A Possible Step in the Right Direction

An NCAA committee announced last Thursday that it will back a proposal to prohibit making scholarships offers to recruits before July 1 in the summer between their junior and senior years in high school. If passed, it would apply to all sports.


Coaches also would have to receive high school transcripts documenting at least five semesters or seven quarters worth of academic work for a young recruit before they can offer a scholarship.



Well it’s about time don't you think?  College football recruiting of younger and still younger high schoolers has gotten completely out of hand.  Who was the coach out in California that just this year offered a scholarship to a middle-schooler?  Just for publicity or a warning to others to keep hands off and lay claim?

However, if that's the case and the new rule, the twelve recruits that Coach Kelly has received verbal commitments from thus far would also not be possible/eligible.  (See right column of blog for mug shots of the Notre Dame booty thus far.)  It will change alot if enacted.  Most of the top tier schools have 20-30 verbals already.

An entire industry and profession has evolved over the past twenty years concerning the identification, promotion, tracking, evaluating, and analyzing college football prospects.  (A second cottage industry has also risen over NFL draft status and hype.)  We now have:

  *  Websites dedicated to following the recruiting agony and ecstasy of a particular Team.  Irish Eyes comes to mind for Notre Dame.

  *  Two companies Rivals and Scouts that put a star or number by every high school prospect.

  *  So called experts like Tom Lemming who evaluate recruit commitments and specific fits for each college Team.

  *  ESPN human meat analyst's Todd McShay and Mel Kiper.

  *  Two national high school All-Star Games and cheesy commitments and interviews in front of the cameras, all for ten seconds of glory, personal publicity and fame.

  *  Thousands of articles, blog posts, team rankings of recruiting classes, and the ultimate wailing and nashing of teeth over lost or ship jumping prospects.

  *  Recruits showing up in stretch Hummers at the College Football Hall of Fame to announce commitments.  Did that really happen?

Why July 1 and not say September 1, around when most high school football players are starting back to school and fall practice?  Because September is way too late for the college coaches and recruiters.  July 1 will become a kind of National Verbal Commitment day just like on February 2nd it is National Signing Day. 

It may make campus visits and summer camps more important.

It all just makes a lot more sense and takes pressure off the coaches and the young players.  Let's them get down to business of playing their senior years and letting the coaches engage in early fall camp.  

What's the next step?

Limiting early enrollment in January that affords a high school player the opportunity to participate in spring practice.  Let them graduate with their friends, classmates and teammates.  Let them enjoy their senior year and everything that goes with it.

IRISH Have Ragone Back

Unbelievable! Hard to fathom! Must be a misprint! Mike Ragone has dodged a bullet. Quick lads find the bullet picture we used in the ‘God Bless Texas’ post and slap it up again.

Mike is working out with the Team, attending summer school at Notre Dame and is cleared to play this fall. Read the story here.

It can only mean three things:

** The ResLife board is now stacked with former football players.

** Brian Kelly has worn out a set of rosary beads.

** Common sense has found a home at Notre Dame.

Coach Kelly probably thinks Christmas comes in June around South Bend.

Hopefully the incident is a wakeup call for Ragone and the entire football team.

Seriously, the Indiana justice system for first time offenders just makes sense. Big fine. A type of probation where they won’t prosecute if he stays clean for a year. Community service.

When Mike catches his first touchdown pass this fall he'd better cross himself and point skyward.

Go Irish.  Beat the Boilerpeople.

Brian Kelly Snags # 10

Brian Kelly and his staff landed verbal recruit number ten - Clay Burton. Somewhere on the right side of the blog is his mug shot along with the other nine commits so far. Guess we are about half way home on numbers for 2011.

Nice to get one from football rich Florida.

You can read all about Clay here, no sense in repeating, but this blog is the only site where you can instantly review the recruits, somewhere on the right side.

