FWIW, the LA Times just called Notre Dame "Cowards"
Headlined: "LA Times is Lowering the Boom on the Irish."
It is a Paywall article but since it was reachable via Twitter, I copied and pasted below. One can argue that it's a "homer" article, but I personally enjoyed it.
Column: Notre Dame’s leaders are cowards for backing out of USC football rivalry
The world of college football may be awash in uncertainty, but the last several weeks have proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Nobody runs like Notre Dame.
When the Irish got jobbed by the College Football Playoff committee and insanely were left out of the CFP, they refused to play another game this season.
Notre Dame ran from the Pop Tarts Bowl.
Then came Monday’s announcement that Notre Dame no longer will regularly play USC, essentially ending a 100-year-old rivalry because the Irish didn’t want to change the dates of the game.
Notre Dame ran from the Trojans.
Call them the Fightin’ Chickens, a once-proud Irish program that demands acquiescence or it will take its ball and go home.
The Irish could have played USC at the beginning of the season, but refused. The Irish could have kept the rivalry alive with a scheduling tweak that would have helped both teams, but refused.
Lots of folks are going to blame USC and coach Lincoln Riley for butchering a Knute Rockne-born tradition that accounted for 78 straight games, not counting 2020, the COVID-19 year.
That’s wrong. Nobody has been more critical of Riley than this space, but he’s not the bad guy here.
Anybody who felt the buzz around the CFP first-round games last weekend would attest, this is where USC needs to be playing. If the Trojans truly want to return to greatness, being selected for the CFP is the goal. Not beating Notre Dame. Not even beating UCLA. It’s all about the tournament.
USC needs to put itself in the best possible position to be playing on a mid-December weekend, and that means no longer being the only Big Ten school to play a major nonconference game in the middle of the season or later.
The schedule has become tough enough. The Trojans don’t need to make it tougher with the kind of game nobody else in their conference is playing.
They need Notre Dame in August, not in late October or mid-November.
But, as it turns out, Notre Dame believes it doesn’t need USC at all.
The Irish signed a deal with the CFP that stipulates, beginning next year, if they are ranked in the top 12, they are guaranteed a playoff berth. They can get in the playoffs without risking a loss to the Trojans. They can play it safe and schedule easy and back right in.
USC doesn’t have that luxury. USC isn’t guaranteed squat. USC has a 2026 schedule that even without Notre Dame is a nightmare.
Home games against Ohio State and Oregon. Road games at Indiana and Penn State.
USC doesn’t need a midseason game against Notre Dame making that road even harder.
Jennifer Cohen, the USC athletic director, said as much in a recently posted open letter to the Trojans community.
“USC is the only team in the Big Ten to play a nonconference road game after Week 4 in either of the past two seasons,” she wrote. “USC is also the only team to play a nonconference game after Week 4 in both seasons.”
Trojans fans love the rivalry. The college football world loves the rivalry. It’s Anthony Davis, it’s Carson Palmer, it’s the Bush Push, it has won Heismans and cemented championships.
But times have changed. The landscape is evolving. Everything that college football once represented is up for debate. Even the most venerable of traditions is subject to adjustments.
That’s what the Trojans wanted to do. Not eliminate, but adjust. But Notre Dame football adjusts for no one.
It was indeed a travesty that the two-loss Irish, winners of their last 10 games by double digits, did not get a spot in the national tournament. By the end of the season they were arguably one of the four best teams in the country. They easily could have captured the crown.
Tulane? James Madison? Are you kidding me? As the opening games revealed — the two AAA teams were outscored 92-44 — there is no place for Cinderellas in the CFP.
But that was no reason for Notre Dame to back out of the bowls completely, sacrificing the final game in the careers of the Irish players who will not be going to the NFL just to make a whining point that resonated with nobody.
And, besides, there’s another way Notre Dame could have been a lock for the playoffs.
Join a conference, fool!
By keeping the football team out of the otherwise Irish-infected Atlantic Coast Conference, Notre Dame is raking in big TV bucks that it doesn’t have to share. But this means the Irish are subject to the whims of a committee that could, and did, unconscionably leave them out.
