Oct 3 | Clemson

[bkess8]

Why Notre Dame's ACC deal was genius - 'I couldn't get Jesus tickets'

 

[Irish4Life09]

Here's the thing about "SEC fans"...f**k them. Unless you are an Alabama fan, a Florida fan, an Auburn fan, or even a LSU fan you don't have a lot to be arrogant about either. You don't get to be a fan of some choke artist program like UGA or Tennessee, or some bottom dweller program like Vandy or Kentucky and puff your because other programs in your conference are good. I'm not impressed that you got smashed by Alabama on their way to the NC.

As for ND fans...yeah we can be a little arrogant but we're fans of the most important and prestigious team in CFB history. Also, we've at least been to a NC in the past few years. As for Clemson, I'm not impressed with their 1 national title from 1981. I'm starting to see that we might be playing the UGA of the ACC. No wonder I have such a natural hatred.

I might be a diehard ND fan, but I'm also a big UT fan, and you make yourself sound really stupid talking poorly of this program. 6 National Titles, 13 Conference Championships, Top 10 in wins all time,3rd in bowl appearance, 6th in bowl wins, #1 in home-field win percentage in current stadium. They also are waiting a lot less time for their next Natty than we are...just sayin.

 

[Irish Insanity]

Well you picked a good one to go to then. If I go I will let you know. Also, can't remember the poster out here that's from La. He could probably give you some good info on NO itself. I don't stray too far away from the French Quarter when I am down there.

NOLAirish?

 

[T Town Tommy]

Here's the thing about "SEC fans"...f**k them. Unless you are an Alabama fan, a Florida fan, an Auburn fan, or even a LSU fan you don't have a lot to be arrogant about either. You don't get to be a fan of some choke artist program like UGA or Tennessee, or some bottom dweller program like Vandy or Kentucky and puff your because other programs in your conference are good. I'm not impressed that you got smashed by Alabama on their way to the NC.

As for ND fans...yeah we can be a little arrogant but we're fans of the most important and prestigious team in CFB history. Also, we've at least been to a NC in the past few years. As for Clemson, I'm not impressed with their 1 national title from 1981. I'm starting to see that we might be playing the UGA of the ACC. No wonder I have such a natural hatred.

I hear what you are saying but there is such a thing as conference pride. Team first-conference second. Sounds crazy but it is what it is. And I don't really see the SEC as being much different than any other conference in that regard. It's just in football the last decade or so the SEC has been the conference that's had the most success. It's a lot like the B1G and ACC in basketball. They thump their chest when their conference is winning. I don't see a problem with any of that. Yes it goes against conventional wisdom, but that's how it is.

 

[T Town Tommy]

NOLAirish?

I think that be him. He doesn't post a lot but he should. I like reading what he has to say.

 

[greyhammer90]

I hear what you are saying but there is such a thing as conference pride. Team first-conference second. Sounds crazy but it is what it is. And I don't really see the SEC as being much different than any other conference in that regard. It's just in football the last decade or so the SEC has been the conference that's had the most success. It's a lot like the B1G and ACC in basketball. They thump their chest when their conference is winning. I don't see a problem with any of that. Yes it goes against conventional wisdom, but that's how it is.

I live in Tennessee, just lived in Georgia, and yeah it's fine to be proud of your SoS being strong, but Tennessee fans and Georgia fans take it to another level. They include themselves in a winners club that frankly they have no business including themselves in. It's tiring when they talk shit using the exploits of another team. This has been happening for years.

 

[IrishLion]

I live in Tennessee, just lived in Georgia, and yeah it's fine to be proud of your SoS being strong, but Tennessee fans and Georgia fans take it to another level. They include themselves in a winners club that frankly they have no business including themselves in. It's tiring when they talk shit using the exploits of another team. This has been happening for years.

Living in Kentucky, UK fans have to be the worst when it comes to this. Every week, they're on Facebook/Twitter crowing about the mighty SEC and how they're better than everybody... when I ask them how their team is doing, they get offended and don't really know what to say aside from "yeah well ND sucks!" It's actually pretty joyous, but extremely frustrating at the same time because I have to remind them that UK hasn't won sh*t, and so they actually don't contribute to the perception of the SEC at all.

