So, here we go again: it’s conference realignment time. While we spend a fair amount of time making fun of Texas and laughing at the Big XII getting caught with their pants down, we examine what this means for college football’s future, the planned playoff expansion, and if Notre Dame’s independence still fits into all of this.

We’ll try that whole preview magazine thing next week.

Podcast

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The Cincinnati Bengals took Eifert  with their pick, 21st overall. Te’o, however, slide out of the first round completely. This shocked quite a few Irish fans, especially after Minnesota traded up to the 29th pick, their third pick in the first round. The seemingly ever growing home for NFL Domers decided to take Tennessee WR, Cordarrelle Patterson, instead.

Yes, it was definitely disappointing to watch one of Notre Dame’s favorite sons fall out of the first round; however, it shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise, nor is it the end of the world.

Personally, my draft predictions had Eifert as the only no-doubt first round pick, with Te’o possibly sliding into the second round. While the combine results certainly weighed heavily in my decision there were several other factors in play as well.

Firstly, just look at how the first round played out. Offensive and defensive linemen ruled the round, as the majority of the elite talent was found there. Usually, you would also see a few QBs and RBs taken as well, but no RBs were taken and the only QB taken was Florida State’s E.J Manuel (another huge storyline slightly buried by the Te’o slide was Geno Smith falling to the second round). What you do not see in this first round, nor in any first round, are LBs of any kind being taken in large numbers, especially inside LBs like Te’o.

The first LB taken in the draft was Georgia’s Jarvis Jones, an OLB that excels in pass rushing, at #17 by Pittsburgh. As a pass rushing LB, he fits perfectly into the 3-4 defense of Pittsburgh whom were looking for a new sack threat. Pass rushers are always at a premium in the first round, so it is no shock Jones found his way off the board in short order.

The only other LB taken was ILB Alec Ogletree (Gerogia) who was selected by the Rams at #30. Even before the combine, many draft experts had Ogletree above Te’o, and after, there was no doubt he was above Te’o on just about everyone’s draft board. Either way, realize that it took until pick #30, the third-to-last pick of the first round for anyone at Te’o’s position to be selected.

It isn’t a huge knock on Te’o and Notre Dame fans don’t need to wonder what is wrong with teams that passed on him. The fact is that there are loads of ILBs still available and teams realize that. I expect that, when the dust settles, Te’o will still very likely be the second ILB taken in this draft and that’s nothing to be upset about in the least.

Yeah, it sucks that the payday won’t be as big, but I have a feeling someone of Te’o’s character will be perfectly fine with having to play his way into a larger contract. Feel free to be disappointed, but don’t go into “what does this mean?”, “what did Te’o do wrong?”, “did the whole Leenay thing mess this up for him?”, or “what’s wrong with NFL teams?” mode — ESPN and the NFL Network more than enough of that for everyone.

The Roundup

RIP stupid conference realignment. Our new friends at the ACC effectively killed the insanity and it all was indeed completely, bat-shit insane.

RIP BCS — we now have a new, exciting playoff which is called…The College Football Playoff. Yes, this is a thing that a group of people sat down and decided, along with the title game’s location and all the other new playoff bowls.

Coaches can use Photoshop and Twitter to recruit, this will end well. Check that, this will end hilariously.

CAST DA FIRST STONE. Twitter is the perfect medium in which to admit an NCAA violation, especially when you can claim you were hacked after your PR team turns your brain back on for you.

Notre Dame continues to collect more of the last Big East titles. This time it was Women’s Golf, who took not only the team title, but also had two golfers tie for top individual honors. And yes, they are in the Roundup because I used to manage them back in the day. Good work, ladies!

Speaking of awesome Notre Dame female athletes…Skylar Diggins has inked a contract with Jay-Z’s new agency.

Make your travel plans now. Basketball has announced their new ACC schedule, with highlights being home games against Duke and North Carolina. All kickoff times for the 2013 football season have been announced as well.

Normally, I would try to make a joke for this story. However, Holly Anderson stole all the Bon Jovi puns and I simply need to tip my cap to her.

The Beer My Liver HATES Me Right Now

To recap, two weeks ago I was in Vegas. Last weekend I was at Notre Dame pretending like I was still in college. This weekend, I will be attending a bachelor party that will start at a ranch and then move into College Station.

