Good observation Joe. As stated numerous times, the Michigan loss was absolutely awful. However, was it worse than Georgia’s home loss to unranked South Carolina or Wisconsin’s loss to unranked Illinois? The bias is obvious, but as I posted earlier, I look at them through rose colored glasses.

Hey PC, I did my research and came up with an accurate conclusion if you read my post, which includes the statement: “The new rules of bowl affiliations and selection process put a heavy premium on final ranking” which is another way of saying we had to be ranked higher then Big Ten/SEC teams for the Orange Bowl–same as you conclude. I also received ticket app last week from alumni office for Orange and Cotton Bowls confirming that ND was not precluded from those two Bowls as your email suggests. I understand why certain bowls want to keep their traditional affiliations, but I think ND should do a more effective job of negotiating with the six big bowls to prevent this year’s scenario from repeating itself.

Brady,
Thank you for injecting a bit of realism into people’s thoughts!! People often times, will look at a match-up and say we deserve better rather than we are going bowling be grateful for the opportunity to end the season on a positive note! Iowa State is coached by a guy that has steadily built a promising program. Iowa St. has won over Texas and taken Oklahoma to the wire!!! Therefore, what people are failing to realize is that Iowa St is a good enough team to take ND to the wire and potentially even win!!! People are just looking at their won-loss record and judging them based on that alone!!! Iowa St could be tough if ND takes them lightly!! Despite my degree in Engineering, I am at a loss as to how the writers and coaches come up with their poll rankings!! There always seems to be an pro-SEC bias and an anti-ND bias!! I suppose until Notre Dame comes thru with a convincing major bowl victory or even an elite victory during the regular season, that bias will always exist!!! Unfortunate, but true!!!

God, Country, and Notre Dame!!!

PC,
What really needs to happen is an eight team NCAA playoff with ample opportunity for
highly ranked outsiders to have a crack at fame. Cancel the conference championships
and the whole thing is over by New Year’s day.
In the current college football landscape, with players clamoring to get paid, is there
anything more egregious than these corporate garden parties in Florida with the
big cash payment to the school (and a cute little trophy for the display case)?
Monetizing the whole 40 game show, of course, Walt Disney and Company.
But it is what it is. ND has a crummy bowl record and we face an enthusiastic
well-coached Iowa State team who will not mind a chance to knock us out of the
top 20!
Go Irish.

You can’t have it both ways. ND and the alumni base want to remain independent so you have to accept the downsides of no conference affiliation. I support independence and the only thing I would have done differently would be 4 ACC games rather than 5. I also would have preferred traditional rivals like Pitt and BC be on the schedule every year.

Please don’t down play Iowa State. This will be a very competitive game. I rwould ather play in this game than go play a Top 6 to 8 team and get throttled to end the season. Remember we are down Julian Okwara and two O linemen . Not to mention a running back committee that isn’t really that stellar. I love our guys guys but none of them are Josh Adams . One other final fact. Michigan is getting Alabama. Not the game they wanted, I’m sure.

Go Irish!

Hey Tim, If you been researching how this match up happened you wouldn’t have come to this conclusion. It happened because of 2 reasons: ND doesnt have access to the Orange Bowl to replace an ACC team. They can only play against one if they finish ranked ahead of all available Big Ten/SEC teams. (hardly if ever will happen).Even if ND finished a few spots higher they wouldn’t have gotten into a NY6 because this year the 2 host bowls for the playoff are the Peach and Fiesta. When they decided to go to this new 4 team playoff, they unfortunately kept all the other conference affiliations even in the NY6 which is why you have some terribly unnecessary and unappealing games. Penn St/Memphis and UVA/Florida obviously these arent the best matchups and most deserving.

Perhaps one day the TV folks will wake up and demand the next best 12 teams play in the NY6. (I wouldnt even seed the remaining teams so you can avoid rematches and create unique and intriguing games. Imagine in 3 weeks we were set to watch games we hardly ever see: ND vs Oregon, Georgia vs Wisconsin, Bama vs Utah, Auburn vs Iowa, Michigan vs Baylor and Florida vs Penn St.