I grew up with that too. Every Sunday morning of the football season.
I went to Notre Dame, and I can attest to the fact that they’re full of themselves. Their donations plummeted when they invited Obama to speak at their commencement and awarded him an honorary degree, but they have yet to issue an apology. They’re not as liberal as many other schools, but they’re still mostly liberals.
That being said, Notre Dame has less than 10,000 undergrad students. They don’t have cushy majors for athletes to hide in, so the guys you see on TV are pulling down a legitimate course load in a legitimate major. The school provides tutoring assistance for the players if they need it to keep up with the classes. I was one of those tutors and can say that most of the players when I was there were taking the academics seriously. Not all of them, but most.
That used to be a good excuse for why the football team isn’t doing well, but the success of Stanford and Navy against Notre Dame put the lie to that excuse. If you lose to Navy, you can’t blame your academic requirements. If you lose to Navy, it’s execution and discipline that beat you.
I’m not sure this is even mostly Notre Dame’s fault. They don’t rank themselves, or force contracts on NBC, etc. The sports media over-covers them, overrates them, etc. This is a media problem.
Notre Dame isn’t a first rate program anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time. I think most ND fans know that. Even Mike Golic, a ND alum with a couple of kids going through ND, said as much. But, it still draws a crowd of obsessed, if delusional, fans. Probably still worth the advertising dollars ... they just shouldn’t be ranked or covered until they earn it.
SnakeDoc
I agree with Golic. Notre Dame isn't forcing NBC's hand--no other school would turn down the offers that ND gets.
I talked with a recent ND alum. They are full of themselves. It annoyed me. Once in a while I’d ask when they last won something big. Made me chuckle that He had to reply the 80’s.
My Dad used to say that if Notre Dame put 11 paraplegic nuns on the field as their team, some asshat would still rank them in the Top 10.
It’s ironic because I just read a post on another blog from someone quoting Mark Twain: “Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and that man can sleep till noon.”
This man never loved Notre Dame. Never. A shameless excuse for a piece of writing. Ave Maria. Go Irish!
Just wondering; the Notre Dame degree used to be really worth something, unlike many big football schools. What about now? Are they just another academy of basket weaving and finger painting interpretation? Or are the athletes well prepared for the real world after grauation?