To bowl or not to bowl, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The injuries and defeats of a season lost,
Or to take the field against a sea of troubles
And by playing end them. To quit—to rest,
No more; and by a rest to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That losses are heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To quit, to rest;
To rest, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that offseason what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this field of turf,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of odds great and small.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of loss,
Th’rival’s blowout, the proud fan’s contumely,
The pangs of FGs missed, the holder’s drop,
The failures on offense, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When team itself might their quietus make
With a bowl rejection? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a lost season,
But that the dread of something in that leave,
The unplay’d contest, from whose kickoff
No player can restart, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus disillusion does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.

~From Shakespeare’s Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1…slightly modified…

The Roundup

UAB will be shutting its football doors. There are some that think that there is a vendetta that involves Bear Braynt’s son (seriously), but to finish pissing on their ashes it appears no bowl will take them either.

It also appears that a B1G team will be left out of the bowl shuffle. Not by choice, but because Delany couldn’t negotiate enough spots.

Jameis Winston got to share his side of the story. It was also full of constant mentions of the alleged victim’s name (name is redacted in link) and he compared his situation to being raped because that’s just about par for the course at this point.

The first two big coaching vacancies are filled. Florida hired Colorado State head coach, Jim McElwain, in what has to be the most public search ever which was probably a move to reduce the huge buyout. Nebraska has also hired Oregon State head coach, Mike Riley. Michigan is still vacant. Commence snickering now.

And now your moment of Nix… Speaking of Michigan…

The Booze

I bought a new bottle of bourbon last week. I wasn’t expecting it to be my coping mechanism after last weekend, but, hey, here I am.

Anyways, I’ll be enjoying my liquid medicine while cheering for all kinds of chaos this weekend.

The post Friday Roundup: The “To Bowl or Not to Bowl” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

I’m not sure who coined the term “Savvy Jack”, but I do remember the first time that I heard it. The same week that I resurrected the Friday Roundup, its previous author, co-founder of HLS, MQ, threw the phrase out on Twitter and accompanied it with one of my favorite Photoshops to date:

Credit to @IDtheMike (aka MQ)

Back then, the college football playoff was a certainly, but Notre Dame’s place at the table most certainly wasn’t. The deal with the ACC wasn’t in place and we still had Michigan on the schedule as a regular opponent. Yet in that Roundup, I stated that I wasn’t at all worried as were a good section of Irish fans.

At that point in time (April 2012), other sections of Irish fandom weren’t quite sold on my same confidence on Swarbrick. To be fair, at that point, especially in regards to football, a valid argument could be made that, while he had certainly made an impact on the athletic department as a whole, beyond the Brian Kelly hire (remember, this is pre-title run so the jury was still out for many), the list of things that he did for football was quite small.

That list, however, grew by leaps and bounds in 2012. He not only got ND a good spot at the table for the College Football Playoff, but also preserved Notre Dame’s independence along the way. He made a scheduling deal with the ACC that was far better than anything that we had with the Big East, including access to bowl games that weren’t terrible. He had the foresight to can the Michigan series so the Irish wouldn’t be saddled with a B1G/ACC schedule that offered no flexibility. He even helped Notre Dame weather a potentially disastrous PR storm when the Manti Te’o catfishing news came to light.

Swarbrick, however, has gone moved beyond “great AD” status to “troll master that you best not f**k around with” this season. Of course, we are all well aware of the masterful move of announcing the scheduling of Ohio State during the final Michigan week; however, somewhat lost in the shuffle of the Texas A&M announcement was this:

#NotreDame did confirm that the ND-Texas football games in 2019 and 2020 have been canceled. The 2015-16 games will be played.

— Eric Hansen (@EHansenNDI) September 25, 2014

So why does this new cancellation add to Swabrick’s trolling legend? Look no further than new Texas athletic director, Steve Patterson.

Back in 2013 while the dominoes of the new ACC deal were falling into place, it became clear that the original scheduled date for the Irish’s visit to Tempe simply wasn’t going to work. Therefore, Notre Dame reached out to Arizona State with a desire to cancel the game. Arizona State and Patterson was, understandably, upset with the sudden switch. Instead of taking up a contract dispute directly with Notre Dame though, Patterson decided to be a dick and let everyone willing to listen that he was SO MAD at Notre Dame:

“The school didn’t have the courtesy to have the athletic director (Jack Swarbrick) call the athletic director at ASU to discuss it,” Patterson said. “They had their PR guy call (ASU’s media relations office) to give us a message Friday afternoon while everybody was out of town at the Final Four.

