Yes, I used “ND” in the middle of a word. I don’t care. Eye-roll away.

Anyways, after yet another week full of hot takes on why Notre Dame’s independence is the worst thing ever and should bar them from the college football playoffs, I felt it was time to devote a whole episode of the Friday Roundup to the topic. If you want a singular thing to pass on to someone that wonders why ND thinks it’s so special and is independent, share this episode. If you want to show someone that a strong conference is likely nothing more than a narrative, share this episode.

I go start the episode with a history lesson that many Irish fans are quite familiar with: Fielding Yost and the Western Conference membership that never was. From there, I talk about how Notre Dame went from struggling to survival to a powerful national brand in the modern era and why they manage to stand alone as the sole independent in the Power Five. Finally, I concluded with an in-depth discussion and analysis of the Power Five and their scheduling habits.

FCS scheduling, out-of-conference cowardice, and inflated numbers of top 25 opponents are all discussed in detail. Even better, you can find the proof in the pudding below as I have a huge spreadsheet with all the data linked.

As always, spread the word about the show. Subscribe on iTunes (and leave a review) or head over to Podbean and get your fellow Irish and college football fans to do the same. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the growth of the show thus far. Many thanks for that and let’s keep it going!

The Roundup

In this episode:

• The Big 2015 Schedule Spreadsheet
• The sports-reference.com scheduling resource used
• And FBSchedules.com to fill in the blanks
• Your moment of Nix

The Booze

Lots of work went into this episode. My Excel-fu and ranting was fueled by a lot of hot take rage. As I said in the show, it’s time to mellow out this weekend and get more Dude-like via a multiple White Russians.

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Ryan Ritter

Editor-in-Chief
Texan by birth, Irish by choice.

First-generation Domer and a former student manager, HLS podcast host, HLS Sim creator, Extra Life streamer, and technical problem haver. You can find more non-Notre Dame related writing on his Patreon.

Latest posts by Ryan Ritter (see all)

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