Take Notre Dame out of the equation and just answer the question.

This year, if Utah and Clemson both make the CFP, then the #10, #11, and #12 teams will not be invited to play in a NY6 bowl. It's going to be the top 9 teams, plus 3-loss Oregon, 4-loss UVA, and probably Memphis.

As for how this impacts ND, if I were AD I'd want to negotiate an arrangement where we get an automatic NY6 invite if we are ranked #12 or higher. Because if there are 6 games, that means 12 teams ("I was told there would be no math"). If you're ranked lower than #12 then you don't deserve it (as is the case this year). If conferences want to get cute and give automatic bids to undeserving teams, then let them take those bids from some other conference team, not ND. If ND is the only team that can't get an automatic bid when we're undeserving, then we shouldn't be locked out in years that basic math indicates that we are deserving.

involved. The 12 teams selected for the NY6 plus the 4 teams in the playoff. If the system were completely merit based, then the fifth through sixteenth teams would be in the NY6.

The top four teams (playoff teams) already take 4 of the 12 NY6 available slots. Thus, the top-12 argument.

I think trying to recruit into it would be suicidal.

Championships are the goal, no doubt, and I would just as soon ND skip no-count bowls matching up four-loss teams. But you can't abandon the middle tier where decent matchups are still possible.

In '71, players voted against a Gator bid v. PSU. '75 team voted against a Cotton bid--Devine's unpopularity w/ Parseghian vets had a lot to do w/ it. There were campus rumors of a minor bowl bid (Astro-Bluebonnet?) declined in '79, but I never heard firm confirmation either way.

Prior to '83 Liberty, ND played in 8 majors and 1 near-major ('76 Gator v. PSU). IIRC, there were a couple of failed team votes before they finally got the seniors to vote to accept that Liberty bid. Half the reason why that bid was pushed was in hopes that it would somehow revive Faust's fortunes.


I'm not sure where I would draw the line--definitely above RU in the Pinstripe, but I'm not sure beyond that. I will recall snickering at the '79 PU game when I saw them bragging about their win in the Peach the preceding year. Such bowls were beneath ND then.

Reality is that ND already lost once in a bowl that Wayne Huizenga invented 2 years after ND's last NC season in an attempt to get the OB to move to his stadium, and ND is likely headed there again this year. That's why the crowing about 3 straight 10 win seasons is offensive.

How about home for the holidays with family and girlfriend?

If I were a player, I'd be enthusiastic about a Sugar Bowl against a SEC team, a Cotton Bowl against Texas. Orange Bowl against someone we hate. But the Pinstripe against BYU? Fuck that.

Playing Texas or Oklahoma?

Someone from the B1G or the SEC?

Are we talking Gator/Citrus/Outback?

Of course I'll watch an ND bowl game and be excited when they win. But the bowl system, to me, is like the Glengarry Glen Ross sales sweepstakes: it's either the El Dorado or some steak knives. And I just can't get excited about even the nicest of steak knives.

Take this year for instance. We have wins against three teams in the 20-25 range. Chances are, if any of them win their bowl game, they will move into the 16-19 range. That's where LSU ended up after we beat them in the 2018 Citrus Bowl. So we tack on another win that really doesn't mean anything in terms of ranking tier.

I don't really even have much use for the "big" NYD bowls, but I clearly understand their historic prestige. So even though I still consider them a similar brand of also-ran exhibitions, I'd value a setup where we had more access to them at the cost of having less access to fall backs (even at the respectable mid-tier level you describe).