Is it really bullying when we have to pay these teams $800,000 to visit? My point being, either way you look at it, its a disgrace.

Very well said. This is not the Notre Dame that my grandfather taught me to love.

I look back at the many great road trips I was able to make as a student and as an alumn, and I don't imagine it happening again anytime soon.

I'll never forget heading to Austin in September of 1996. Staying with my brother, celebrating with old HS friends both my birthday, and Jim Sanson booting the ball through the uprights at the end of the game. It was a great weekend, a great atmosphere, and it's not likely to be repeated anytime soon. Give me ND in Austin against Texas over ND versus Wazzu in San Antonio, every time.

Night games are not a good answer. Night games are cool for the kids on campus, but old timers that drive 3 plus hours pay the price by getting home from a long day after midnight. And I like the week off once in a while. In this day of college football you need one. You never know who is gonna be good year to year anymore. And in case you have not noticed ND has been a feast for USC, BC, MSU, and other for the last few years. I loved the cake-walk Saturday night. I actually got to see a running game. Welcome back Lee Becton.

Show me the cowardice?

This is not a fair assessment of the positives and negatives of the game in SA. Ok, it was a weak opponent. What else was wrong with it?

A coach you dont like, night games at ND, wimpy admin…these have nothing to do with the game in SA.

Nothing in this world is how it was when your grandfather told you the way that it was. Living in the past is not a success strategy for anything in today's world, let alone ND Football.

AD Jack S's interview on Irish Sports Daily is a must read for context on ND scheduling and this post.

http://www.irishsportsdaily.com/football/1171-swarbrick-pleased-with-schedule

It's a different sports and college football world today, and maintaining tradition in a traditional football program with no conference affiliation has never been so difficult.

That's great you'd like to see some different things done at ND scheduling-wise, but how do you suggest these different things should be executed, given the number of variables and constraints identifed by AD Swarbrick in his interview?

I think the state of college football is changing so rapidly with the proliferation of media, that the things that made ND standout in the past (on national TV weekly, cover of SI, etc) are not creating the appeal it once did. Look at 3 of the top 7 teams, TCU, Cincinnati, Boise State, they wouldn't have attracted talent ten years ago without the proliferation of media. You can see these teams now via ESPN 2, You Tube, etc. ND's value prop around media is still strong, but not as strong as it once was when highlighted as a reason to come to ND.

Unfortunately ND's lack of leadership is creating an environment that is promoting a sense of mediocrity. Also, I think as fans, we are having a tough time accepting the fact that the glory days may be behind us. It's been almost twenty years since we really competed on a national level. I would say 1993 was ND's last truly great year.

However, I am an optimist and believe we can get it back. Here are some simple recommendations to bringing ND back to glory:

1) 6-5-1 schedule. 6 home, 5 away, 1 neutral. 7-4-1 will never get a Bama, Tenn or PSU to create those great games of the past, and challenge ND to compete with the better teams. I am not advocating that all the games be tough, but you will never win a national championship without a couple of tougher games on the schedule from proven teams, not rolling the dice that WSU or Tulsa will be good that particular year. Put bets on teams that have a higher likelyhood to be in the top 20. Remember, you are who you hang out with, and if we are hanging more with Western Michigan than Bama, we are only lowering the bar.

2) Hire a new coach. Weis has proliferated some sense of entitlement at ND. Yes, we can continue to win the Hawaii Bowl's of the world, but there is no way we can hang with a Florida. If you want to create a winning environment, you need to raise the bar.

3) Do a better job of highlighting the student/athlete. Go against the grain, and take a leadership position in the NCAA to remind us all that college football is not a professional sport (even though marketers and others have unfortunately changed this forever) and remind us all that college is first about education, and second sport. But work on winning at both. That's what has made ND great over the years.

4) Build the next Tony Rice. You all remember Tony was Prop 48, but he graduated with over a 3.0. Take more risk, and bring in special cases and help them. It makes ND the great institution we love.

5) Don't celebrate mediocrity. This year has been better than last, and the team is much improved, but the blogs I read in 2006 said that 2009 was our NC year. We aren't even in the top 20, and we haven't beaten a team of significance in a long time. Unless ND loses to Pittsburgh and/or Stanford, Weis will be back next year, but we will still be in the same spot. If you want to change this, please see recommendation #2.

Old timers like me (class of '89) witnessed some incredible night games at home. Michigan in '88 and '90 were awesome and without that loud crowd (yes, liquored up) I don't think we in those games. ND is losing an incredible home field advantage by not playing big time games in prime time. Sorry older timers, but I want to win more than I want you to enjoy a peaceful afternoon sitting in the sun watching ND lose to USC.