Notre Dame always wants it both ways. It wants its independence, but also wants to dictate a schedule filled with conference-affiliated teams.
In demanding that their game be played in August or not at all, USC finally called Notre Dame’s bluff.
And the Irish did what they recently have done best.
They ran.
The team that initially will replace USC on the Notre Dame schedule?
It’s Brigham Young, the same team that Notre Dame snubbed in the Pop Tarts Bowl.
Put that in your toaster and cook it.
BOOM!!!
Link:
Link to tweet
47 Replies
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Vippie1
7mo
I mean once a decade if has been a meaningful game in terms of national interest. But nothing like the 1960s and 1970s.
Sure it is a rivalry, it would be nice if it wasn't going offline for a few years, but it really isnt a big deal. It's specialness waned a long time ago except to the PR departments at the respective schools.
(In response to this post by VTChip)
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Stech
7mo
eventually get after you now. :-)
(In response to this post by Vippie1)
7mo
It appears USC is the one who doesn't want to keep things the way they always have been.
I still don't know what SC was thinking going to the B1G. Except money of course.
(In response to this post by VTChip)
7mo
It's clear the CFP is a glamour show for SEC and Big 10 teams with 3 or fewer losses, and ACC/B12 teams with 1 or fewer. You lose more than that, you're likely not getting in. Nobody from the SEC, Big 10, or Big 12 that has a CFP agenda is going to be willing to schedule ND in October and November now. I'm inclined to believe that very few going forward will be willing to even schedule them in August and September with a 9 game conference gauntlet to get through. That's the price of independence.
It's a coin flip whether the ACC or the MAC games will generate higher quality opponents.
(In response to this post by VTChip)
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SMU Pony
7mo
SMU 11-2 at large...CFP
Miami 10-2 at large...CFP
You should try being right about something some time!
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
Thank God above that we only have 3-4 more years of having to weather the embarrassment of being in a conference with SMU.
(In response to this post by SMU Pony)
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SMU Pony
7mo
It's easily the most entertaining thing on this site. Just uninformed, delusional nonsense
I do find it funny that you continually root for the demise of the ACC. If/when that happens, there's a decent chance that Alabama and Georgia are travelling to Charlottesville for conference games while VT is in no better spot than they are now. Would you be happy then?
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
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2hhoop3
7mo
unexpected from you but, it would carry more weight if VT actually performed or if SMU was not performing better than VT since SMU's entry into the ACC. What's your real beef with SMU?
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
every single ACC conference game, so, frankly, their conference record means about jack squat to me in the grand scheme. VT hasn't lost to them yet, and God willing, they won't before this conference implodes and they're back to the G5 trash heap where they belong.
There's a list of reasons a mile long why SMU was iced out of the Big 12 when the SWC imploded, and nobody else has stooped to adding them since then. Not only are they the grandfather of all no-honor cheater programs, which is embarrassing enough on its own, they are a tiny, private school, in TEXAS, and if that weren't bad enough, they're the 6th or 7th TV draw in that state, depending on who's playing. Texas State probably has more fans in Texas than SMU.
The fact that a SMU was allowed into the ACC will stand as a testament to the cowardly, short sighted idiots currently running this conference, and an omen of its impending demise, which cannot come quick enough.
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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2hhoop3
7mo
While it may not mean much to you, wins and money are relevant to the ACC. SMU has been iced out of the Big 12 for a simple reason, those conference schools were scared to compete against the SMU resources. As far as what SMU's testament will be to the ACC the answer is still TBD, your opinion notwithstanding.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
getting blown out in front of a national TV audience in the first game by 30 points. They're also not helping the ACC by losing to each and every team they play OOC with a pulse. They're also not helping the ACC in terms of TV viewership because they're the seventh draw in their own state at best (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Houston, and Baylor are all easily bigger TV draws,) they have no fans, and nobody watches their games. They're doing absolutely NOTHING for the ACC.
