BYU vs. Notre Dame: Top-8 Clash and Schedule Debate

BYU-Notre Dame, this is a top eight matchup according to the AP poll, which is, for some people, a really exciting moment. Thank goodness the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are finally playing real teams because, my oh my, their schedule is apparently a, quote, embarrassment. You know, we just talked Ohio State-Indiana. You know, those teams have three Big Ten wins. That is tied for the most in the Big Ten, along with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who also have three Big Ten wins to start their season. And yet, apparently, they just play Rice every week. Apparently, that's what's going on. It would be nice if some of the leading voices in college football maybe, oh, I don't know, paid attention to some of the things going on in college football. That would be nice, Dave. I would appreciate that. Obviously, those that do pay attention or don't pay attention didn't look at, you know, Jeff Sagarin's strength of schedule rankings that has Notre Dame 31, tougher than no, Georgia 38, Ohio State 45, Indiana 66, Miami 72, BYU 56. Notre Dame's strength of schedule, according to Sagarin, is better than all of those teams. But sometimes you got the platform, you have the platform. And I don't even know why people care on October 17th what a strength of schedule is. It doesn't actually matter until December 5th. You got two versus eight today. If two beats eight, throw out your strength of schedule. You just beat number eight on the road at BYU at the Super Bowl in front of a crazy crowd. That's all that matters. Like, you earned it. Now, you lose the game, then you can start talking about who else is left on the schedule. You know, you're going to get Miami in a few weeks. So I don't know why that tape went to where it was taken, but you play who's on your schedule, and that's what it is. Until they unify the schedules and everybody plays the same type of schedule, conference games, non-conference games, FCS, non-FCS, Power Four, not Power Four, that is what I have said for the last 20 years is the problem with college football. Like, not all things are created equal. Let everybody play the same type of schedule, and maybe we won't have to argue over strength of record, strength of schedule, RPI, non-RPI and all that shenanigans the the reason it's it's annoying is or the reason it's so annoying is it really is a tape that is from the summer that suggests you're not paying attention Wisconsin and Notre Dame played week one Wisconsin have won every game since they're a less than field goal underdog at 12th ranked UCLA and they will probably end up closing as a home favorite next week against top 20 USC everyone's obsessed with PJ Fleck and Minnesota until they lost by 28 to Purdue who Notre Dame beat by 40 again they're playing a team who they actively by any anyone's strength of schedule ranking have having have played a more difficult schedule than BYU so here's the thing man listen there are one of the overarching conversations in college football right now are network allegiances and i don't want to be like oh boohoo poor Notre Dame but man when you hear the things you hear from a guy who played in the Big 10 and then works for SEC ESPN it sure does feel like Notre Dame are you know kind of being put in the cross i'm sorry it does feel that way dave yeah and i'm not sure that there's a bias because of it i just don't think he thinks that their schedule as maybe you're right he has not paid attention to how good wisconsin is has not paid attention to some of the other teams on the schedule and i think people forget that notre dame's schedule is booked years ahead of time and they're actively going and booking three Big Ten teams, three ACC teams. They're booking them. You don't know how bad Syracuse and Stanford are going to be three years away from now, and they book. They're independent. They go out and they have to book Big Ten and ACC games, and they're playing Miami as well. That seems to be thrown out the window. They don't have to play Miami, and they are. Also, if I was SMU, I would send Kirk a strongly worded letter as a top 25 ranked team in the country. He was absolutely on Notre Dame's schedule. And listen, I know I just spent a lot of time kind of discussing someone respect Notre Dame. You know who respects Notre Dame? The oddsmakers. Time and time again, Notre Dame is seen as one of the very best teams in college football.