I could not disagree more with several of the anonymous posts I've seen (same person maybe?) whining about all the problems with night games. Night games are great for ratings, and they definitely create a different atmosphere. I'm not saying that every game should be a night game, but it would be cool if it were at least an option once or twice a season. To prevent a drunken melee they could always open the tailgating lots later, create "family" (read sober) sections, or just enforce a "no belligerent drunks" policy. Sorry about the drive home, but that's what hotels are for. As for Wazzu, I believe that game was just scheduled in the last year or two when we went to this screwy schedule. They've been terrible the last couple years, and there was no reason to think they were getting better. I saw tons of empty seats on TV, which is never good. I know from my perspective, I'm not interested in paying to see ND vs. Some Highschool Team, and several of my friends go to South Bend to tailgate, but watch the game from a bar these days. I kind of like the off-site game idea, so I would keep that, but a 6-5-1 Home-Away-Offsite schedule would make a tremendous difference in allowing us to schedule matchups that are very winnable but not pathetically lame.

I'm sick of the impact television is having on ND football. The commercial timeouts destroy the flow of the games and make the games longer than necessary. I liked the 1:30 start time; as another poster writes, it was nice to go to the games and come home before midnight.

The wimpy schedules are another step toward wrecking the program. Let Ohio State and Michigan schedule powerhouses like Akron, Kent State, and Appalachian State. Who needs that nonsense? Scheduling Western Michigan is an insult to the people who pay for tickets, parking, and all that priceless stuff from the bookstore. We should keep Navy and USC on the schedule and then try to schedule home-and-home series with the top or near-top teams from the other conferences. We would be thrilled to have those teams come to campus, and they would be thrilled to have us come to theirs. It's really not that complicated.

Amazing how everyone loves to put down our great school. True Charlie is not Mr Personality but he has those kids playing hard and has developed Jimmy C into the best QB in the country. We've come a long way from the Willingham/Davie days.

As for night games, Michigan doesn't play them, they don't even have lights. With all the NBC timeouts we'd get out of there at 1AM plus you's miss all the other game day experiences like post game mass at the Basilica.

If we give NBC night games next thing will be a Thursday night game,ugh.

Instead of complaining make some noise on Saturday and show your team your care

Alcohol, alcohol, and then again alcohol are the reasons that we should not have night home games. At Notre Dame the vast majority of attendees get in their cars and drive home. I was at the San Antonio game and the parking lot was not full. The vast majority walked to and from the stadium. I don't think anyone was injured by a drunk walker.
With a night game you have fans who have been drinking all day and all night and then they must get into their vehicles and drive back to Chicago, etc.
I want to add that you cannot even begin to understand how fabulous this weekend was unless you were there. It was great. Try it, you'll like it.

It needs to be stated again that when Saturday's game was scheduled, Washington State was not the pushover they are now. They were coming off a 6-6 season in which they won at 10-4 Oregon State and lost 28-22 to 11-2 USC. Sure, they weren't exactly Rose Bowl contenders. But they weren't a guaranteed win either. Let's consider all the facts before we jump to any sweeping conclusions (or at least sweeping conclusions based on Saturday night's game) about the administration's alleged agenda regarding the schedule, shall we?

"The people who run our football program don't want to make difficult choices, like bringing in a high-profile coach who might make them nervous sometimes … Instead, they want the path of least resistance to winning just enough games to keep the alumni wolves from their door … Meanwhile, the win total is padded, camouflaging any shortcomings that may be present on the field or sidelines … shortcomings that will become embarrassingly apparent when a quality opponent is encountered."

You're way off base here. The program has made a lot of tough choices. They fired Ty earlier than many thought was appropriate because they thought he was not up to the task. They were right. He was a good guy who ran a clean program but he couldn't recruit or coach.

Weis was hired because of his pedigree and the fact that he was a ND alum. I was as psyched as most. Although he's an excellent recruiter, he's ridiculously pompous and not nearly as good a coach as he thought he was coming in. It's time for him to go and unless the Irish go 3-1 or better the rest of the way, he will be.

The scheduling gripe is simply misplaced. All great programs schedule a few cupcakes. If ND scheduled Top 25 teams every week, they'd never make a BCS bowl.

As for the where the games are played and why and money, look, it's big business, accept it.

When I look at the National Championship years that I have been alive to witness, there was a common denominator. In 1966, 1973 and 1977 it was Army,Navy and Air Force. In 1988, it was Army, Navy and Rice. I think a lot of fans are frustrated because some of the traditional opponents have not been that good over the last few years, i.e. Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State. Washington has had success but not since the early 90s, Pitt has been up and down. It is tough to get excited when you play a team wherever, that on the surface wouldn't be worth the price of admission. I kind of like the idea of keeping Michigan State, Purdue, USC and Navy and rotating two more teams out of the Big Ten, Pac Ten and whatever other conference in a four year home and home arrangement. Without the home and home, get used to more WAC & MAC opponents.

No, actually, it won't. Florida plays teams like Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and Alabama in addition to their buy games. We're playing Michigan State, Purdue and Stanford. That's why the model doesn't work. When you're playing eight home games and still only have two marquee opponents……..