Maple Bars and Golden Tate

Well for cryin out loud. Has anyone kept up with Golden Tate? Did he sign a contract with the Seahawks yet? Does he need walk-around $$ until he does? We can take up an office collection here at SAS if it would help. Did he leave his brains at Notre Dame this spring?

Stealing Maple Bars, now what’s that all about? The guy’s lucky. If it had been me or you, we’d been arrested and humiliated. All Golden got was the humiliation part. Hope it has some long lasting effect.

Being born and raised in Michigan, I had no idea what a Maple Bar was. Had to Google to find out.

Well shoot, we call them ‘long johns’. Actually, they taste better if they are smeared with white sugar frosting instead of maple frosting.

Wonder if Golden has ever tried (stolen) them that way?

God Bless Texas

Well obviously, Notre Dame dodged a bullet. Independence as a football entity is still very much intact. The Big East did not get raped or imploded. Notre Dame still has a venue to compete in other sports. Thank god for Texas. That “Don’t mess with Texas” slogan is not just hollow words. They hung tough against the Pac-10 (11) and will live another day in the Big-12 (10).





It’s pretty much agreed that the Big Ten (11) (12) got at least half of what they wanted, those greedy schmucks. No one in the Big East appealed enough or could add value. So they penetrated the heartland of America and bring a great football school and tradition to the Big Ten (11) (12). It just did not make economic sense to slice the TV revenue pie into smaller pieces for the likes of Missouri, Rutgers, and Syracuse. Once again, Notre Dame said no and was able to get away with it. Wouldn’t a national championship type year or at least a BCS bid be sweet to add salt to the wounded Big Ten (11) (12)?

Man they need to sort out all the conference names.

I can’t wait for the first time Nebraska fans buy up every ticket on the planet and take over someone’s stadium in a sea of Red.  Been there, seen it, did not like it.

Notre Dame needs to start winning and winning against teams that have for the past twenty years been using the Irish as a doormat. If ND can again become a college football power on the national scene, no one would dare setup a BCS or playoff system without the proviso that a 12-0 or 11-1 independent Notre Dame Team be somehow included in the mix.

It appears the real threat to Notre Dame wasn’t necessarily being shut out of the BCS bowl situation because of the possibility of 16 school mega conferences that would control playing for the national championship. There is always work a rounds for that. The frightening scenario involved the SEC raiding the ACC to acquire a slate of 16 schools. The ACC would have in turn raided the Big East to do the same. By the time the Big East would have woke up and looked around, no viable football schools would have been left and no conference for Notre Dame to compete in other varsity sports. Whew.

79 days to Purdue. But who’s counting?

Notre Dame's Worst Nightmare Erased by the NCAA

Well the sad state of affairs in Trojan Land has finally been made public. The chickens have come home to roost but unfortunately the bad chickens have flown the coop.  Those punished of course are the fans, the current roster of student-athletics and the current coaching staff. Reggie Bush, Pete Carroll, the two slug-type wannabe sports agents, the Bush family, and a bunch of greedy intermediaries all got off Scott Free.

“LOS ANGELES -- The NCAA threw the book at storied Southern California on Thursday with a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year's games for improper benefits to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush dating to the Trojans' 2004 national championship.


USC was penalized for a lack of institutional control in the ruling by the NCAA following its four-year investigation. The report cited numerous improper benefits for Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo, who spent just one year with the Trojans.


The penalties include the loss of 30 football scholarships over three years and vacating 14 victories in which Bush played from December 2004 through the 2005 season.


USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.”

So what does it mean?
Our worst nightmare never happened!
The 2005 Bush-Push!!
God Bless the NCAA!

The Irish and Eagles Agree to Continue Attending Mass Together

Couple of years ago Notre Dame renewed/extended their annual football matchup with Purdue. While we all banged our heads against the wall and asked why?   Especially since the Irish were already playing the Skunkbears and Sparty, some pundits came out of the woodwork and hushed everyone quiet.  Seems like when a million years ago most of the Big Ten schools headed by Michigan were under the table blackballing and boycotting Notre Dame, good ole Purdue continued to schedule and play the Irish.  Good for them.  Thank you Boiler Type People.

