I'm On My Way to See the Jackets Play!

Wow, only three more days until TML! Goldtimer at Wreck Ramblin has got all your Tech news covered today. This guy is a machine. Look at the time stamp on those posts! Two o'clock in the morning! Goldtimer, if that is what you call "gearing down", "full speed ahead" has got to be insane. You put the rest of us to shame. Glad to see you are back.

This will be my last post until after the game. I have to work this afternoon and all through the night, then I am jetting to Atlanta around noon tomorrow, but not before being promoted to Captain. I am being promoted because I have been in the Army for three and a half years, not because I am special or anything, but it is an honor nonetheless.

With the Notre Dame game so close and with everyone putting up information as to how important this game is, I thought I would join in. This is one of the original posts we ever had on this site, way back when we were broadcasting from an abandoned building on an airfield south of Iraq. It was awesome then and it is especially good to read now. I hope it gets you fired up as you make the final preparations for the opener against the Irish. -yb

From way back to Monday, December 12, 2005...

Ten Reasons to Hate Notre Dame

This is by Mark Zais, a guest YBW contributor, enjoy.-yb

Notre Dame is the devil. I know that it sounds harsh, but there are some of us who believe that Notre Dame signifies everything that is wrong about college football: big money, media bias, and the BCS system.

For years, football fans have been forced to hear about the "rich tradition" of Notre Dame and made to feel guilty for finding reasons not to like the Fighting Irish. From the constant barrage of praise and adoration given by the media and their fans, one almost feels blasphemous or sacrilegious in rooting against them. Listed below are some of the top reasons why I believe that Notre Dame football is undeserving of its sanctimonious status and should be exposed as what they really are, nothing more than an elitist football factory that is far from the image of football purity and righteousness they try to project. (These ten are in no particular order, bad is bad)

1. NBC. I am tired of hearing about the "obstacles" Notre Dame has with recruiting due to their high admissions and academic standards (I will specifically address those standards later as they are an issue unto themselves). If they hadn't already, Notre Dame established itself as a full-fledged football factory when they signed the contract to air all their home games on NBC despite the opponent. By prostituting themselves to football and subjecting the public to perennial matchups against the likes of Navy and Stanford, Notre Dame secured its elitist image and largest recruiting base of any school. It's not out of jealously that I find this disturbing but more because when hard times hit Notre Dame, they immediately point to their "insurmountable" recruiting obstacles. Give me a break. I don't blame other schools for being jealous, though; there is a distinct disadvantage when one school rakes in millions and millions of guaranteed dollars each year no matter how good or bad they are. For everyone else, gaining more money is performance based and means making it to a good bowl game. Plus, Notre Dame rakes in bowl money and doesn't have to share it with other conference members, but that will also be discussed later. Probably the most glaring and insulting display of arrogance between NBC and Notre Dame is presented in the telecasts themselves. Should you by chance be forced to watch NBC because your favorite team is playing Notre Dame or you simply hate them enough to watch and hope for their defeat, NBC goes ahead and makes the assumption that we aren't interested in any other games across the country. While every other telecast has frequent updates or a scoreboard streamer at the bottom of the screen, NBC entices viewers with one or two random score updates in a 3 hour period. Why would you care about what any other teams are doing when you are watching Notre Dame?

2. Lou Holtz. I have nothing against the man personally. In fact, I think he would be an interesting guy to sit and talk to at a bar. I also like his quotes, motivation techniques, and ability to always paint a dire scenario of impending defeat whether he is playing USC or Toledo. That doesn't mean I would invite him to be a guest speaker at an ethics conference. The reason Lou Holtz is on my list is because his tenure at Notre Dame symbolizes the nationwide bias towards the success and sanctimony of Notre Dame. History shows us that throughout Lou Holtz's career he has left a wake of scandal and probation, always managing to get out of Dodge one step ahead of sanctions hitting his school. Every school that has had Lou Holtz as a head coach (NC State, Minnesota, Arkansas, Notre Dame, and South Carolina) has been hit with probation in sequence with his departure. A common theme in the probation verbage has been that his programs have a "lack of institutional control". The poignant issue that I have with all these sanctions is that of all the Lou Holtz schools found to have violated NCAA rules only one was subsequently given an "informal probation", giving them the right to address the issues internally. Which school was that? That's right, Notre Dame! How convenient. If anyone believes that Lou Holtz sandwiched a spell of integrity at Notre Dame with a career of cheating, they are either ignorant or a Notre Dame fan. A book, "Under the Tarnished Dome", has even been written about this period of Notre Dame tradition, which includes one National Championship. In this book, the authors and ex-players make allegations of prevalent steroid use and illegal loans to players. Oh, how pure Notre dame is. There is no difference between Notre Dame and any other football factory, to include Florida State, Oklahoma, USC, or Texas. The only difference is that fraudulent Notre Dame portrays itself as being above the fray. Thank you Lou Holtz for showing us the light.

3. Touchdown Jesus. Nothing highlights the arrogance of Notre Dame football more than Touchdown Jesus. Relishing an image of Jesus overlooking the football stadium is synonymous to the whole football team kneeling in prayer in the end zone and thanking God for allowing them to score a touchdown. Only Notre Dame fans could think that with all the suffering and atrocities in the world, Jesus cares whether or not Notre Dame wins. It is because of this type of blasphemous arrogance that more Notre Dame fans pray for victory than any one else.

4. Academic Standards. I am tired of having Notre Dame's academic standards shoved down my throat. Notre Dame's academic standards are used as excuses for their poor performance and as an example of their "purity" in relation to other programs. I don't buy it for one second. Notre Dame is like any other school: if you're good enough to help the team, you're good enough for Notre Dame. Let me rewind back to the days of my man Lou Holtz who said his biggest recruiting regret was not being able to land Randy Moss who chose Florida State instead of Notre Dame. Lou said Moss was the best high school player he has ever seen. Randy Moss was accepted to Notre Dame and it wasn't due to his sparkling academic record or his admirable high school arrest record. I have no doubt that had he been hurdling defensive backs while wearing the gold helmet, he would have managed to pass his classes. Just as recently as three years ago, the battle for arguably the best high school player in the country, Lorenzo Booker, once again came down to Notre Dame and Florida State. (He chose Florida State). My point is that the Notre Dames and Florida States of the football world are fishing from the same pond and keeping any big fish they catch. As an exclamation point, the list of academic heavyweights that played for Notre Dame include the likes of Tony Rice, Chris Zorich, Ron Powlus, Demetrious DuBose, Ricky Waters, and Jerome Bettis. I don't think any of these guys were on their high school brain bowl team.

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