The weekend will include far too much beer, a trip to the Dixie Chicken and visiting far too many shot bars for my own good.

Oh, and Cinco de Mayo is next weekend.

Forget suggesting a beer, someone donate a liver for a transplant. I need it.

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

Attrition has definitely set in. These days, it’s an annual expectation. Thankfully, the Notre Dame Football program is healthy enough to handle it.

That may sound a little strange, especially since we (1) aren’t used to that line of thinking these days and (2) Brian Kelly has made several references to a lack of depth in 2012. However, it’s the truth.

Consider the fact that after Lynch left, our defensive line was still a dominate force in 2012. Despite not having Tee Shepard to fill some huge holes in the secondary, the Irish still managed to hold it together. We still have three more years of Golson with Malik Zaire waiting in the wings, softening the loss of Kiel. While our WR corps isn’t as stocked as I would prefer, I have little doubt Kelly and company will be able to use the talent available to compensate.

Further consider the recruiting mindset of Kelly. He wants to land a QB every year. He is constantly looking for what he calls “big skill” players that could possibly fill a couple of different roles if needed. A solid group of starters at any position isn’t enough — he wants them two-deep for constant depth and to keep his roster in a state of constant competition.

This season, we have seen the fruits of those three years of recruiting labor. Despite the attrition that has hit the Irish, we still find ourselves only able to offer well below 20 scholarships to the class of 2014 because we are so close to the maximum of 85 scholarships for the entire roster. While every player that leaves the Irish is definitely a disappointing loss, it now opens up a precious roster spot for a potential fifth-year, an extra offer to an elite recruit, or even the chance to reward a deserving senior walk-on.

So as far as attrition goes, I’m going to use a rather infamous Kelly quote: “Get used to it.”

Some guys might leave for personal reasons, but we are also seeing our former blue-chip recruits leave simply because they don’t think they’ll get the playing time they want. That speaks volumes for the level of talent Notre Dame now has. A couple of years ago, if a huge get in the recruiting class had a guaranteed three or four years of playing time. That simply isn’t the case anymore.

So bring the attrition on. “Next man in” as Kelly would say. This is exactly where we want to be.

The Roundup

I guess this counts as WAC attrition. Idaho and New Mexico State are fleeing the WAC for the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt is also grabbing Appalachian State (HEY MICHIGAN) and Georgia Southern from the FCS. Care to take a stab at which group is the better get?

And the 2014 National Championship game will transfer to… DALLAS! Win-win for me. Either Notre Dame makes a title run in my backyard or I’m renting out my house, making a mint, and going on vacation.

Johnny Football is gone. From Twitter. Wait, what did you think I was going to say?

Southern Cal has lost another player. This time, due to injury.

The NCAA might be able to use a little attrition themselves. Someone else has apparently dropped the ball in the Miami case.

This qualifies as what I like to call “Saban-style attrition”. Four players are gone from UCLA. One for violation of team rules and the other three…well, this article outright calls it “roster maintenance”.

The Beer

My beer choice is also suffering from some attrition because I’m still cleaning out my beer fridge of brews that have been donated for one reason or another. Considering I have a Vegas trip coming up to save money for and because I’ve been ridiculously busy for work (because of the Vegas trip, the main reason I’m there is because of work), I have had little motivation to go buy more beer as of late.

Ok, it’s probably not attrition, it’s being lazy and cheap as hell, but I don’t care.

On the chopping block this weekend: Dos Equis.

Stay thirsty, my friends.

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Yeah, realignment has officially gotten weird, especially since it’s hard to figure out what’s next. Notre Dame now finds themselves in limbo for all sports currently in the Big East and I’m not even sure what to call the soon-to-be former Big East. Perhaps we should just rename the conference as a symbol and call them “The Conference formerly Known As the Big East”?

