How many tough “ away” games has Notre Dame had vs Penn State ? I’ve mentioned before..considering at the time the magnitude or importance of our opposing teams with season defining games on the line at the time.. and as hostile as crowds as we have seen.. our away wins over WVU , USC , Wisconsin and Minnesota.. have to be something the panel looks at..
Gotta root for Illinois to win & A&M to lose.
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I don't think they beat USC by a lot. A rivalry game in the Coliseum and this is the most talent ND has faced since A&M. As long as USC keeps this within a couple scores we are fine and I think they will.
Selling Minnesota, Wisconsin and WVU as something the committee is going to give a lot of credit to us for seems...insincere
None of those teams are exactly good. Wisconsin was against their backup QB while WVU refused (and still does) to bench Greene hurting their team.
Pitt sucks. And that does nothing to cover up losing against Stanford the week before that, or going 4-4 in their last 8. No one is excited about a win against Louisville.
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Wut? Illinois plays Northwestern, not Purdue. And Illinois is favored by 7.5, whereas we're favored by 24.5.
My bad. I had Indiana on the brain for some reason. I mean, they both start with the letter I.
But I still like Illinois to beat Northwestern with room to spare.
Yeah......that's really overselling USC, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. I understand the "at the time" argument, and it's a fair argument. But it's like calling our 1999 win over #3 Arizona as a program-defining win. "At the time", AZ had lots of hype and whatnot. But the season proved that Arizona was a pretty mediocre team. The committee will ultimately look at the entire body of work. And the body of work for USC, Minnesota, and Wisconsin won't be great.
ND is in a similar position to us, IMO. No real signature win -- although winning @ Texas A&M beats our top win. Of course, the NIU loss is horrific and can't be ignored. We played a better team (OSU) than anybody on ND's schedule, but ND's wins are probably better than ours (A&M, Louisville, Army, GT vs. Illinois, USC, Minnesota).
We have the edge for two reasons: ND lost to NIU which is unforgivable, and at least we played somebody like Ohio State.
didn't PSU have to use its backup QB for the entire 2nd half against Wisconsin?
VanDyke was out the first series of the Alabama game. Wisconsin had multiple games with Locke as starter before playing PSU and Pribula was inserted to complete a game after the in-game injury to Allar.
All true...doesn't alter my statement that we beat Wisconsin without Van Dyke. Not saying Bama beat Van Dykd or Drew played the full game.
Your statement is true however, like Locke against Alabama, Pribula was unexpectedly inserted in a crucial game, though we might be able to argue Alabama was a more difficult team for Locke at that juncture.
All depends on what narrative you want to focus on:
With the "PSU has only played one good team and they lost" narrative, the Wisconsin game was a tale of back-up QBs so it still shouldn't have been much of a challenge.
With the "PSU has shown it can overcome adversity" narrative, the Wisconsin game counts, along with the USC and Minnesota games (even though these could be called 'self-inflicted adversity').
All these narratives show that (1) we really don't have a good way of comparing teams from different conferences; and (2) with the 16+ team conferences and uneven conference schedules, it's getting harder to compare teams within a conference. Also, teams are not static; some improve during the season and some get dispirited and decline, so even comparing common opponents is problematic.
That is why a 12-team playoff is a good thing. We will find out who has the right stuff, as the champion will have to beat 3 (or 4) ranked teams in a row in order to win it all.
Well said -- agree on all.
I have hunches, but honestly, I still don't really know how good we are. Or Indiana. Or Notre Dame. Or SMU. I think all of those are very good teams -- in that order. But even within the Big Ten, the unbalanced schedules have given some teams much easier paths to gaudy records than others.
How good is Texas, really? They've only played one legit team. Meanwhile, UGA has faced a murderer's row.
The playoffs will answer many of these questions.
We find out a little bit about Texas the next couple weeks assuming the beat A&M
Penn State's schedule is significantly better than Indiana ND and SMU so I don't have us in the debate with them. My only concern is will Franklin pull a Franklin and lose a game that he's not necessarily supposed to win again.
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