Also, they have a wonderful time when they try to argue the strength of the conference as a whole. I like to bring up the whole myth that the SEC is a self-sustaining juggernaut, and that they should get all of the credit for beating/losing to eachother. They get all frazzled when you start to make them see some reason in things.

 

[ACamp1900]

Doesn't LSU have a terrible reputation for treatment of visiting fans?? I thought they did.

 

[koonja]

Doesn't LSU have a terrible reputation for treatment of visiting fans?? I thought they did.

I'm well versed in poor treatment from being on this site for so long. Dirt off of the shoulder.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel just published an article titled "Why Notre Dame's ACC deal was genius - 'I couldn't get Jesus tickets'":

No. 6 Notre Dame plays at No. 12 Clemson on Saturday and interest is so high that, as Tigers coach Dabo Swinney put it: "I couldn't get Jesus tickets."

This is saying something if only because Swinney is a devout Evangelical Christian who would pretty much do anything for Jesus. Of course, down in South Carolina, Jesus doesn't have his own mural to peer into the stadium and signal touchdown, the way he does in South Bend. At least not yet.

This is what happens when the Fightin' Irish come to town. You have to start measuring things by Biblical standards. Television ratings soar. Recruits flock for visits. And that secondary market overheats – lower sideline tickets on StubHub on Tuesday night were $1,200 each. The same rows were just $140 for the following week against Georgia Tech.

This is why, much to Swinney and many others' chagrin, Notre Dame football isn't joining a conference anytime soon.

As much as fans of other programs and plenty of the media like to point to the team's only sporadic success on the field of late and declare it a non-factor in the sport, the reality is Old Notre Dame can still wake up the cash registers cheering her name.

The precise hoopla that Swinney acknowledges the Irish are bringing to Clemson this weekend is the very reason the ACC extended a sweetheart deal to the program – all other sports are full members and football gets five games against conference teams a year.

As such, Notre Dame is a pseudo ACC member, getting the benefit of playing lots of games in the talent-rich Southeast while maintaining scheduling flexibility that allows it to continue to schedule nationally.

It also means the Irish don't compete in the ACC standings and aren't obligated to play in the league championship game. That automatically limits their season to 12 games a year. This rankles Swinney and others who don't think that's fair if Notre Dame wants to be considered for the College Football Playoff. If Notre Dame was in the ACC, then in good seasons it would be forced to play 13 times (with a league championship game).

"I think they should have to play 13 games," Swinney said on Tuesday. "I mean, to me, I feel, not just them, same thing with the Big 12 [which also lacks a championship game]. I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's equitable …"

"How many [teams are in the NFL]?" Swinney continued. "Thirty-two NFL teams? OK, well, if 27 of them have to play 16 games and then the other five play 15 games, well, that doesn't seem right to me, but that's the way it is."

Swinney is willing to speak his mind on all sorts of topics, and that is commendable. He's a good guy, really easy to like. It's just he probably hasn't thought this one through – he's busy with his own job after all and notes that he really doesn't care about the issue. Someone asked him a question, though, so he answered. That's fine.

It's just he – and other coaches – are completely wrong because college football has never had equitable or uniform schedules. As such, how many games are played (quantity) is far less important than who they are actually being played against (quality).

Notre Dame attempts to play an unquestionably ambitious schedule every year, filled with more than enough really challenging games. More specifically, it has never played a team from the former Division I-AA, dragging in a true cupcake. Clemson, among others, does – Wofford this year, South Carolina State next, the Citadel in 2017 and Furman in 2018.

If Notre Dame joined the ACC full-time, dropped one strong non-conference game in lieu of a patsy and then got forced into the title game, the 13-game season would be no more challenging than the current 12-game slate. It's all the same. The only difference is it would get this mind-numbing criticism to go away.

During the great conference realignment of a couple years back, though, Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame athletic director, deftly landed the current deal with the ACC.

While everyone was clamoring for the Irish to join their Midwestern neighbors in the Big Ten – they were invited multiple times – Notre Dame looked for a better option.

The chief concern was getting landlocked in a cold region with poor long-term demographic trends.

In purely football terms, Notre Dame doesn't struggle to recruit in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan now. It's local, but offers a national platform. Playing in the Big Ten would actually lessen that appeal because the upcoming nine-game conference slate the league is instituting would crush the Irish's ability to play across the country. It would suddenly be just another storied program in the area with an enormous stadium and a great fight song.