The whole thing is kind of like Navy, they came on campus during WII and kept the school alive and afloat (nice analogy huh) just so we could get our heads handed to us in 2007 and 2009.  Not even gonna talk about that Roger guy and what he did to the Irish.

So, now Notre Dame announces that they are going to continue a nice series playing the only other top flight (another analogy coming) Catholic University, the Eagles of Boston College and the Anti-Catholics starts trashing Notre Dame for cup caking the schedule.

Gee, Boston College has had our number for so long, we should drop them and should start playing some more of those compass colleges from Michigan (WMU among others).

Gee you can’t win. 

Well  Subway Alumni Unite!!  Notre Dame should win.......Go Irish, beat the Boilermakers, the Eagles, and the Broncos!

Another Boring Article About Conference Realignment and Notre Dame

The football conference talk is reaching feeding frenzy proportions. What possibly can be left for the sports media to write, discuss and debate? Are things that slow in the office? World Cup that boring?  Tiger playing that badly?  Obviously, everyone is waiting for the Big Ten (11) to make its move. It appears that both the Big East and the Big-12 are going to be raided and sooner rather than later. The Big Ten (11) has started something they cannot stop and if they do not act soon, the Pac-10 will act first instead.


The $$$ just appears too easy to pass up. The Big Ten network has to be fed and increasing the number of teams and presenting a conference championship game is proving too hard to ignore any longer.

Here at SAS we pulled the old sheet off our vintage Univac computer, plugged it in and held our breath. It started to hum which amazed everyone. Good ole IBM sure knew how to make them. The staff had been punching IBM cards for over a week and the stack was impressive. The boss finally gave the approval and the cards were hand-fed into the machine. We crossed our fingers and here are the results.

The Big Ten (11) will:

Once again, invite Notre Dame to join the conference.  ND will decline and dodge the first bullet.

Take Syracuse from the Big East and snub Rutgers. The Big East will invite Marshall from Conference USA to maintain eight teams playing football and keep their conference BCS bid. Notre Dame manages to dodge a second bullet and will continue to compete in all other sports within the Big East.

The Big Ten (11) now has penetrated the Eastern TV market.

Invite Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Texas A&M to join the now Big Sixteen. Texas Tech. will be left out in the cold.  Many Texans will be angered by the raid the nose thumbing of Texas Tech.  But come on, who wants Texas Tech?  Calls to remember the Alamo will be made and heard, but to no avail. The $$$ is just too sweet and nice.

The Big Ten (11) will have penetrated the South and Western Plain States TV market.

The Pac-10 will:

Take Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech from the Big-12 and become the Pac-14.  Texans are happy and so are the Red Raiders.

The Mountain West, Conference USA, and recently raped Big-12 will:

Realign to ensure a BCS spot for each conference.

The Results:

A bullet, which Notre Dame could not dodge, was its out-year schedule.  Purdue and Michigan State will be forced to cancel their contracts with Notre Dame to increase playing time in the Big-Sixteen.  The Michigan rivalry is too big and fat for the conference network to pass on.

The thirty-odd bowl games will see their lock-ins with certain conferences change.  This will open up opportunities for Notre Dame.

The ACC and SEC will continue along without any changes in their memberships or TV contracts.

The Pac-14 will negotiate a conference network and make tons of $$$.

Notre Dame will dump the 7-4-1 schedule and bury that dumb idea deep under the south goal post.

The Texas-Oklahoma rivalry will be played across conference boundaries.

New teams will have the opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl.

Recruiting will take on more of a national level, which will hurt Notre Dame in the long run.

NBC will renegotiate it's contract with Notre Dame, and both will make even more $$$.


Well the sheet is back on the Univac and yet another article written about the conference realignment talk.