Look at how easy our schedule is!

[Kak7304]

http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2010/Internet/toughest schedule/9games_cumm.pdf

 

[irish4ever]

http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2010/Internet/toughest schedule/9games_cumm.pdf

Going off straight W-L is rather subject. Navy is listed as #124 and they beat ND like an unwanted step-child. Army is listed as #162; so we'll have to wait to see how the saga plays out.

 

[chadder20]

Going off straight W-L is rather subject. Navy is listed as #124 and they beat ND like an unwanted step-child. Army is listed as #162; so we'll have to wait to see how the saga plays out.

It's a simple strength of schedule, it has nothing to do with how good a team is... ND is going to have a problem with Army due to the fact they have a run first offense with a mobile QB. Their offense looks similar to Tulsa. They handled Utah because they have a north/south offense and the east/west speed isn't as critical like it is with option type offenses. ND's defense is good when it comes to north/south teams.

 

[Irish Houstonian]

Poor Savannah St. has the #22 toughest schedule in the country...

 

[IrishBlood81]

Poor Savannah St. has the #22 toughest schedule in the country...

LOL I was gonna say !

and Oregon is down at #144?!?!?!? For real?! And their ranked #1? Jeez



81

 

[General Colon Bowel]

This guy is one of the computers that gets used in the BCS rankings. I think his SOS ratings are more complex. According to him we have the 4th hardest schedule in the country so far.
Colley's Bias Free College Football Rankings

 

[Old Man Mike]

The "funny" thing about this is that at the beginning of the season people were saying that our first six games were the cumulatively strongest in the country [and those teams have stayed pretty solid], and yet now you have the characters on the ESPN "experts" bad-mouthing ND for having a poor schedule. David Pollack really surprises me for his apparent prejudice against Notre Dame while being fairly insightful as a color analyst. I admit S-O-S like listed above doesn't tell you a lot, but it should at least shut up wide-between-the-teeth crap spouters from saying we haven't played anybody.

 

[DillonHall]

Who cares? We're 5-5.

 

[I'mgullible]

Creative scheduling can create wins. Appeasing the TV crowd and ignorant fans who want to brag about the tuffest schedule creates injuries to your football team and a 5-5 record, and years of mediocrity. The Irish need to get more creative with the scheduling and quit paying attention to media, if that is what they are doing.

 

[JayRock]

Creative scheduling can create wins. Appeasing the TV crowd and ignorant fans who want to brag about the tuffest schedule creates injuries to your football team and a 5-5 record, and years of mediocrity. The Irish need to get more creative with the scheduling and quit paying attention to media, if that is what they are doing.

Don't think it's getting any better. We have series' with Miami, Oklahoma, Texas, and more coming in the next few seasons.

 

[DillonHall]

Creative scheduling can create wins. Appeasing the TV crowd and ignorant fans who want to brag about the tuffest schedule creates injuries to your football team and a 5-5 record, and years of mediocrity. The Irish need to get more creative with the scheduling and quit paying attention to media, if that is what they are doing.

Exactly.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Our scheduling is an amalgam of sustaining old rivalries and positioning ourselves for exposure in key recruiting areas. Have you noticed a coming presence in the two major areas of Texas and southern Florida? The only "creativity" we end up having is trying to insert so-called easier games between the monster ones. With the restrictions we have, that's tough to do. That's why I say play Army in Yankee Stadium or Cowboy Stadium etc every year, and keep on with my school WMU.

 

[I'mgullible]

Our scheduling is an amalgam of sustaining old rivalries and positioning ourselves for exposure in key recruiting areas. Have you noticed a coming presence in the two major areas of Texas and southern Florida? The only "creativity" we end up having is trying to insert so-called easier games between the monster ones. With the restrictions we have, that's tough to do. That's why I say play Army in Yankee Stadium or Cowboy Stadium etc every year, and keep on with my school WMU.

