NC.

The Coaches Poll has ND at #11, two slots ahead of #13 Wisconsin by 31 points out of a total of 1625.

Sagarin has Wis at #9 with the 9th Toughest Schedule and ND at #11 with the 37th Toughest Schedule.

 

[Irish#1]

beating a bunch of nobodies every year doesn’t get us much respect in these polls. But hey we won 11 games and hired Rees. Weeeeeee

Now here's a happy customer.

 

[Irish#1]

I admit you had me scratching my head at the 3rd most dominant win. I clicked, looked, and laughed my ass off my chair, up the wall and back on to my chair. Navy?
Michigan's ass pounding of us is ranked 33rd.... I would say that was more impressive than slapping an academy around. Also just quickly searching that list. LSUs win over Clemson was much greater than their win at Oklahoma, everyone knew OU was a fraud.

Agree with point 1 and will add yearly embarassing loss. But I am ok with hiring Reese.

Should we beat them every year? Yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't good. Navy annually has a very good team. They aren't elite, yet they aren't pushovers. Yet everyone playfully dismisses them.

Back in 2013, I had a conversation with a couple of local sports radio hosts. They were discussing IU's upcoming schedule and chalked Navy up as an easy win. I called in and tried to explain that Navy is way better than given credit for. We had a bet and I took Navy. Guess who won? I think it was 2014 or 2015 Navy played at Ohio State. This was a close game until the 4th quarter when OSU pulled it out.

 

[IrishLax]

I admit you had me scratching my head at the 3rd most dominant win. I clicked, looked, and laughed my ass off my chair, up the wall and back on to my chair. Navy?
Michigan's ass pounding of us is ranked 33rd.... I would say that was more impressive than slapping an academy around. Also just quickly searching that list. LSUs win over Clemson was much greater than their win at Oklahoma, everyone knew OU was a fraud.

"Oh it's just Navy." They were 11-2 and finished the year ranked 20th. Their only other loss was to Memphis, who was 12-2 with a competitive NY6 game against Penn State.

If you changed their name to "Iowa" and they were 10-3 and ranked in the same ballpark then people would go "we absolutely destroyed very good ranked team." Instead, it's "slapped around an academy". Heck, even if it had been Memphis -- who is basically a carbon copy of Navy in terms of resume/results, just not an 'academy' -- it'd probably have different perception. You're just choosing to minimize the quality of the team based on the name on their jersey.

 

[ACamp1900]

"Oh it's just Navy." They were 11-2 and finished the year ranked 20th. Their only other loss was to Memphis, who was 12-2 with a competitive NY6 game against Penn State.

If you changed their name to "Iowa" and they were 10-3 and ranked in the same ballpark then people would go "we absolutely destroyed very good ranked team." Instead, it's "slapped around an academy". Heck, even if it had been Memphis -- who is basically a carbon copy of Navy in terms of resume/results, just not an 'academy' -- it'd probably have different perception. You're just choosing to minimize the quality of the team based on the name on their jersey.

Yep, we should totally just schedule four directional taxidermy and D2 schools every year... the entire SEC does that and 'they play big boy football'... we play 10+ P5 teams a year and 'We play nobody"....

ND isn't proving anything at this point. Just make perception the reality.

 

[ThePiombino]

Yep, we should totally just schedule four directional taxidermy and D2 schools every year... the entire SEC does that and 'they play big boy football'... we play 10+ P5 teams a year and 'We play nobody"....

ND isn't proving anything at this point. Just make perception the reality.

For real. We get no credit for our schedule, so with such little room for error, why bother?

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[NDRock]

Yep, we should totally just schedule four directional taxidermy and D2 schools every year... the entire SEC does that and 'they play big boy football'... we play 10+ P5 teams a year and 'We play nobody"....

ND isn't proving anything at this point. Just make perception the reality.

Been saying this for awhile. You get judged on how you do in your big games, nobody cares if you play a schedule full of pretty good teams. This year was a perfect example. We lost the two games that mattered from a national perspective. Next year it’s Clemson and Wisconsin and maybe USC. The rest are just filler.

 

[InKellyWeTrust]

Been saying this for awhile. You get judged on how you do in your big games, nobody cares if you play a schedule full of pretty good teams. This year was a perfect example. We lost the two games that mattered from a national perspective. Next year it’s Clemson and Wisconsin and maybe USC. The rest are just filler.

