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Bama played a much more difficult schedule and the 3rd loss was in a 13th game that ND does not play.

The ACC for every sport but football and ice hockey where ND plays in the Big Ten. Parasites!

Thanks for the post, and congratulations on a great season. You do wear purple better than that flea infested bunch up north.

Last week we thought Lane Kiffin, and his nonsense were going to be the stories of the off-season. Then it was Penn State bungling their coaching search. Then just a day or so ago, it was going to be about Notre Dame, and the CFP format likely changing. It's like being a Cowboys fan in the nineties. Imagine a world where Michigan hires DeBoer, and Lane Kiffin goes to Alabama. I don't know if I was at a big job making big money, if I'd want to take that job right now. It's a top ten , or five job. But, there's a lot of mess right now. None of us know who knew what, or if there's more. Michigan students were asked what the team should do. One said "Hire that guy with the glasses at Indiana, just give him a billion dollars". Another said "Defund the whole program". The students are split.

At some point I think it would be reasonable for the P4 conferences to tell Notre Dame to join a conference or face the very real prospect of not being scheduled by teams in the the P4 leagues. Probably ND would opt for the ACC--if I am not mistaken, they are already there in basketball and perhaps other sports as well. They could probably retain their private network, at least to some degree. I don't think the SEC required Texas to completely give theirs up. In so doing ND would have to poop or get off the pot and earn their way into the dance rather than relying on any preferential treatment which will become stale real quickly in the modern era.

Then don't read the "real-life" posts. People are just reporting the news...

Even more important, why would a player with a potential NFL future go to a school that will not provide TV exposure?

Last year, I was worried about Ohio St and for good reason. (and the 2014 national championship too) 2011, I was worried about LSU. Natty 2010, was worried about Auburn. 2022, Ducks got spanked by Georgia. In big games where they came out on top, Ducks beat Oklahoma and Michigan in 2006 and 2007. Also beat Fla st in the 2014 playoff first round. What I am NOT worried about this playoff season - is the Ducks getting physically dominated. This is what makes this year so much different than all the other years. Oregon has BEASTS for linemen and linebackers. And the skills players are as good as anybody else's if not better. From 2019 to 2024, Oregon was good, but not good all the way through as a total team. This year, they are good at every position, but the pass rush could be better. I think we will see the Ducks peak in the playoffs. We will see the Ducks do to teams what the good teams used to do to the Ducks. That is, control the line of scrimmage.

That is one hundred percent true, it's almost hard to conceive that the athletic director could be that foolish. Also, there is no written rule about their inclusion if they are top 12. It's a Notre Dame line of thinking, if it was in place, we all know Notre Dame would be taking everybody to court. What they are doing, is making the B1G and SEC rethink Notre Dame having a seat. We all know who controls the playoff. You know Sankey, or Petitti will gladly make additional space for one of their programs, and Notre Dame isn't the end all. Of the top 25 most viewed games in 2025, Notre Dame had one. It was against Miami. Turns out that people won't just turn in to see Notre Dame crush West Texas, Apple Tech, Moogerville, or ND Poly Tech. Maybe the Irish can get a deal with the new PAC Who. I'm sure people will tune in to see Notre Dame vs Boise State..... Well actually no, we got that matchup this past year. It didn't draw a top 100 ranked game this year. Utah vs UCLA had a better rating.

Dang it--Never said I was noble.

Mor like the creepy step-cousin bully whose nose I broke at my great uncle's funeral when I was 13... Andagain 2 years later, when he was suffering short term memory loss! And yes, he was a Beaver fan.

Oregon State are our brothers? No, we're NOT related....

Hate to see any injuries, but any reduction in the pass rusher could end up a huge benefit for the Ducks.

Speedy recovery Mr. Daley!

Lol, thank you. I won't be here after our game, so by all means, please deactivate it if you want! But yea, I was a sucker for that Nike deal. Without question the best sports colors are green and yellow (look no further than the now defunct Oakland Athletics). So I was a superficial Oregon fan from a distance and I've enjoyed seeing you all bust into the top tier of CFB the last 15+ years. And the handle was purely to try to convince you I wasn't here to troll. But also bastard huskies sounds about right, but I refuse to capitalize the b or the h.

Notre Dame has some brass maracas calling out the ACC for favoring their own teams. The ACC is the only conference keeping their strength of schedule afloat. Once the SEC goes to nine conference games they will cancel any future scheduled games with them. If they don’t have the ACC then they will be nothing more than a strong team who plays a G6 schedule. It’s going to be very difficult to break into the top 12 with no P4 opponents. Why on Earth would any P4 team schedule a game with them? The only ones I can see doing it are cash-poor teams at the bottom of their conferences who won’t move the SOS needle.

You are a new OBD forum member, and you noted in your bio your Oregon sympathies. But when I saw your handle name...while it is not something we usually condone--I thought it captured the spirit of how we love our school, and how we feel about the Bastard Huskies. Pretty clever! Welcome, and I look forward to your thoughts.

What a great first post! Welcome, and do post often...

Amen. In this case, he turned the wrong Paige. (😵)

This sort of thing has a tendency to galvanize a team. I don’t think there will be a huge drop off.

I think the difference between Tech and Indiana is how they get pressure. Indiana uses disguised pressure/coverage and their pure pass rushers use stunts and twists to confuse the blocking assignments. Our transfer heavy O-line had not yet gelled as they say, they were just 5 guys trying to block. But after the Wisconsin game they seem to have meshed into a unit, the USC game was proof. I think injuries affected them against UW the next week but I think they'll handle Tech better than most. I still expect a battle but they don't scare me the way Indiana and Georgia do.

My first thought, so much for limiting practice in order to avoid injuries.

G5 is in to avoid antitrust lawsuits, whether we like it or not we are headed toward a B1G/SEC super league with 16 playoff spots. I personally like JMU poking fun at their presence in the playoffs. At least they seem to be enjoying the ride

Thanks again for the article! This is in no way a defense of ND--I like that they're excluded--but I'm still a bit burned that Miami got in. My rationale: Head-to-head matchups should matter, but only increasingly as the year goes on and teams develop. For example, the Ducks got blown out by GA in Dan Lanning's first year. However, I'll bet the game is closer if they had played again at the end of the year. My point, when Miami and ND faced off in week one, no one had any idea what to expect. ND lost by 3. In my mind, that game is a wash for both teams. ND then lost the next week to TA&M by 1 point. ND's two losses were at the very beginning of the year, when teams are NOT the teams they'll be by the end, and ND lost to two very good teams by a total of 4 points. In my mind, what happens the remainder of the year is more important. ND continued to win and appear to get better while Miami lost to two unranked teams . . . should be game over for Miami. Your overall point--one I agree with wholeheartedly--is that teams that just missed out on the 12-team playoff need to be quiet, because they are miles from qualifying for a 4-team playoff. My favorite justification for an expanded playoff was that the pool would be large enough to remove any risk of potentially leaving out a national championship caliber team. With 12, all teams capable of winning the Natty are in, and they're likely in the top 5-7 . . . definitely not in the 10-13 rank. But who knows, I guess . . . that's why they play the games.