Instead Brian Kelly can play in markets – and against teams from those markets – where the best high school players are. This is a priority for every coach in America. In the case of the ACC, that means the Southeast areas of Florida, Atlanta, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. Of the current Rivals.com top 100 recruits, 32 hail from the ACC's southern states.

Meanwhile Boston College, Syracuse and Pitt allow entry into the traditional Northeast base against teams with longstanding rivalries.
More important, by playing just five ACC games a year, Notre Dame can still play two California rivalry games – Stanford and USC – continue with Navy and get Michigan State and Purdue most years. It also is able to add various other intriguing series – currently Notre Dame has one with Texas but future home-and-homes are signed with Georgia, Ohio State and Texas A&M. Michigan might even come back one day. And there is always the Shamrock Series; one-off games Notre Dame takes on the road, from Washington and Dallas to Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park.

Consider the 2016 schedule: Michigan State, Stanford, Miami, Virginia Tech, Duke and Nevada will visit South Bend. Games played elsewhere will be in Austin, Texas; New York (East Rutherford, N.J.); Raleigh, N.C.; Jacksonville, Fla.; San Antonio; and Los Angeles.

This is the best of all worlds for Notre Dame. Swarbrick couldn't have shepherded the program any better than this. He leveraged its historic power to maximize recruiting and exposure.

And while the ACC may look a little desperate for agreeing to a part-time deal with the Irish, it's already proven worth it. Last year's Notre Dame trip to Florida State was one of the most hyped and most watched games of the year.

Expect something similar for this one against Clemson, a contest so big that Dab couldn't get Jesus a ticket. That's the surest sign that Notre Dame isn't joining a conference – any conference – anytime soon.

 

[dublinirish]

Notre Dame-Clemson matchup to watch: Ronnie Stanley vs. Shaq Lawson - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN

 

[koonja]

Notre Dame-Clemson matchup to watch: Ronnie Stanley vs. Shaq Lawson - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN

This Lawson guy is the DL that Jesse Palmer said is going to be better than whoever Clemson had drafted in the top 10 last year, FWIW.

 

[dublinirish]

Scout.com - College Sports, Football Recruiting, NFL, Fantasy Advice & More Front Page

 

[Junkhead]

I hear what you are saying but there is such a thing as conference pride. Team first-conference second.

My favorite team is the SEC

 

[yankeeND]

I live in Tennessee, just lived in Georgia, and yeah it's fine to be proud of your SoS being strong, but Tennessee fans and Georgia fans take it to another level. They include themselves in a winners club that frankly they have no business including themselves in. It's tiring when they talk shit using the exploits of another team. This has been happening for years.

All of this!

 

[ACamp1900]

My favorite team is the SEC

Northwestern and Iowa won the Natty last year....

 

[T Town Tommy]

Doesn't LSU have a terrible reputation for treatment of visiting fans?? I thought they did.

I think it is more just a few drunk a-holes that give the rest of the LSU fans a bad name. Most LSU fans are very polite and go out of their way to be friendly. There were a few well documented cases in the past where some LSU fans went too far but I wouldn't use that as a standard. I see the same thing in T Town from time to time but it doesn't take long for the masses to get them straight. Funny thing for me... the most trash talk I have ever been a part of on a road game in the SEC was from Arkansas fans. Guess they take after their coach.

 

[T Town Tommy]

Notre Dame-Clemson matchup to watch: Ronnie Stanley vs. Shaq Lawson - College Football Nation Blog - ESPN

That should be a great one to watch.

 

[yankeeND]

Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel just published an article titled "Why Notre Dame's ACC deal was genius - 'I couldn't get Jesus tickets'":

Consecutive days with articles that make sense? ND must be good this year!

 

[wizards8507]

I hear what you are saying but there is such a thing as conference pride. Team first-conference second.

That's completely backwards. Red Sox fans don't cheer for the Yankees in the postseason because of "American League East pride." Think any Steelers fan is rooting for the Ravens in the postseason?

 

[T Town Tommy]

That's completely backwards. Red Sox fans don't cheer for the Yankees in the postseason because of "American League East pride." Think any Steelers fan is rooting for the Ravens in the postseason?