You are making the case for the quality of program ND has become with this type of perspective. "We always beat the teams we are supposed to beat so big deal." Well that is a big deal, ask Texas or USC or Miami or Florida St or even Oklahoma or Bama before Saban arrived or Florida under Muschamp or …

Kelly has done such a good job at normalizing success at ND that fans want more. That's great to want more but we should also enjoy the program Kelly has built.

 

[IrishLax]

Been saying this for awhile. You get judged on how you do in your big games, nobody cares if you play a schedule full of pretty good teams. This year was a perfect example. We lost the two games that mattered from a national perspective. Next year it’s Clemson and Wisconsin and maybe USC. The rest are just filler.

I agree with this, which is where it hurts ND that they schedule how they do. ACC is a lottery, and this year it was a lottery full of "meh" teams. Stanford was down, USC was down.

There were two big name programs with good teams that ND played -- lost both of them. The biggest issue is that ND looked very good against Georgia on the road but the narrative is 100% shaped on that embarrassment in Ann Arbor. Is what it is, everyone involved in that debacle has to own it.

Where ND gets hurt is that a team like Oklahoma will play like ass all year but get ranked highly because of conference loyalty/inflation. Same thing with Utah who literally did not beat a team with 8+ wins the entire season but was a game away from the playoffs despite losing to USC with their third string QB (lol). The easiest path to the playoffs right now is in the PAC12 and Big 12. Besides that, you are going to have to beat an ELITE team. ND hasn't shown they can do that, but next year they'll get a crack at Clemson like every other ACC team with playoff aspirations.

 

[NDRock]

I agree with this, which is where it hurts ND that they schedule how they do. ACC is a lottery, and this year it was a lottery full of "meh" teams. Stanford was down, USC was down.

There were two big name programs with good teams that ND played -- lost both of them. The biggest issue is that ND looked very good against Georgia on the road but the narrative is 100% shaped on that embarrassment in Ann Arbor. Is what it is, everyone involved in that debacle has to own it.

Where ND gets hurt is that a team like Oklahoma will play like ass all year but get ranked highly because of conference loyalty/inflation. Same thing with Utah who literally did not beat a team with 8+ wins the entire season but was a game away from the playoffs despite losing to USC with their third string QB (lol). The easiest path to the playoffs right now is in the PAC12 and Big 12. Besides that, you are going to have to beat an ELITE team. ND hasn't shown they can do that, but next year they'll get a crack at Clemson like every other ACC team with playoff aspirations.

One thing I'll say is ND has done a much better job scheduling the last few years. This year was really set up perfectly, IMO. Our first 6 games this year:
Louisville
Bye
New Mexico
Georgia
Virginia
Bowling Green
USC

We put our two cupcakes right before our two toughest games (Georgia, USC). I liked that we played a decent opponent first and then an easy game. By the time of the USC game, everyone had gotten reps in the games because of the two blowouts. After USC we had a bye and then Michigan. Contrast that with Kelly's first season where we started out like this:

Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Stanford
Boston College
Pitt

All P5 schools, no cupcakes to guarantee a blowout and rest your guys. Terrible scheduling. Next year's schedule is also good (IMO), though we do play an extra ACC game. I would have preferred another game similar to W. Michigan, like the two we had this year.

 

[ACamp1900]

One thing I'll say is ND has done a much better job scheduling the last few years.

Agreed. At very least with the grind,..

 

[condoms SUCk]

We are ahead of usc and Koon's second team, only thing I care about

That's more like it.

 

[stlnd01]

I agree with this, which is where it hurts ND that they schedule how they do. ACC is a lottery, and this year it was a lottery full of "meh" teams. Stanford was down, USC was down.

It’s not just the lottery. The ACC itself right now is 13 “meh” teams and Clemson. So if you don’t play Clemson the whole conference does you zero good. But also you don’t get to win it, or get the the auto-bid to an NY6 (Virginia going to the Orange Bowl while we got Camping World was the biggest hose job of all at the end of this season.)

Also Stanford and USC both being down simultaneously really hurts us, schedule-wise. They just become two more dangerous teams that we get no credit for beating. And usually they’re our best shot at a quality win to end the season, unless they suck in which case all anyone remembers is the Michigan game.

 

[phork]

Should we beat them every year? Yes, but that doesn't mean they aren't good. Navy annually has a very good team. They aren't elite, yet they aren't pushovers. Yet everyone playfully dismisses them.

