When the Big Ten was being formed (actually at that time only the big nine), Notre Dame was considered to be too insignificant of a no-name Catholic college to be deemed worth of membership in this august athletic conference. The feeling was that "Notre Dame Sucks". So, Notre Dame had to try to find non-conference teams to play. And that it did. It played Army, Navy, and the east-coast schools and the best football schools from around the country. Thanks to the rejection by these midwestern schools, Notre Dame was forced to create a legendary football dynasty of mythical and mystical proportions that has remained unequaled in the history of college football. The college football Hall of Fame is located in South Bend for a reason. And, even Notre Dame's 350 piece marching band is historic in that it is the oldest, and undisputedly one of the finest, marching bands in the entire country.
You mean kind of like:
Duke/Wake Forest are easy wins for Florida State,
Florida A&M/Temple/Connecticut/Rutgers are easy wins for Miami,
Troy State/Utah State/McNeese State/Kansas are easy wins for Nebraska,
Western Michigan/Utah are easy wins for Michigan,
Wyoming/Middle Tennessee/Rutgers/Vanderbilt are easy wins for Tennessee,
San Jose State/Wyoming/Idaho are easy wins for Washington,
UAB/Ohio/Kentucky/Vanderbilt are easy wins for Florida,
Texas Tech/Kent State/Cincinnati/Northwestern/San Jose State are easy wins for Ohio State,
Western Kentucky/Louisiana-Monroe/Baylor/Kansas are easy wins for Kansas State,
Tulsa/Texas-ElPaso/South Florida/Baylor are easy wins for Oklahoma,
and the list goes on......
What's your point that ND has 1 or 2 patsies on it's schedule? If their schedule "sucks", as I've seen you or other posters here say, because of these couple patsies, then every Division 1A team's schedule must "suck" because of the patsies on their schedules.
As I mentioned in another post, I'm not trying to say that ND's schedule is the best in Division 1A, but it certainly is not anywhere near the worst (which I would call a schedule that "sucks"). It is, on average, equivalent with most major Division 1A schedules out there. CBS Sportsline.com currently has it rated the 6 strongest in the nation. Even if this statistic is a bit "over-rated", let's say 20 spots to high, that would still give them the 26th strongest schedule, which hardly sucks.
There is one major difference between the top-ranked teams that you mentioned and Notre Dame. The top-ranked teams that you mentioned are all in conferences. Notre Dame is an Independent.
When you are in a conference, the conference dictates who you are going to play every year as far as conference play goes. Notre Dame has ability to schedule whoever they want to play, and they still choose these patsies.
Do you think these top-ranked teams enjoy playing patsies? Probably not. The stadium is usually half-full. There usually is no TV coverage. These patsies also bring down your strength of schedule.
Notre Dame must enjoy playing these patsies since they keep scheduling them every year.
"When you are in a conference, the conference dictates who you are going to play every year as far as conference play goes. Notre Dame has ability to schedule whoever they want to play, and they still choose these patsies."
Are you suggesting that just because Notre Dame isn't in a conference that they have a responsibility to go out and schedule a schedule like, say, Florida State, Florida, Miami, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas, Oregon, and Washington each year?
PMoose, I believe the Irish used to play Miami(or one of those Florida teams) until they proved much too difficult to beat. Since then notre dame dropped them from their schedule citing some bogus reasons-rowdiness?
Troy, most of those teams that he listed as patsies are out of conference opponents, meaning they CHOSE to play them. Not that it matters, because every team CHOOSES and enjoys playing creampuffs, because you can't and will never win a national title playing 11-12 top 25 teams. For every FSU, Miami and Texas you play, you NEED a Navy, Troy St. and Baylor.
As for ND not being accepted into the Big-10, it was mostly because Notre Dame has an Irish-Catholic background, and the Irish weren't too popular and rather looked down upon as people. So the Irish simply scheduled tough teams from around the country and changed the game as it was known, bringing east, midwest, and west teams together, making it a national game and putting it on radio. That's why the Irish grew a legend, they played from NYC to Los Angeles, won, and did it all on the radio where everyone could hear. It's a good thing it went down that way, because it brought college football to a new level and broke down the East Coast wall. That allowed all midwest teams to play back East, where midwest football as looked down upon.
Troy, you make a valid point about the conferences and schedules but if you do a little research you will find that the reason Notre Dame continues to play the Army on occasion and Navy every year is because during WW II when ND was an all male school, and lost most of its students to the war, it was the academies that sent students to ND to keep the school open and take the pressure off the service schools at that time. Notre Dame plays them because of history and gratitude.
Also look at Notre Dames schedule now and future schedules and you will see no division 1 AA teams try doing that with some of the other major schools, and they do have the right to schedule who they want to play out of conference.
If Notre Dame had been playing some serious competition instead of cycling clubs and athletic clubs when the Big 10 was being formed, maybe the Big 10 would have taken them more seriously