“At least in the little Catholic town I grew up in — Beaver Dam, Wis. — the good nuns wouldn’t have thought that was a very appropriate way to honor your word.”

Thus far, ASU has not received anything in writing from Notre Dame about the potential scheduling change. That’s a required action for any change in the contract, which was signed in 2008, that also includes a game between the teams in South Bend in 2017. So as Patterson sees it, nothing has changed.

Quick note: the cancellation was not official at this point because, at the article stated, ASU had yet to receive anything in writing. This was supposed to be stage one of the discussion, but nooooooo, we gotta play this out in public.

“Our position is ‘Hey, we’ve got a contract,’ and we expect Notre Dame to live up to it,” Patterson said.

…

“What people don’t understand is you do this 18 months before a game,” Patterson said. “Virtually every other university in the country’s got their teams scheduled until 2014. So who do you get as a replacement even if you wanted to do it?

“If you act in a professional way and you want to talk about three years down the line or four years down the line where somebody’s got a chance to make an adjustment in their schedule, that’s a different thing, but when it’s 18 months out, everybody’s got their season booked.”

…

“Look, our position is we’re playing the game,” Patterson said. “On Oct. 25, Notre Dame is going to be here and we’re going to play football.”

Patterson knew his out of conference schedule would be total trash without ND (Weber State and New Mexico were their other OOC opponents this season). So with all his eggs in the South Bend basket, so he made this huge stick to ensure the Irish would still come to Tempe on October 25 November 8.

So when Patterson replaced Deloss Dodds at Texas, a man many considered to be a great friend and ally to Swarbrick, many wondered how Patterson’s relationship would be. With two Texas games cancelled and Texas A&M on the schedule, Jack more or less told Patterson: “Hey, remember that BS in 2013? You have a check on the way for $150k to cancel the games, that in the contract, I promise. You don’t have to go on radio this time. By the way, I’m scheduling a rival of yours that you no longer play because they crawled under your skin when they refused to kiss the Texas ring and went to the SEC. That’s right, I just messed with Texas. Have a nice day, asshole.”

I mean, I’m pretty much to the point in which I believe the conversion that I made up in my head between Dave Brandon and Jack actually happened.

The lesson here? Don’t screw with Jack. He will make you look a fool.

The Roundup

Speaking of looking like fools, HI MICHIGAN! Oh man, the dumpster fire in Ann Arbor is in full blaze. The ill-conceived Coke/ticket promotion wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to them this week. One of their biggest football alumni stars ripped them a new one on the radio. Someone also had to ask Mark Hammon of NCIS fame what he thought about Michigan football since his father’s number is now being worn by a potentially benched QB. This is Michigan football in 2014.

Want to laugh at Texas some more? Let’s look no further than Longhorn puppet Texas insider, Chip Brown. Chip, whose scoops are uniformly dead wrong, had an incredible whopper about Roger Goodell wanting to met with Texas because reasons. Like most of his BS, Chip had his scoop behind a paywall; however, he is now sticking to his story on a freely available piece because in just a few hours the “scoop” was shot to hell.

We still may have very little clue on how the playoff committee will make their decisions. However, Barry Alvarez decided to give us a peek behind the curtain on his methodology.

Uh, College GameDay, what are you doing? Seriously, how in the blue hell does this guest picker make any sense?

And now, your moment of Nix… Let’s laugh at Jim Delany, shall we?

Jim Delany said adding Rutgers & Maryland would expand the B1G's media footprint, but NC State has other ideas pic.twitter.com/GtqvV1Ext2

— Ramzy Nasrallah (@ramzy) September 26, 2014

The Booze

Much like Purdue week, we’re sticking with the obvious: Mimosas and Screwdrivers for everyone! For beer, I guess Shock Top and Blue Moon are some citrus-inspired choices that are rather easy to make; however, I am also sure that you can find much better beers if you try.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Moment for Jack” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

Enter Brian Freamau, member of the advanced statistics site, Football Outsiders, who came up with the  efficiency rating, FEI, that is an essential competent of the F/+ rating, which is another favorite of ours to use (and has been in every opponent preview this season). As a part of the FEI rating, Brian has calculated his own strength of schedule rating on his personal site, BCF Toys.