Back in 2013, I had a conversation with a couple of local sports radio hosts. They were discussing IU's upcoming schedule and chalked Navy up as an easy win. I called in and tried to explain that Navy is way better than given credit for. We had a bet and I took Navy. Guess who won? I think it was 2014 or 2015 Navy played at Ohio State. This was a close game until the 4th quarter when OSU pulled it out.

You guys are missing the point. I never said they were bad, in recent years its been a good win. Despite national pundits saying its just Navy. In the eye of the beholder its just Navy. Perception is that its just Navy. Staubach is not coming back any time soon.

What I was referring to is having the 3rd "most dominant win".

"Oh it's just Navy." They were 11-2 and finished the year ranked 20th. Their only other loss was to Memphis, who was 12-2 with a competitive NY6 game against Penn State.

If you changed their name to "Iowa" and they were 10-3 and ranked in the same ballpark then people would go "we absolutely destroyed very good ranked team." Instead, it's "slapped around an academy". Heck, even if it had been Memphis -- who is basically a carbon copy of Navy in terms of resume/results, just not an 'academy' -- it'd probably have different perception. You're just choosing to minimize the quality of the team based on the name on their jersey.

See above.

 

[ACamp1900]

You guys are missing the point. I never said they were bad, in recent years its been a good win. Despite national pundits saying its just Navy. In the eye of the beholder its just Navy. Perception is that its just Navy. Staubach is not coming back any time soon.

What I was referring to is having the 3rd "most dominant win".



See above.

This is true... drives me nuts... No matter no many times Navy proves it can go toe to toe with big programs the national perception is simply "ND plays service academies"

 

[Legacy]

Notre Dame has been 15-1 against ACC opponents in the regular season over the last three years covering our rotation through all the ACC teams. We defeated the top two teams in the Coastal last year. Clemson is the only ACC team that may consistently compete with ND.

Without the Michigan loss, we would have been in the conversation for a Playoff spot. A one loss ND finishes in the second half of the top ten. A two loss ND finishes on the outside of the top ten.

 

[phork]

Notre Dame has been 15-1 against ACC opponents in the regular season over the last three years covering our rotation through all the ACC teams. We defeated the top two teams in the Coastal last year. Clemson is the only ACC team that may consistently compete with ND.

Without the Michigan loss, we would have been in the conversation for a Playoff spot. A one loss ND finishes in the second half of the top ten. A two loss ND finishes on the outside of the top ten.

Michigan did us a favour really. Beating Michigan would have meant that ND was in over OU and would have gotten the Burreaux treatment in the playoff.

 

[stlnd01]

Michigan did us a favour really. Beating Michigan would have meant that ND was in over OU and would have gotten the Burreaux treatment in the playoff.

I don’t know about that. Our best win still would’ve been ranked in the 20s and they’d have Baylor. They’d have a conference championship, which for some reason matters to people. And voters would hold our loss last year against us in ways they don’t seem to care about for Oklahoma.
Georgia, too, would’ve had a case to get in ahead of us.

Most likely we’d have landed in the Cotton Bowl to end our NY6 drought against Memphis. It’s funny b/c at the time a lot of people predicted that’s where we’d go regardless of the outcome of the Michigan game, but I guess they weren’t counting on a blowout and then a pileup of two-loss teams in front of us.

 

[IrishLax]

Michigan did us a favour really. Beating Michigan would have meant that ND was in over OU and would have gotten the Burreaux treatment in the playoff.

I think we would've been 5th almost surely.

And then the good news is we would've gotten to play in the Orange vs Florida (winnable game) while complaining about getting left out with Oklahoma getting murdered.

Alas, we got our ass beat. The real "bizzaro world" would've been ND beating Georgia on that last drive but getting smoked by Michigan. No clue how that would've played out 11-1 versus conference champ Oklahoma 12-1.

 

[zelezo vlk]

I think we would've been 5th almost surely.

And then the good news is we would've gotten to play in the Orange vs Florida (winnable game) while complaining about getting left out with Oklahoma getting murdered.

Alas, we got our ass beat. The real "bizzaro world" would've been ND beating Georgia on that last drive but getting smoked by Michigan. No clue how that would've played out 11-1 versus conference champ Oklahoma 12-1.

I thought it was confirmed that the ACC slot would always be filled by UVA or Va Tech and not ND? Basically it would've been a rematch with Va Tech or UVA.