That makes sense. But why not schedule Army, Air Force and Navy every year? I have heard that Notre Dame is the biggest per capita ROTC program after those schools. Make it a military league. Why go after Miami, Texas, Oklahoma etc..? There are other schools in those states.

And why be bound to the traditional games? Why not Indiana or Northwestern?

I guess that is why I am not the AD at Notre Dame.

 

[dskoo65]

well, nobody will be saying ND has a weak scedule in 2012

Sept. 1 Navy (Dublin, Ireland)
Sept. 8 PURDUE
Sept. 15 at Michigan State
Sept. 22 MICHIGAN
Sept. 29 Open Date
Oct. 6 MIAMI (Soldier Field, Chicago)
Oct. 13 STANFORD
Oct. 20 BYU
Oct. 27 at Oklahoma
Nov. 3 PITTSBURGH
Nov. 10 at Boston College
Nov. 17 WAKE FOREST
Nov. 24 at USC

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

well, nobody will be saying ND has a weak scedule in 2012

Sept. 1 Navy (Dublin, Ireland)
Sept. 8 PURDUE
Sept. 15 at Michigan State
Sept. 22 MICHIGAN
Sept. 29 Open Date
Oct. 6 MIAMI (Soldier Field, Chicago)
Oct. 13 STANFORD
Oct. 20 BYU
Oct. 27 at Oklahoma
Nov. 3 PITTSBURGH
Nov. 10 at Boston College
Nov. 17 WAKE FOREST
Nov. 24 at USC

That schedule is hands down the toughest schedule of anyone in years assuming that Miami is back to form, Oklahoma is still a power to be reckoned with and USC and Stanford are still tough.

 

[Old Man Mike]

First time I saw that schedule I just said "Ouch!!". PLEASE let us not get on Kelly's back if the team doesn't roll to a sparkling record that season! Nobody, I don't care if you're talking Alabama, could survive that monster. What-in-the-H*ll were the schedulers thinking?? Maybe a few of those people will drop off a bit [a la Wake], but whew...!!

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

First time I saw that schedule I just said "Ouch!!". PLEASE let us not get on Kelly's back if the team doesn't roll to a sparkling record that season! Nobody, I don't care if you're talking Alabama, could survive that monster. What-in-the-H*ll were the schedulers thinking?? Maybe a few of those people will drop off a bit [a la Wake], but whew...!!

I honestly don't think there is a program out there that could survive this kind of schedule unscathed. I love that we play some of our rivalries, but c'mon.., seriously!!! This schedule is ridiculous. I agree with you too, that BK needs a little wiggle room as far as the W-L record goes.

 

[IrishinSyria]

That makes sense. But why not schedule Army, Air Force and Navy every year? I have heard that Notre Dame is the biggest per capita ROTC program after those schools. Make it a military league. Why go after Miami, Texas, Oklahoma etc..? There are other schools in those states.

And why be bound to the traditional games? Why not Indiana or Northwestern?

I guess that is why I am not the AD at Notre Dame.

First of all, Northwestern is no cupcake.

Second, it's increasingly tough to predict who the good and bad teams will be. When we scheduled UCONN for 09, do you think anybody thought they had a chance to beat us?

Third, I like playing tough schedules. College football takes place over three months. I like winning, I really do, but watching ND play teams like Tulsa isn't really all that fun (and yes, I'm aware they beat us). I don't want us gaming the system, I want us in sweat-inducing, hair-pulling, edge-of-your-seat, rivalry games. Think Michigan or Michigan St. this year. Or UCLA, Tennessee and USC a few years ago. We lost 3 out of 5 of those games, but man, they were fights worth watching. Who wants to see Secretly-Employed Conference athletes beating up on D-1AA schools 2 weeks a year? Not me.

Finally, do you seriously want us to play 3 service academies a year? You realize playing Navy means sacrificing 2 players a year for the sake of tradition, right? Those option teams are a bitch to play, and I'm sure there's not one guy on our roster who wishes we could tack on Air Force to round out the trifecta this year.

