Andy

Cincinnati has abruptly closed off their banquet to the media amidst reports that Kelly has called a closed-door meeting with his team before the banquet. Edsall may or may not be a good coach if he were hired - he certainly has good qualities - but the fact of the matter is that he's .500 in his coaching career, which is a pretty glaring number at a school whose athletic director claims to be aiming to compete at the highest level. I doubt he's a serious candidate.

So I'm thinking maybe Pitt isn't just going to finish in the top 4 in the Big East like it's their birthright as they've done in recent years. Resoundingly impressive win for IU.

It is enough IMO. This year is an extreme anomaly with five unbeatens at the end of the year and even then there is one unbeaten that is generally agreed to be a notch below the others (Boise). There would definitely be controversy in picking the last team or last two teams in with the 4-team playoff, but for the most part I can't envision someone having a legitimate gripe with being left out.

W/E. All I know this constant complaining and whinning about the lack of a playoff system is beyong annoying. Until the viewership drops, and the BCS/NCAA, etc, etc,etc begins to lose money, then the playoff system will never be given anything more then a token topic to talk about it. And I am fine with it. So all this debate is pretty much moot. OK...just scrap the whole thing then. Go back to what they did before the BCS. Honestly, I think that would be better than what they do now. The NCAA should not endorse a system that gives someone a "National Title" and then not have in place a system that is equal and fair to everyone. The only equal and fair solution would be a playoff. Television dollars would never allow it (competing for eyes on New Year's), but I would completely be in favor of going back to the old system if a 4-team playoff were truly never going to be an option. I can only imagine how cool it was when basically all the big bowls were on New Year's Day. There still wouldn't be a clear answer, but at least it would be fun. The only thing that I'd change in that scenario would be the once-common practice of teams accepting major bowl bids well before the season ends, which led to more than one bowl matchup that was intriguing at the time but looked a lot different after one of the teams went belly up at the end of the season.

I'll watch if you get IMB! to direct and exec-produce it.

Actually, yes it is. There's a separate thread for other coaching vacancies, "dummy".

and as it stands now, all but one of the postseason games have little or no importance. the big 12 title game would lose some significance but the orange bowl (or whatever they would call the playoff-system semifinal game or whatever) would gain a TON of significance. So Iowa's BCS game doesn't matter at all to you? Probably not, since abuck likes Iowa State.

Some of the people who hate Notre Dame are some of the most ignorant, stupid fans in all of sports, so I think we'll call it even. And 'nerds', very cool insult 25 years ago. And here's another hater with no real interest in this thread who yet still crawls in here for no other reason than to make dumb statements and rile people up, BTW.

It really would have been interesting if Texas missed that kick and Cincy was playing in the national championship. Kelly is everything Weis wasn't. A proven winner, a good recruiter, and good promoter. I'm sure the Domers are still crying that Stoops wouldn't lower himself to coach ND, but they should be and will be very happy to have Kelly in a few years time. Charlie Weis is a lazy man in every sense of the word. He got out coached more times than I can count. He'll never be a head coach of anything. He should kiss a picture of Tom Brady every afternoon before he gets his lazy ass up. This is a ridiculous post. Look at a picture of Charlie Weis in 2004 and one now. He looks horrible right now. He worked his ass off at this job and it messed him up. And yeah, he looked horrible then, because he was fat, fatty fatty fatty fatty and all that.

I think that's an extremely remote possibility. If Florida had kept it close against Alabama and Texas squeaked by in the title game I'd give it more of a chance. Cincy can't play defense. Florida is going to maul them. Right, but there is a chance this could happen. Why would you want to hire a guy who would walk away from a team plaing for a slight shot at the title? The same reason Rich Rodriguez was talking to Michigan when his team was on the brink of playing for a more-than-slight shot at a title. No disrespect to Cincinnati, but when coaches are given an opportunity to go to brand-name schools in college sports, they do it.

2 BCS bowls and 3 bowls in 5 years (eligible for 4 bowls). He's going to be working as an NFL offensive coordinator next year and could easily be an NFL head coach someday. I get that you don't like ND and want to enjoy a little schadenfreude, but you have a very unusual definition of people falling on their faces. 16-21 in the 3 years where he started getting away from having all inherited players at Notre Dame is certainly falling on your face. At least after you guarantee that you'll out X and O everyone in the nation. Not to defend Weis, but he would have had some more inherited players in 2007 and 2008 if his predecessor had gone on a recruiting trip or two.