SMU is nothing but an even bigger, smellier turd dropped into a punchbowl that was already overly full of turds.
** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 12/30/2025, 10:44:08 AM
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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2hhoop3
7mo
is more with the ACC not holding up its end of the bargain. You still ignore the monetary contributions as well which is something when compared to your claim of nothing. If things go as projected your misery will cease along about 2030/2031, although you may not want to hold your breath that what might come will be better.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
which isn't really "free" in any sense of the word since every single ACC member is paying remuneration for that money in the form of travelling to Texas and suffering the indignity of having their names and brands associated with and their programs competing against a G5 school with about 200 fans and zero TV viewership that nobody else in the country wanted to be associated with for over 40 years, when divided up between each member, including Stanford and Cal and Notre Dame getting their partial shares, is little more than a drop in the pool. It's nominal.
The ACC can't "hold up its end of the bargain." When it comes to the relationship with SMU, the ACC has no "end." The conference was fleeced. The ACC is really getting NOTHING out of SMU being a member; in fact, they're more or less PAYING for SMU's membership when all things are considered. This is the case because the ACC is run by smooth brained idiots who can't help but step on rakes and smash their faces over, and over, and over, and over, and to make matter worse, those idiots in charge are taking dictation not from the members that actually want to compete on a national state, but from the welfare queens at Boston College and Wake Forest who aren't interested in doing anything except keeping on cashing media rights checks with the same amount on them. This conference can't implode soon enough. I'm dead serious when I say this - I don't care what the alternative is - any reasonably conceivable alternative would be better than a continuation of the status quo with the ACC.
** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 12/30/2025, 11:27:15 AM
** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 12/30/2025, 11:28:33 AM
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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2hhoop3
7mo
despite your persistent claims to the contrary. The real numbers will become public with this year and subsequent year's reports. Why do you continue to follow and beat yourself up if it gives you this much disgust?
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
Even at the highest end, if a member gets full media rights shares and takes the maximum amount from the viewership payout, that's $3.75 million dollars a year. And, that extra money is not "free." It comes with a cost. Let's set aside the reputational damage that comes with having one's brand associated with a giant turd like SMU, whose brand in the mind of the average person immediately conjures up the identifiers "G5," "CHEATING," and "DEATH PENALTY," VT will spend that amount to send the football team to Dallas ONE TIME. So, yeah, forgive me if I'm not exactly convinced that everyone in the ACC is laughing all the way to the bank.
Unless you don't know how to use Google, it's 100% apparent why SMU was added, and it wasn't because members would benefit financially - it was because the boosters at Wake Forest were freaking out that FSU and Clemson would win their lawsuits, leave the ACC, that Wake Forest would not be able to keep cashing checks unless the ACC had at least 14 members, and they called a favor in with the boosters at NCSU, and the NCSU board changed its vote. Like every other F-Up in the history of this stupid conference, it was back room North Carolina politics causing the problems. This was widely reported in the Raleigh papers for anyone that bothered to pay any attention.
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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SMU Pony
7mo
Hahaha. Man, that's insane. Are they chartering A380s for each position group?
Honestly one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen claimed on the internet
Please keep posting about SMU. It's hilarious.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
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2hhoop3
7mo
a WAG until the specifics are known but, it is not as big of a joke as your contention that any single school would vote to throw WFU, BC or others a lifeline. Your disdain for the deal is noted, your understanding of the motivations questionable at best as your reach on reputational brand damage caused by association with SMU shows.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
the article that I linked either, which is fine. You can ignore everything that flies contrary to the narrative you've decided on, but I'm not just making all this stuff up. Look, I'll even help you out with the media rights money, just click the link below, and enjoy actually researching something for once.
SMU is what SMU is. There's a reason that no other reputable conference would have anything to do with them for 40 years, and there's a reason why the ACC all of a sudden decided to. Whether you want to learn the reasons for yourself is entirely up to you.
