Archives for September 2006

Last Saturday, Michigan proved once again that there's one place that the media can't help Notre Dame win national championships, and that is on the field.  So after nine months of reading about how Charlie Weis and Notre Dame had already won the national championship before the season started and probably had a good chance of capturing Osama Bin-Laden and solving global warming by seasons end, the wheels have already come off of the wagon. 

It turns out they were ranked about 10 or 12 spots higher than they should've been; they were utterly dismantled by Michigan.  I sent a friend of mine a text message knocking ND for their loss, and he responded with something about how he was glad to see that I was obsessed with ND like him…and even though he was trying to be a jerk, he was right.  I hate Notre Dame.  They've built an incredible brand that somehow distorts peoples perception of reality. 

Years and years ago, before there were limits placed on college football scholarships, Notre Dame built a reputation for being incredible at football, and they could recruit as many of the best players as possible. National championships piled up. 

They are still pretty good year in and year out, they are still the default bandwagon team of college football fans who aren't attached to a particular school, and they are still so popular that they have their own network broadcast contract with NBC.  Unfortunately for them, scholarship limits and parity amongst college
football teams have erased the past invincibility of the Notre Dame football program.

ND is a great example of the old advertising adage about how the best way to kill a bad product is with good advertising.  They are overrated by the media just about every year.  Since their broadcast coverage is so good, viewers all over the country can watch.  In years when they are unranked, they catapult into the upper reaches of the polls with one or two wins.  Then, every year, they lose a few games that experts predicted as easy blowouts, millions of fans are crushed, and eventually the hot new coaching hire of a year or two ago is tarred and feathered by an angry fan base before being fired.

I hate Notre Dame, and I love it when they lose…of course in the end it means they win, because I tune in with the hope of watching them lose, and I talk about them losing with friends, family and blog readers. I can hate them all I want, but in the end all of us that hate them actually do is make them richer by watching and talking about them.

They've built an amazing brand.  Jerks.