But that’s a hell of a lot of sports math on a single page right? And truthfully, data visualization is so crucial to make such huge tables of data easily digestible. Well, thanks to his friends at Chartball.com, Brian has managed to do just that. Behold the SOS of all of college football:

via BCF Toys

And the SOS for ND:

via BCF Toys

Here’s a better look at the ND SOS when the chart is organized by FEI rank:

via BCF Toys

How about the SOS for each conference?

via BCF Toys

And that view just might be my favorite.

We always hear how the SEC has the toughest schedules in all of college football. In fact, we heard this ad nauseum when Notre Dame was about to take on Alabama in the championship game two seasons ago. However, that big gray dot in the “others” section shows Notre Dame with schedule that is right in the thick of it when compared to the SEC. Hilariously enough, Alabama has the weakest SEC schedule.

Even more interesting to me is how the Pac-12 stacks right up there with the SEC. In fact, their schedules are collectively tougher on average than the SEC. With Oregon and Stanford holding down the fort with consistently great seasons, teams like UCLA and Arizona State on the rise, and the persistent threat that is Southern Cal, this really shouldn’t be a surprise to us.

Also not surprising: the B1G having the worst SOS out of the “power 5” conferences. That dot all the way to the left side of shame? That’s Iowa.

Other fun notes:

• Utah just edges out Auburn for top SOS pre-season
• The worst SOS by quite a bit: Marshall
• That huge outlying dot on the left side of shame in the Big XII? Oklahoma.
• The two teams taking it easy this season in the ACC: Duke and Pitt.

I’ve asked Brian if this will be updated throughout the season and he stated it will update along with his weekly FEI ratings (which in turn give him new SOS ratings). I can’t wait to play with this all season and see how this chart moves throughout 2014, especially when the playoff debate heats up.

Be sure to head over to BCF Toys and give it a spin. It’s a great waste of time.

The post Notre Dame’s Strength of Schedule Visualized appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved a now well known document declaring independence from the British Crown. While we celebrate our independence this day to commemorate that act, it’s easy to forget that July 4, 1776 was only words on a piece of paper. General Conrwallis didn’t surrender until October 19, 1781. The Revolutionary War itself started in April of 1775 well before the Declaration of Independence was even drafted.

So why celebrate the date a piece of paper was signed?

The Declaration of Independence was a line in the sand, the point of no return. There would be no more skirmishes and scattered battles, all out war and the full force of the British Crown would be upon them. Should they fail, their signatures would become proof of their treason.

It was all or nothing and likely had a hint of insanity. Colonists were going up against the best military in the world at that time. They were woefully outgunned and under-trained. July 4, 1776 could have easily have been a declaration of suicide.

Instead, the American spirit was born. We may joke today about ‘MURICA, participate in complete overzealous jingoism with a certain sense of irony (tweets during the World Cup are a perfect example), but there was nothing more ‘MURICA than the Continental Congress signing a document that was a middle finger to the Crown.

So yes, this day is worthy of celebration, even over-the-top celebrations. We remember the cost paid to birth the nation, but we also remember the spirit born in 1776.

So kick back, relax, fire up the grill, and shoot off fireworks so big that England can see them. Why? AMERICA, that’s why.

The Roundup

Michigan took multiple losses during the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. They lost 31-14 to Kansas state, but also finished in the red on the balance sheet too.

It’s the B1Gest, saddest kickoff party of all time. Rutgers hosted something called the R B1G Party. It was about as pathetic as you’d expect.

Hello. Dorial Green-Beckham has found shelter as a Sooner.

And now, your moment of Nix… From our friends at One Foot Down

#ThingsTimHowardCouldSave pic.twitter.com/womqWRaP4H

— One Foot Down (@OneFootDown) July 2, 2014

The Booze

Because the American spirit also includes a spirit of cooperation, even if it crosses some enemy boundaries that we’ve created within our borders, we are going to with a suggestion made by our #HLSRecapMaddness champion, @ramzy. He details the recipe for a beverage dubbed the Liber-tea over at Eleven Warriors so be sure to visit over there for the recipe.

It contains bourbon and sweet tea (well, probably “sweet” for my southern taste buds, I may have to up the sugar on my attempt) so I’m not sure how you can’t be completely sold on this idea.

The post Friday Roundup: The “Independence” Edition appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I’m pretty sure that old Charles Dickens didn’t pen those words with Notre Dame in mind, but here in the waning days of 2012, he certainly could have.

Man, I thought I had issues trying to write post introductions.

You know you’re in for a great ride when the second sentence contains “pretty sure he didn’t do this, but he probably totally did, just go with it.”

