No Apologies for the Irish Schedule!

I read post after post from ND bashers, as well as listen to media reports about how weak our football schedule is. For any ND fan, it is obvious that this is just sour grapes. Bitterness that we maintain our independence abounds in college football. However, I would like to point out a few facts to all the Vol, Gamecock, Big Ten and other random Irish haters out there.

Our schedule is set 5 to 10 years in advance. I actually carry an advanced schedule in my pocket through 2010. It is very hard to predict title contenders that far in advance, so some seasons our schedule lines up tougher than others. We also have a number of traditional rivals that will always be on our schedule. USC is obvious. A couple Big Ten teams are always scheduled. We play a Big East team or 2 to help the conference out. We participate in every other sport, so it is fair as a good partner. I find it funny that some Big East teams (Pitt) begrudge us that good faith. Most teams jack up ticket prices for ND, and many season tickets are bought by ND fans just for the ND game! Again see Pitt.

And the service academies are always present. I would like to discuss this a little further. College football owes a lot to the epic Army - ND games of the early 20th century. They pushed the sport into the national picture before even the NFL was a force. Navy is a similar long standing tradition, and Air Force to a much lesser degree. We always have one scheduled, and every once in awhile 2. Is it so bad to maintain tradition? How can this even compare to LSU tking on a D-II school in Apal. State (on the heels of North Texas). Show me one schedule that doesn't have a perenial doormat on it - wait Stanford did have to take on juggernaut Cal-Davis!

That would be enough, but people are still ripping us nonstop! To answer concerning 2005, our schedule was BRUTAL to start the season. Every publication ranked us a Top 10 for SOS. I saw us as high as #6. 4 of our first 5 games were away. Everyone here remembers the ESPN morons predicting a 1-5 or 0-6 start! Let's run through it:

Sep 3, 2005       at Pittsburgh     Preseason #23
Sep 10, 2005      at Michigan       Preseason #4
Sep 17, 2005      Michigan State    Big Ten opponent
Sep 24, 2005      at Washington     Ty Bowl
Oct 1, 2005       at Purdue         Preseason #15
Oct 15, 2005      Southern Cal      Preseason #1
Oct 22, 2005      Brigham Young     Whipped us last year
Nov 5, 2005       Tennessee         Preseason #3
Nov 12, 2005      Navy              Traditional opponent
Nov 19, 2005      Syracuse          Big East partner
Nov 26, 2005      at Stanford       Short series opponent

So there you have it. Is it fair to look in hindsight and say these teams were overrated? No way! If you want to use that logic, in hindsight, ND had 1 vote in the preseason AP poll! So we have completely exceeded all expectations and deserve even more credit! I also think ND had a little bit to do with some of these teams taking a slide. We had some demoralizing wins, and hurt a couple key players in the process.

Let it go. We are having a great season, and have earned every win and every vote in the polls. Even if you hate us, you know you're afraid of Weis gameplanning aginst your team! From irrelevent to relevent in 2 games this season!

Dre + Ben = SOLID GOLD

So as a little insight into what's playing on my MP3 player (no, no iPod yet, dammit), one of my favorite singers is Ben Folds. Not only are his original songs great, but he has the ability to improvise and cover just about anything you could imagine. A good example is his infamous track "Rock This Bitch" from his album Ben Folds Live.

So how could Ben ever top that little gem? I have two little words for you, Dr. Dre. A little number off the classic gansta' album The Chronic. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Bitches Ain't Shit. Prepare to laugh your butt off.