While Friday’s Big East meeting in Atlanta provided no clarity on the big question of when this move will take place, we do know the following:

• No matter when this goes down, Notre Dame football is still on the same scheduling plan as before with ACC games starting in 2014
• The Conference Formerly Known As the Big East will still have an automatic BCS bid in the 2013 season
• As of right now, The Conference Formerly Known As the Big East looks would look like this for 2013-2014, minus the Catholic 7: Connecticut, Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida, Temple, Central Florida, Memphis, Louisville, Houston, SMU, Notre Dame (non-football), Navy (football only), East Carolina (football only), and Old Dominion (field hockey only…seriously)
• Louisville leaves for the ACC and Rutgers leaves for the Big Ten in 2014
• Tulane is scheduled to join in 2014 as a full member

As for what we don’t know, Jack Swarbrick had the following to say:

I know a lot of people want me to answer, “If this happens, what will you do?” The problem with that is there are a lot of flavors about what might happen. It’s not just one thing. I just haven’t spent a whole lot of time investing in scenarios and trying to play it out, because I figure soon enough I’m going to know one way or another.

At that time, I’m going to be able to deal with real facts and evaluate where we are and what our options are.

The previously linked SBT article mentions three options for Notre Dame: leave early for the ACC, stick with The Conference Formerly Known as the Big East, or join forces with the Catholic 7. However, I’m not so sure those options are as cut and dry as they appear, especially since Swarbrick mentioned “a lot of flavors” in this change and that it’s “not just one thing”. Swarbrick mentions this again when discussing a possible one year alliance with the Catholic 7:

As far as the Catholic 7 goes, we have great relationships with those schools and, of course, there are circumstances under which it could be appealing if there would be an opportunity to go with them.

But I don’t even know if that’s realistic or not. And even then, there are a million different flavors. That’s what makes all of this stuff so hard.

The “different flavors” quote again makes another appearance, making me wonder what complications could arise. With this in mind, I want to take a look at each possibility available should the Catholic 7 leave early and hypothesize as to the different “flavors” each could offer.

Join the ACC a Year Early

Seems simple enough. An agreement with the ACC is already in place, so this definitely makes a lot sense; however, there are two major road blocks. First, the Big East would have to allow Notre Dame to accelerate the agreed upon timetable to leave, a move that might be easier if the Catholic 7 does indeed jump this season, but there’s no guarantee. The second issue is whether or not the ACC could even accommodate all non-football sports at zero hour.

I also see a potential scenario in which the ACC requires the Irish to start their football ACC scheduling a year early as well. After all, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for the ACC to bend over backwards and not take advantage of potential revenue that ND Football could bring. Doing this though would complicate all other ACC football schedules, causing yet more headaches on the scheduling front.

Stay with The Conference Formerly Known As the Big East

This appears to be the path of least resistance, but also one that has a ton of potential pitfalls. An early departure of the Catholic 7 might not just make Notre Dame want to leave early as other member institutions might start looking elsewhere.

Taking Notre Dame out of the equation, 50% of the schools in the Big East will be brand new in 2013. Louisville and Rutgers already have one foot out the door, leaving only Connecticut, Cincinnati, and South Florida as the legacy members remaining. They have to be concerned about their futures in a potential 8 team conference in 2014, over half of which will be new schools are likely worried about the same thing — perhaps considering pulling a TCU and backing out of their agreements as well.

When Swarbrick talks about all the different possibilities, this is the area in which I see it. There has to be a major concern for a domino affect, and if the Catholic 7 is allowed to jump ship early, other Big East members might want the same courtesy and that completely changes the potential attractiveness of this option.

Join the Catholic 7 aka the Big East for a Year

I’m with Swarbrick on this one — I’m not even sure how realistic this is. This is mostly because I wonder what the benefit would be for Catholic 7/Big East to take in Notre Dame for just a year.

I’m sure that whatever the new TV deal that the Big East gets, doesn’t have Notre Dame involved at all, nor would the terms of the deal change if the Irish came on board. In fact, this might complicate whatever revenue sharing deals are in place, potentially hosing members out of some revenue.

In short, the Catholic 7 would more or less be doing Notre Dame a favor here.

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All the scenarios above hinge on the Catholic 7’s exit date from the Big East, which we may not know until tomorrow at best. Obviously, a 2014 departure date would be preferable for Notre Dame as that aligns with their departure as well. Should the Catholic 7 be allowed to leave next season, expect things to get quite messy.

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