That’s because, on one hand, the Fighting Irish are flying as high as ever with a No. 1 ranking and a chance to win their first national championship in a quarter century when they face Alabama on Jan. 7 in the BCS Championship Game. But on the other hand, the future of Notre Dame’s athletic programs – despite the football team’s current success – has never been less stable, or clear.

On Monday, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick acknowledged that the implosion of the Big East has left the Irish in an oh-so-precarious position. Notre Dame announced in September that its sports teams – except for the fiercely independent football program – are leaving the Big East for the ACC but that the school is contractually obligated to play in the league for two more years.

OK, maybe we should give this guy a chance. This actually could make some sense and present an article worthy of debate.

Let’s see where this goes…

However, with the Big East’s seven Catholic basketball schools declaring last week that they’re departing the conference, the Big East may not exist at all by next fall. And, as a result, Notre Dame could be without a conference in which to play basketball and other sports next season.

…right into a brick wall.

So let me get this straight. Notre Dame needs to join the Big Ten because the Big East fell apart (something that our departure accelerated, by the way) and Notre Dame might not have a conference in 2013. So despite the fact that we have an agreement in place with the ACC in 2014, Notre Dame should jump ship to the Big Ten now to solve this issue.

You’re kidding right, Dave?

However this drama plays out, it appears the Irish will eventually bolt one train wreck of a league (the Big East) for another one (the ACC) that’s resembled a sputtering jalopy ever since charter member Maryland announced last month that it’s bolting the conference for the sanctuary of the Big Ten.

Guess not.

The ACC is destined to be a train wreck because Maryland, that’s right, MARYLAND decided to jump ship.

Now, of course, if Notre Dame itself had joined the Big Ten – that deep-pocketed, powerful and highly stable league right in its own backyard – none of these annoying headaches involved with crumbling conferences would exist.

Yeah, we’d just have to deal with the headache of dealing with a conference that can’t even figure out division alignment without an internet survey. Oh, and the small fact that Delany has seemed to lose his damn mind by watering down his conference with Rutgers and Maryland.

Don’t cite TV markets as the reason either. If you think that the entire New York/New Jersey market actually cares about watching Rutgers do anything, you are as foolish as Delany. Maryland also isn’t exactly cornering any desirable TV markets either.

Maybe Delany really loves crab cakes?

Don’t give the “in ND’s own backyard” reason either. For 125 years Notre Dame football has played a national schedule for football. Why would we ever sacrifice that kind of national presence? Regional scheduling is small-time thinking. ND operates on a national scale and limiting ourselves to “our own backyard” completely screws that up.

Finally, money? You’re joking right? Notre Dame was the eighth most profitable football program last season and that was during a mediocre year without magical conference money. You seriously think money is a concern for ND?

But those headaches aren’t likely to cease soon. And considering how drastically the college sports landscape has changed over the past few years – and surely will continue to do so for several more – here’s my advice for Notre Dame:

Just join the Big Ten already.

Things will continue to change, but the Big Ten won’t, promise!

As I’ve written before, here in this age of emerging “superconferences,” a situation is almost certain to arise where Notre Dame is going to have to join a league – all the way – or find its football team left out of the evolving power structure.

You mean that “evolving power structure” that created a new playoff system which included Notre Dame?

Come on now, where you asleep this past offseason, Dave?

And when that does happens, Notre Dame football would be a much better fit in the Big Ten than the ACC, which (if it even survives) will always be more of a basketball conference than it ever will be a football one.

Good thing the goal is to remain independent in football!

Also, wasn’t the whole initial issue all of Notre Dame’s “other sports” not having a home?

And as we all know, football is what Notre Dame is really about. Today, tomorrow and forever.

OK, I guess this post is about football now.

However, in spite of pigskin being such a priority, a few years ago a friend of mine who is a Notre Dame alum said that despite the school’s powerful desire to maintain its football independence, it wouldn’t cling to that if it ended up hurting the school’s other sports programs.

Or not. Seriously, pick an argument and stick with it.

Also, bonus hilarity for citing “a friend of mine”. You would’ve been better off saying “a source familiar with the Notre Dame athletic program” if you really wanted to properly spoon-feed us this crap.

Does this friend actually have knowledge of the inner-workings of ND? I’m assuming not, otherwise you would’ve used it to strengthen your argument that is now completely coming off the rails.

To top it all off, you are citing an opinion from “a few years ago” back when the conference landscape looked nothing like it does now. What does your friend think now with the new ACC deal in place? Shame that we’ll never know.