** Edited by Baltimore_Hokie at 12/30/2025, 12:53:41 PM
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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2hhoop3
7mo
just as important I have talked to people actually close enough to the discussions to know what went on. Believe as you wish and we'll all be able to see how you look once things are said and done. You will likely end up looking just as you did with your "one loss theory" that kicked off this latest debate.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
7mo
And, Miami was only placed with two losses was because (A) the ACC, in typical fashion, has the most asinine possible tiebreaker rules possible that allowed 5-loss Duke to play in its championship game instead of 2-loss Miami; (B) UVA, in typical fashion, pissed down their legs and lost to 5-loss Duke; (C) the CFP committee, the CFP being owned part and parcel by ESPN, knew it could not entirely exclude the ACC from the field.
Who knows why SMU was placed last year with two losses; all I remember is that everyone thought it was pretty stupid that they were placed instead of Alabama, and then they proved the committee's choice to be pretty stupid by getting 30 pieced by Penn State in a game that was never competitive for a single second of play.
So, your little "nanny nanny boo boo you were wrong, doo doo head" gotcha about 2 loss ACC teams making it into the CFP is, frankly, pretty dumb. The cold reality is that unless/until there's expansion beyond 12, the ACC is going to be a one bid league 90+% of the time.
I can't wait to see some of the posters on here, not to mention the Wake Forest, Boston College, and SMU parasites crying when the ACC implodes into a G5 a few years. It's going to be absolutely glorious.
(In response to this post by 2hhoop3)
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2hhoop3
7mo
await the day when you can finally gloat about being right versus making additional excuses or reaches to cover your obviously emotional and not well considered rants.
(In response to this post by Baltimore_Hokie)
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TerryD
7mo
This is all Lincoln Riley not wanting to keep getting his ass beat.
The rest is cover. USC was already caught in a lie about the MOU.
(In response to this post by VTChip)
7mo
to accept reality. ND arrogance is beyond belie!!! PLEASE TAKE YOU NON-FOOTBALL SPORTS TO ANOTHER CONFERENCE.
(In response to this post by TerryD)
7mo
But I'll just touch on the main one. The writer blames ND for the series ending, and then says this just a few sentences later.
"If the Trojans truly want to return to greatness, being selected for the CFP is the goal. Not beating Notre Dame. Not even beating UCLA. It’s all about the tournament."
"USC needs to put itself in the best possible position to be playing on a mid-December weekend, and that means no longer being the only Big Ten school to play a major nonconference game in the middle of the season or later.
The schedule has become tough enough. The Trojans don’t need to make it tougher with the kind of game nobody else in their conference is playing."
The writer doesn't even know what they are arguing. They just wanted to rant against ND while at the same time saying ND is not important (along with local rival UCLA). Also, my understanding is that officially it was USC that made the decision and cancelled the series.
I have no love for ND personally (will never forget the Fiesta bowl snub when we had Vick). But the amount of ND hate is excessive at times and gets tiring (including on here when it becomes repetitive).
** Edited by HokieAl at 12/23/2025, 2:26:38 PM
(In response to this post by VTChip)
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Stech
7mo
difference.
I grew up an ND fan (family heritage involved), but it's completely out of control how the rest of college football including the SEC and B1G allow the favoritism. The latest being is that would knock out a higher ranked team because of their name. UConn is an independent and they could have said independents, but had they had the audacity to just say it's for Notre Dame. Hopefully you can understand that.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
7mo
What I don’t understand is why anyone would be focused on ND at this point of cfb. Teams like Alabama are getting much more preferential treatment.
ND getting special rules is logical for me because this entire sport has sold its soul for more money. ND is unique in that they consistently get strong 1m + viewership every single game no matter who they play. That makes them dependable for advertisers, and thus valuable for the media and for the sport. So yes, they are going to get special treatment in order to make more money off of the brand.
Of course I don’t like it. But we have entire conferences getting special treatment now. And that is on top of the blue blood treatment in everything from rules, to enforcement, to scheduling, to media coverage, to playoff selection. The sport has never been fair. But the modern version is tilted so far towards unequal treatment that the special ND rules are far from the worst thing out there. If anything, the current ND rules are possibly the most logical and reasonable that have existed in a long time.
