2001: An Insane Odyssey?
UHND.com - Ronny P. Kaye
Last September on ESPN's Sports
Reporters, commentator John Feinstein, an advocate of football playoffs, stated that if
Notre Dame came through its first five games of the 2000 season 3-2, they should deserve a
chance to play for the national championship in a playoff format. But by the time Notre
Dame had done that and gone on to win six more in a row, including a season-concluding
demolition of Southern Cal, Mr. Feinstein, a constant Notre Dame detractor, couldn't wait
to pour a non-celebratory bucket of cold water on Irish fans' heads by ridiculing as
unworthy of BCS Bowlness the same Irish schedule he had previously decried as too tough.
Mr. Feinstein's hypocrisy aside, whose fault was it that Notre Dame's 2000 schedule turned out to be only the 25th-most difficult in the country? Who is guilty each fall of ranking teams highly that haven't yet played a single down? Who puts teams like USC and Alabama in its Top Ten and then pooh-poohs those same teams when they prove mortal on the field? Funny, I thought this was done by the same sportswriters who chronically overrate Mr. Feinstein's chronically underachieving Duke Blue Devils--the Atlanta Braves of NCAA basketball.
From here, Notre Dame's 2001 schedule looks preposterously treacherous. And if Coach Davie's bad-good-bad-good pattern continues, we could be witness to a disaster of Homeric dimensions. We'll know within a few minutes after the opening kickoff in Lincoln next September 8th what to expect. In the meantime, let's examine the dynamics of scheduling from a broader perspective.
Lou Holtz once said that Notre Dame is often overrated at the beginning of a season and underrated at the end. The same is true of schedules. Barry Switzer noted long ago that "national championships aren't won--they're scheduled." To their credit, Bobby Bowden and Jimmy Johnson turned that philosophy on its head with creative scheduling in the late 70s and mid-80s, respectively. They took on all comers in order to prove their own worth, played on enemy fields and won. I hate praising either coach or their programs, but facts are facts. FSU under Bobby Bowden did what Notre Dame teams had to do in the 1910s in order to become prominent, and Johnson's Miami program revolutionized contemporary football by taking risks in scheduling and play-calling alike.
One key to winning out against a tough schedule on any level--and an aspect of competition that is often overlooked by the media--is not where you're playing, but when. Does anyone doubt, for instance, that Notre Dame would have beaten Michigan State last year had the game been played in October rather than in September? Much is made in the press about the "home field advantage" fallacy, but the reason good teams win at home is because they are good teams, not because they are playing at home. In the NFL, home teams win 70% of playoff games. This is so because they have better teams--ergo, better records--and play at home rather than on the road, as the system dictates.
So it doesn't matter who Notre Dame is playing or where. It's worth noting that in 1988, Notre Dame had one off week, before game 10 versus Penn State, and in 2001 they'll have one off week, before Navy (good choice, there). Most coaches would rather not have any off weeks when the team is playing well, so breaks in the schedule don't always help; but Notre Dame could have used one in 1989, when they played one game too many and were a half-step slow in Miami in their 12th regular season game. Again, it's the when that counts. And let's not forget Coach Holtz's classic line that "the schedule wouldn't look so tough if we were better." It makes things a lot easier when you're flat-out better than the competition each Saturday.
Thus, as the 2001 schedule looms in the coming months, a schedule that includes Nebraska, Texas A&M, MSU, Purdue, USC, and Tennessee, let's remember that 1988 schedule and remind ourselves that Notre Dame became the goliath that it is via its own creative scheduling, starting way back when. After all, who hasn't Notre Dame played throughout the decades? Who else can claim rivalries versus Michigan, USC, Penn State, Nebraska, Alabama, Texas, Purdue, Michigan State, Tennessee, LSU, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Boston College, Washington, Florida State, and Miami? Who can fail to be boggled at how Knute Rockne's 1929 Ramblers went undefeated and won Rockne's fifth national championship while playing every game away from home? Try that in the contemporary era.
We should not, then, pay attention to how schedules are perceived by the "experts", nor anticipate disasters before they occur. In 1995, the dolts at ESPN derided Notre Dame's upcoming schedule that included the three service academies, but by December of that year those same anchors were apologizing to Notre Dame, since the NCAA had ultimately declared the Irish's schedule the toughest in the country. Personally, I don't agree with the NCAA's method of rating schedules on a pure won-lost basis; whining from the TV sportscasters aside, the computer averages are more accurate and unbiased than the voting done by writers and coaches. Anyway, it doesn't matter what any of that data says--every game is a bowl game for Notre Dame, and the competition often saves its best performances for the Irish. Like ESPN analyst Lee Corso said before the Notre Dame-Michigan game in 1999: "Notre Dame should play the best, because Notre Dame is the best."
Amen.
To conclude, according to The Official 1999 NCAA Football Records Book, Notre Dame has won 21 national titles--six by Rockne, five by Leahy, five by Ara, three by Lou, and one apiece by Layden and Devine. These titles have been won even when corrupt programs at Pitt, Army, Michigan State, Texas, USC, Alabama, Miami, and Florida State were ascendant. They were won in the pre-poll era and in the poll era, and will be won in the BCS era and in the playoff era that is sure to come, regardless how trying or facile Notre Dame's schedules prove to be. That will surely pacify Mr. Feinstein, who might one day reconcile his ancient anger over Notre Dame's gall at having tried to beat Duke in basketball in the 1978 Final Four.
Play like a champion today.