I don't disagree but that's how it is. You gotta remember most of the states we are talking about here are still fighting a war that ended 150 years ago. They just join forces around the common theme of football.

 

[ACamp1900]

I don't disagree but that's how it is. You gotta remember most of the states we are talking about here are still fighting a war that ended 150 years ago. They just join forces around the common theme of football.

150 years later and they still only fight on their own soil........

 

[IrishLion]

That's completely backwards. Red Sox fans don't cheer for the Yankees in the postseason because of "American League East pride." Think any Steelers fan is rooting for the Ravens in the postseason?

No, because they'll be rooting for the Bengals duh. Who Dey.

 

[T Town Tommy]

150 years later and they still only fight on their own soil........

Hard to move that many people in trailers. Best that they just come to you.

 

[Cackalacky]

That's completely backwards. Red Sox fans don't cheer for the Yankees in the postseason because of "American League East pride." Think any Steelers fan is rooting for the Ravens in the postseason?

The south is united in most everything. Its why its called the Solid South and it permeates most aspects of society from politics to sports.

 

[Dizzyphil]

I live in Tennessee, just lived in Georgia, and yeah it's fine to be proud of your SoS being strong, but Tennessee fans and Georgia fans take it to another level. They include themselves in a winners club that frankly they have no business including themselves in. It's tiring when they talk shit using the exploits of another team. This has been happening for years.

I'm in Nashville so I feel your pain. Have lived in TN 40ish of my 47 years. Watching the TN vs FL and ND vs UMass together the other night with my neighbor and he brought a friend of his that nearly exploded when TN lost (first time I have ever met him). I'm celebrating the ND win and he looks at me and says, "Well, yall got yall's a$$ whipped by Alabama in the championship".

It is the 'I got my a$$ beat so I am going to go kick your sister's butt' syndrome. I know I should of looked at him and said, do you remember the last time ND played the Vols????? But, I have a cooler head and that happened some time ago. I am concerned about the here-and-now.

But, as I said, welcome to TN or SEC country!!!!

 

[dylan020]

I'm predicting a win based solely on Watson wearing f*cking skinny jeans during his interview on ESPN. Douche.

 

[Luckylucci]

Courtesy of Jayron Kearse, "All the defensive backs saw it," Kearse said. "We actually were talking about it in a group message. We all saw it. Hey, I'm ready for the challenge. And I hope he is ready for the challenge. Because we're going to bring it."

"They're headed for a rude awakening. They haven't faced nobody like us. We'll be the best team they play all year, hands-down.

"And they've never seen (an environment) like this, not even close. They won't face one through the season."


Side note, its pretty interesting playing against some of these really talented prospects that we recruited pretty hard just a few years back.

 

[ACamp1900]

I'm in Nashville so I feel your pain. Have lived in TN 40ish of my 47 years. Watching the TN vs FL and ND vs UMass together the other night with my neighbor and he brought a friend of his that nearly exploded when TN lost (first time I have ever met him). I'm celebrating the ND win and he looks at me and says, "Well, yall got yall's a$$ whipped by Alabama in the championship".

It is the 'I got my a$$ beat so I am going to go kick your sister's butt' syndrome. I know I should of looked at him and said, do you remember the last time ND played the Vols????? But, I have a cooler head and that happened some time ago. I am concerned about the here-and-now.

But, as I said, welcome to TN or SEC country!!!!

I can't stand shit talkers and such, I never do it out right but you best believe I take it serious enough and I'm still not big enough to just bite my tongue when attacked like that...

I would have instantly dropped something like, "Yeah take it from a Vols fan to be the expert on getting your ass whipped by Bama....." in response...

 

[koonja]

Courtesy of Jayron Kearse, "All the defensive backs saw it," Kearse said. "We actually were talking about it in a group message. We all saw it. Hey, I'm ready for the challenge. And I hope he is ready for the challenge. Because we're going to bring it."

"They're headed for a rude awakening. They haven't faced nobody like us. We'll be the best team they play all year, hands-down.

"And they've never seen (an environment) like this, not even close. They won't face one through the season."


Side note, its pretty interesting playing against some of these really talented prospects that we recruited pretty hard just a few years back.

They talk more about how we talked about them than we ever talked.... If that makes any sense. Sheldon Day is going to smash some foos.