Notre Dame Football Dominance: Gone For Good

Alright so the time has come for someone to say it, but I’m sick of hearing about Notre Dame.

I’m sorry to all of the Notre Dame Football fans out there, the lovers of college tradition, the people who cannot let go of Knute Rockne, Dan Devine, Lou Holtz, and all of the other greats of Notre Dame’s past.  The fact is, Notre Dame isn’t relevant anymore; they haven’t been for quite some time.

Notre Dame is supposed to be college football’s version of the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Lakers, but since Lou Holtz left they are more like the Chicago Cubs and the Dallas Mavericks.  These teams are hyped up every year for the moves they have made to take them to the next step of greatness, only to flame out at the first sign of success.

Maybe it’s the coaching, the poor recruiting, or the cupcake schedule that Notre Dame plays every year, but the fact is that they aren’t much better than the fifth or sixth place finishers in any one of the big conferences any year.

The Fighting Irish have proved to be college football’s version of a literary tragic character, except it doesn’t seem like there will be an end to their current run of picking bad four-leaf clovers.

They feature an 85-62 record since 1997.  They have won exactly ONE bowl game in that time period, and that was the Hawaii bowl last year versus the host team of Hawaii.  They have finished the season inside the top ten once, that was number at No. 9 in 2006.

The fact is that Notre Dame’s program has fallen so far from grace in college football that they are now losing to programs like Navy and Pittsburgh on a regular basis.  Now don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh’s team is tough this year, but Navy…really?

I couldn’t tell you what the formula for reviving the Notre Dame program is.  They always have their choice of the top recruits, some of footballs most respected coaches would give up anything to coach there, and with the exception of playing USC every year, they have a powder-puff schedule.

Maybe Notre Dame dropped the ball by remaining an “Independent” team and not joining the Big-Ten conference.  Maybe they haven’t found the next Holtz, Rockne, or Devine.  But something has driven Notre Dame from the area of being a factor in college football over the last 12 years.

I’m just saying that it’s time to for the national media to remove Notre Dame Football from the pedestal of greatness they have placed them upon.  It is time for the rumors about coaches like Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Nick Saban, and Les Miles leaving their successful programs to revive what is left of the Notre Dame legacy. 

The fact is that Notre Dame has fallen from relevancy.  Their reign as the face of college football has fallen.  They will not return to NCAA dominance, nor will they even become good enough to be mentioned in the National Championship picture.  Notre Dame Football is dead, so let’s stop talking about them already.