don't follow Jimmy's footsteps and be the best QB in CFB this year and be drafted in the first few picks of the NFL draft and make millions? don't do that? any other advice? The same idiots who say Jay Cutler is a loser because of his college record and mediocre Broncos record will hound Clausen for the same things I love Clausen as a pro prospect. He showed up in a freaking limo to announce his committment at the hall of fame, promising championships. He had one good year in college and he never was really part of a winning team. Charlie showed up talking about schematic advantages over everyone else, saying he was the smartest coach in the country. When you're over the top brash, arrogant and douchey, people will rightfully rejoice when you fall completely flat on your face. Jimmy Clausen "falling flat on his face" was the best quarterback in the country this year. With even a competent defense ND would have won 10 or more games.

great first round matchup of iowa and ohio st. And TCU-BYU yeah i missed that one too. i get that people like big tournaments and a 16-team tournament is what they have in i-aa, but as i've said before, i think one of the things that makes college football awesome and unique is that every game could be the difference between playing for a title and being left out. i think that goes away when you expand the field to 16 teams. i would favor the current broken system over a 16-team field. to me, the plus-one option was the way to go. Me too.

ESPN's Joe Schad reporting that Kelly to ND talks are "heating up". No formal interview today though.

This week's local blackout of the other channel in Indy means I get Rams/Titans instead of Pats/Panthers. Meh.

If you were Cincy's AD and your coach just finished an undefeated season, wouldn't you want to fire him if he didn't vote your team #1? It's perfectly reasonable for the coach of an undefeated BCS team to vote his team #1 and I think it's actually his job to do so. Bo Pelini deserves to be kicked in the balls for that vote. There isn't nearly enough made of how ridiculous it is that this poll is a third of deciding who plays for the title. The mere fact that someone can (completely correctly) justify why a voter in such an important poll should make a vote that is pretty clearly wrong illustrates why it needs to go. Immediately.

Of course he does, he probably knows the history of crappy middle relievers' pay here on the North Side. DO NOT WANT

StiffArmTrophy.com is collecting all the ballots they can find that are made public, and so far they have Gerhart winning, with Ingram and Suh in a virtual tie for 2nd.

Spiller should have gone over Tebow.

Well yes, with the favorable standards and consistent overranking they could be in the mix for non-championship BCS bowls relatively frequently. favorable standards? overranking? yeah, the coaches and media just LOVE the Irish. Who was it that said it's not the 80s anymore? Notre Dame hasn't been overranked in a poll past September in a long time. I guess one could argue the whole 'not dropping after losing to USC' was a case of it, but then again, LSU moved up a spot after Bama beat them this year, so... My question to those people has always been, what incentive do conference brethren (coaches) or conference-based sportswriters (AP) have to rank Notre Dame high with BCS dollars on the line? And of course, there is no answer.

don't believe everything that you read. I know. Just passing on the message.

Kelly just Tweeted that he will listen to what ND has to say. Pete Thamel of the NY Times says Harbaugh will also meet with ND in NYC, for what that's worth.

Parity is a big deal, and encompasses many things. ND's television contract with the worst network sports department is antiquated. Every kid can be promised loads of exposure going to all kinds of schools. Back then ND was a legitimate power, but nearly two decades of mediocrity has left them an afterthought to many. They still get exposure for the same reason people still talk about Mickey Mantle, because it's what the baby boomers grew up on and know and the baby boomers still make decisions. But ND just doesn't resonate to the young football playing public like it did back then. No arguments on the NBC deal. It's amazing that CBS slurps the crap out of Tebow all year long and yet NBC didn't hardly seem to notice, even when he was a candidate for the Heisman, that Clausen was good. The broadcasters are the worst there are on network TV. Things are obviously different with tighter scholarship limits, different styles of offense that can elevate a team beyond its talent level, and more media exposure for college football as a whole, which is why a run of excellence like ND had in the 60s and 70s, or even their mini-run from 88-93 with Holtz, are probably no longer possible. But like I said, ND can still be an Oklahoma or Florida type with consistent BCS appearances and the occasional title run. It just takes a coach willing to go for it. Charlie worked hard enough, but he wasn't cut out for the job, so now ND has to try again.

And Oklahoma was garbage for a while before Stoops got there. Miami and Florida were both pretty nondescript for a while there - hell, Miami still kind of is, though they appear on the way back up. It's not hard to figure out the common denominator. The ability to get any athlete they want. Are you privy to some sort of information that suggests these teams couldn't get any athlete they wanted during the Blake era at OU, the Stallings era at Bama, the Coker era at Miami or the Zooker era at Florida? Bama was successful during the Stallings era, but not so much in between him and Saban. That was Dubose, Franchione and Shula. Right. My mistake, that's the era I meant.

Technically they don't, but players can apply for fifth years if they fill redshirt criteria, and they pretty much always get them.