Notre Dame College Football: The Golden Domers Are Gilded Domers

In the hearts and minds of the faithful in South Bend, Indiana, Notre Dame is the benchmark for college football greatness. The golden Domers once possessed the midas touch, but now it is gone—faded are their fortunes and their gold-painted helmets are left to take on a termite-infested wooden interior. The luster began to fade after Lou Holtz won the 1988 National Championship. 

The Irishmen from South Bend have shown the occasional flashes of greatness, but those moments faded as quickly as they came.  The Emperor's clothes are off, and the populace must realize that Notre Dame should not receive any special treatment from the media, like their ludicrous NBC broadcasting deal. Such a deal makes the Longhorn Network, a source of great contention, seem like the channel  that "Weird" Al ran in the 1980's cult classic UHF. 

The Irish faithful insist that Notre Dame is still relevant in the current football landscape and should receive special BCS privileges that no other independent school enjoys. This nostalgic world-view is typically reserved for the likes of senior citizens. Seriously, it is an insult when this formerly great program can only reach two BCS bowl games and lose in fantastic fashion (a distinction reserved for the expansion Buccaneers), while schools like TCU win the Rose Bowl and Boise State's dominance reigns.

Most storied programs like Michigan, USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas all experience the occasional lulls in their performance that, at most, last for around a decade.  But the storied programs nearly always bounce back. The biggest exception to the rule is, of course, Notre Dame, whose program has been irrelevant for nearly 20 years.

No amount of hyperbolic pontification can sufficiently illustrate my point that there should be no special treatment given to such a lackluster program.

In the ever-changing football landscape, with the seemingly inevitable BCS playoff system and the Bowl alliance between the Big 12 and the SEC (the true kings of College Football), the administration at Notre Dame needs to realize that there is little benefit to remaining independent.

It is likely that BCS may not include Notre Dame in the potential new playoff format. In conjunction with previous external factors, another issue involves Notre Dame's constantly mediocre on-field product. If I was an NBC executive, I would much rather hold the rights to broadcast games from an entire conference, like the Big 12 or, for that matter, the ACC. People will not watch another matchup between the gilded Domers and the University of South Florida.

It's time for Notre Dame to truly realize the state of its program and the current college football landscape, as a whole, and join a conference like every other power school. Besides, it doesn't help that Notre Dame can't recruit based on their conference titles (because they are not in a conference) or a championship pedigree, since they haven't won a championship since 1988. None of the players they are recruiting now were alive when they were decent.  

Knute Rockne would frown upon the current state of Notre Dame football, because currently Notre Dame is just trying to preserve a diminishing winning legacy, as opposed to actually winning.