(In response to this post by Stech)
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TerryD
7mo
..the ND hate is par for the course over the last sixty years.
No different than in the Seventies, just more places to see it with the internet.
(In response to this post by HokieAl)
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Hokester
7mo
I don't blame ND one bit for cashing in on what the rest of college football gives them but this year finally showed a crack in ND's armour. With conferences going to 9 games it will make it even more difficult for ND to schedule decent late season games. USC ended the series for that reason. I know you are an always independent or die guy but I think the handwriting is on the wall. In the future belonging to a conference will be the only way you can insure a path to the national championship. That is your goal - right?
** Edited by Hokester at 12/25/2025, 7:25:25 AM
(In response to this post by TerryD)
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TerryD
7mo
Along with making the playoffs as an independent.
Championships? Sure, as a football independent with a high grad rate.
Winning a championship as just another cookie-cutter conference member?
Not quite as appealing.
** Edited by TerryD at 12/25/2025, 9:30:09 AM
(In response to this post by Hokester)
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Hokester
7mo
then independence would still prevail?
(In response to this post by TerryD)
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TerryD
7mo
I never want ND to bend the knee and capitulate to the damn conferences.
(In response to this post by Hokester)
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Stech
7mo
I love the school, but hate the favoritism, but you keep playing the VICTIM CARD, because it's worked for a very long time. What year did Michigan not let you in the Big 10? Next month it will be 100 years (1926), but you guys act like it was yesterday. As I have told you many times before, I no longer care if you join a conference or not, but I will keep speaking out against the favoritism. The fact that if we stick with a 12 team playoff, you could get into the playoff even if you are not the highest ranked team available. You could have said the rule was for any independent (which is still ridiculous if you beat out number 11), but no this has your name on it instead.
I love the school, I hate the favoritism!!!
(In response to this post by TerryD)
7mo
The P-2 has pretty much relegated the ACC and Big 12 to second tier status. In reality, the P-2 doesn't need Notre Dame to strengthen their football schedules. With all their power, why doesn't the B1G and SEC along with all the other conferences simply require that only schools from conferences qualify for the CFP? As for all the ACC, B1G, SEC and Big 12 schools on Notre Dame's future football schedules, why don't those schools opt out, saying they have to focus on their 9-game conference schedules and would rather play a power school from another conference. It has been done hundreds of times. How many schools on Tech's future schedules have dropped the game or series over the past decades? A dozen or more? All I'm saying is the top 4 football conferences are guilty of allowing Notre Dame to have "special treatment". If the top 4 conferences sudddenly went "cold turkey" on Notre Dame scheduling, Notre Dame would either be forced to join a power conference or lose tens of millions annually as a glorified G-5 football independent. I'm sure NBC would eventually part ways since who wants to watch Notre Dame play a schedule filled with MAC, AAC, MWC, new Pac-12, SBC teams.
(In response to this post by Stech)
H
Hokester
7mo
(In response to this post by Old Line Hokie)
T
TerryD
7mo
Not a "victim card". It just is and was.
You have never experienced sixty years of hate, so you are not qualified to comment on it.
(In response to this post by Stech)
S
Stech
7mo
that’s been working for ND so I don’t expect you to stop playing it. I will give you credit for consistency, but you have no idea what I have experienced.
Merry Christmas!!! BTW, I hope to visit my ancestors in Ireland soon that came over during the Potato Famine. They are more of a counting our blessings crowd than looking at how they were treated. One of them chose to be Joe Louis’ personal physician, in a time when the Irish and Blacks were heavily discriminated against.
However, you look at the preferential treatment as something you deserve from what happened 100 years ago, instead of the fact that Michigan and the B1G long ago gave you an offer to join, and have an open invitation now. Why would you when you keep getting preferential treatment?
(In response to this post by TerryD)
7mo
with "accommodations" now in school.
The logic is similar.
(In response to this post by Stech)