Actually, you know what, I’m a Notre Dame alum. My opinion should hold weight to this argument! Guess what I think? You’re full of crap. Boom. Roasted.

Right now, it looks like the Irish’s other sports programs could indeed be hurting badly if they don’t have a conference home next year. A few years down the line, Notre Dame football could end up hurting too […]

It’s other sports! It’s football!

Rabbit season! Duck season!

[…]if it’s ultimately forced into a weakened ACC that’s lost marquee members and is instead dominated by lackluster ones.

So now you’re just going to stick with the assumptions and start making crap up?

Fine, I’ll bite. All the ACC schools will jump ship. Who? To where? When? And what makes you so certain the Big Ten won’t budge?

I’m sure the next paragraph will shed some light on these burning questions.

While I still consider it unlikely to happen, what I’d like to see is for Notre Dame to get off its high horse and politely knock on Jim Delany’s door. If Notre Dame asked, I’d be willing to bet that the Irish basketball team and its other sports programs could be fit into the Big Ten schedule next season. And then the Notre Dame football team could join the Big Ten along with Maryland, Rutgers and a 16^th member TBD when the 2013-14 season rolls around.

Or we’ll just completely ignore it and move on to more assumptions!

Not only will Delany take in the Irish, but he’ll find a 16th team as well (Cincinnati must be licking their chops!). Oh and the scheduling will be fine! Don’t mind the details, just carry on with this logic! We’re on a roll here!

Alright, I’m probably being too mean. Dave still has plenty of time to clear all of this up.

Now, would it be simple to pull all that off? Of course not.

Translation: “Remember all of that crap I just made up? You know, all those reasons that will save Notre Dame from all those “headaches” I mentioned earlier? Yeah, moving to the Big Ten will create more headaches.”

Superb.

Notre Dame’s entanglements with the Big East, ACC, NBC and future football opponents would all have to be sorted out and appeasements would certainly have to be made. But nothing in college sports is impossible – especially with Notre Dame’s and the Big Ten’s money.

You’re right nothing is impossible…including Notre Dame staying independent and finding another dance partner that isn’t the Big Ten should the ACC falter. If you don’t think that’s possible, you are conviently forgetting DeLoss Dodds and Jack Swarbrick have a great relationship.

Oh hell, let’s get really crazy and start making crap up since you are.

Let’s say Notre Dame sees the ACC fall apart and says “OK, forget this independence thing. We’re starting our own national conference and will invite eleven other schools. We will use the NBC family of networks to promote our conference and televise all of our conference games just like the Olympics.” The line would for invitations would form to the left and include approximately 119 schools (rough estimate) hoping for an invitation.

Improbable and unlikely? Definitely. Then again so is your scenario, and mine actually makes more sense than joining the Big Ten.

This week, for example, rumors are swirling that Butler – which is in its first year in the Atlantic 10 – may leave already and instead link up with the “Catholic 7” from the Big East in forming a new hoops-centric league.

“Our administrators, our coaches, our trustees and our team will continue to do what is right for Butler and its students,” Butler president James Danko said in a statement Monday, not committing the school one way or another while showing that changes can always be made.

Can someone connect the dots for me?

How does talking about Butler follow anything resembling a continuous line of thought after “nothing in college sports is impossible – especially with Notre Dame’s and the Big Ten’s money”?

What are you even trying to say here? Butler is keeping its options open so therefore so should Notre Dame? And even if that’s the point, do you think Swarbrick, the same guy that kept his options open this year to make the move to the ACC is all of a sudden closed-minded?

Actually let’s back up even further. Are you comparing Notre Dame to Butler?!

My head hurts.

If Notre Dame was truly honest with itself, I think it would see that the Big Ten is still the conference that’s best for the Irish athletic programs and students-athletes. Just like it always has been.

Notre Dame is honest with itself. Notre Dame is a national presence and brand. Joining the Big Ten isolates us to the Midwest region. That alone is enough reason to reject this idea.

But even ignoring that, what other benefits have you actually presented in this article, Dave? The only other two are money (which ND needs no help with) and stability (which you can’t guarantee).

So why should ND join the Big Ten again?

I suspect that even Charles Dickens would agree with that.

Even the corpse of Charles Dickens would see the light! How can I possibly argue with that?

Message to anyone thinking about writing a Notre Dame to Big Ten article: don’t. There is no logic behind it. It will never happen. Just do yourself a favor and stop.

As for Dave? Here is your prize.

The post Just Stop Writing Dumb “Join B1G” Columns Already, Everyone appeared first on Her Loyal Sons.