The Irish are 3-0 for the first time since 2002. That’s a long time to go without winning your first 3 games, especially for a program that has put together 7 winning seasons in that 9-year stretch. The reason it is really so shocking, though, that its been so long since the Irish started 3-0 is because fans are used to A LOT of teams being 3-0 each year. And no, its not because there are just so many teams out there that are always better than ND – it is because so many schools start their seasons with incredibly unchallenging opponents.
Today we have a college football system where there is close to zero incentive to play difficult games out of conference. Notre Dame’s next opponent proved what is at stake by scheduling a week 1 matchup with Alabama. Yeah, good for Michigan for playing a real game, but the pollsters sure penalized them for it. If the Wolverines had thrown in a typical Western Michigan matchup to kickoff the season they’d be sitting at 3-0 and rolling into South Bend as a top 10 team. Instead they were embarrassed, and even if they were to plow through the rest of their schedule (which they won’t, cause they suck) they would have a difficult time getting back to the top.
I wanted to vomit on Saturday when I heard yesterday that the Northwestern Wildcats (my favorite childhood team, by the way) were the only FBS team to beat 3 teams from automatic qualifying BCS conferences. Pretty crazy, right? Well get this: not only was Northwestern the only team to beat 3 AQ teams, but of the 68 programs in AQ conferences, NORTHWESTERN WAS THE ONLY ONE TO EVEN PLAY 3 AQ TEAMS. Is that some kind of sick joke? Is there any reason we are still bothering to watch the beginning of the season? You know who else played 3 AQ teams? Louisiana-freakin’-Monroe. When Jack Swarbrick and his commissioner buddies get together to figure out how the new playoff selections will be made, they need to put a HUGE emphasis on strength of schedule. Stop rewarding teams for playing their local high school’s junior varsity squad.
Well, that rant felt good. Not as good as the Irish being 3-0 (hellllll yeah!), but pretty darn good. Including the Irish, 25 FBS teams are sitting at 3-0, but they sure have different resumes. I looked at the 3 games each of those teams has played and divided each team’s early season schedule into 4 different categories: Respectable, Could be Worse (but not much), Embarassing, and Truly Pathetic. Notice that these categories are not equally weighted – half the teams played at least 1 FCS school, and only 6 played 2 teams from AQ conferences.
Respectable Schedules
[table “” not found /]Only four teams slid into the top category, with the Irish probably having the strongest overall trio of opponents. Despite playing Western Kentucky, Alabama manages to stay in the top grouping thanks to the week 1 matchup against D-Nard and Company and its Arkansas pairing (despite this being a conference game and them having no choice in the matter).
Could Be Worse (but not much)
[table “” not found /]If Duke and UCF are enough to get you into the second highest grouping, you know you are dealing with a terrible set of schedules. As an aside, I was absolutely convinced that Stanford was not going to be that good of a team this year, but the Cardinal certainly surprised me on Saturday. It is looking like it could be a huge matchup in South Bend on October 13th.
Embarrassing
[table “” not found /]Congrats on your top 5 ranking after beating Buffalo and Florida Atlantic, Georgia. Clemson at least is getting some free wins against Ball State and Furman before descending into their annual collapse. Has Rich Rod proven he’s back by beating Toledo and South Carolina State?
Truly Pathetic
[table “” not found /]Ugh. Just UGH. The Associated Press and coaches should be forbidden from voting for teams on their top 25 ballots that play the likes of Idaho, Arkansas State, Tennesee Tech, Savannah State, Northwestern State and New Hampshire.
So there you have it. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs when this is all that’s been put on our plates to start the season. Once we are little farther into the season and have a better idea of the quality of the teams listed above, we’ll revisit this list and see how the true strengths of schedule turned out.
Proof that, sooner or later, everyone comes around to love the Irish.
After growing up as a Notre Dame hating, misguided youth, it only took one visit to campus during high school for Twibby to realize the error of his ways. From that point on Twibby and the Irish have had what can only be described as a true Hollywood love story. When he's not reminiscing about his time in South Bend and pondering ways to get a 5th year of eligibility as a student, Twibby writes about Notre Dame and the rest of the college football world for HLS. Along with the Irish, he is a diehard fan of the Chicago Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and Cubs with a strange affection for Northwestern Wildcats football.
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