 

[Old Man Mike]

Syria, I admire the toughness that you bring to the board in your typical outlook, but my concern is not gaming the system but giving the players occasional softer opponents so that everyone's not in the hospital by game seven. I just think that it's asking a bit much of these guys' bodies to hold up if every game was a bloodbath. We had a lot of that very thing this year. Even Kelly expressed concern before the season at what the first six weeks looked like.

 

[IrishinSyria]

Syria, I admire the toughness that you bring to the board in your typical outlook, but my concern is not gaming the system but giving the players occasional softer opponents so that everyone's not in the hospital by game seven. I just think that it's asking a bit much of these guys' bodies to hold up if every game was a bloodbath. We had a lot of that very thing this year. Even Kelly expressed concern before the season at what the first six weeks looked like.

This year was tough because we were implementing a very new system against a rough opening schedule. Let's look at 2012's "monster" schedule.

Sept. 1 Navy (Dublin, Ireland)

Navy is tough, but only because they play the option and seem to get up for us. Realistically, you have to put them on the same level as a bottom tier big ten team.

Sept. 8 PURDUE

Bottom Tier Big 10 team

Sept. 15 at Michigan State

Tough game if they stay on course, but I think mid tier big 10 is more likely.

Sept. 22 MICHIGAN

Huge question mark. Could be great if Denard Robinson is in his third year as a starter, could be terrible if they're in the middle of a coaching change.
Sept. 29 Open Date

Oct. 6 MIAMI (Soldier Field, Chicago)

Likely our second toughest game all year, but Chicago is basically a home game for ND.

Oct. 13 STANFORD

Again, huge question mark. What's the future like for Stanford post Luck. Nevermind Harbaugh.

Oct. 20 BYU

You want an easy win? Barring a huge unforeseen, this is it. BYU has to be an easy game for us if we want to be taken seriously.

Oct. 27 at Oklahoma

This should be a hard game.

Nov. 3 PITTSBURGH

Pitt is good inconsistently at best. It's impossible to know what they'll be like in 2012, but this is the type of game we'd have to play and win if we were in a conference.

Nov. 10 at Boston College

What goes for Pitt, goes for BC.

Nov. 17 WAKE FOREST

Bottom of the SEC barrel. We want to be a major football program? We have to win games like this.

Nov. 24 at USC

I know, USC sounds scary. By this point, they're going to be ravaged by the Bush sanctions. They might have a few scary good athletes, but USC should be a gimme for us by 2012.

Bottom line, teams like Miami, Pitt, and Stanford you're going to have to play in any conference. Oklahoma is probably an elite team, but unless Miami or Stanford keep improving, they're the only one I see on this schedule.

So by my count, I've got one team that doesn't easily fit into a conference (Navy). two teams that should be considered bottom level in any BCS conference (Purdue, BYU). 6 that are above average (Michigan, Michigan St., Pitt, BC, Wake, USC). 2 that have a lot of potential (Stanford, Miami) but are not elite yet and 1 that is probably going to be great (Oklahoma).

It seems challenging, yes. But not that much more challenging than a hard Big 10, SEC, or Pac-12 schedule. It's tough to predict year to year what teams are going to be good, so a schedule that looks hard right now could turn to cupcakes by the time we hit 2012. Conversely, a schedule like last year's was supposed to be easy. And then UCONN, Navy, Pitt, and Stanford all came out of nowhere and had really solid years.

 

[lookingdeadred]

Definitely play a tough schedule

Definitely play a tough schedule

but tough does not mean suicidal.

Syria, I admire the toughness that you bring to the board in your typical outlook, but my concern is not gaming the system but giving the players occasional softer opponents so that everyone's not in the hospital by game seven. I just think that it's asking a bit much of these guys' bodies to hold up if every game was a bloodbath. We had a lot of that very thing this year. Even Kelly expressed concern before the season at what the first six weeks looked like.