Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2020 Notre Dame Football Preview
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34 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The Big Ten made more geographical sense than the ACC, but the deal breaker was the Big Ten not permitting partial league sta- tus in football the way the ACC did. Indepen- dence on the gridiron remained paramount because Notre Dame prides itself on compet- ing for national titles, not league titles. Yet here is a reality: In the 26 football sea- sons from 1994 through 2019, only twice did Notre Dame enter the final game of the regu- lar season with a bona fide shot at the national championship (2012 and 2018 under Kelly). That's nearly an eight-percent success rate. In 19 of those 26 seasons, the Fighting Irish already had at least a second defeat by the time November started. Another potential reality is unless Notre Dame finishes a regular season 12-0, it would be hard pressed at even 11-1 to make the College Football Playoff while top con- ferences hold league playoffs to qualify. In the 70 football seasons since 1950, only four times has Notre Dame finished a regular season unblemished, or once per 17.5 years: 1973, 1988, 2012 and 2018. It seems nobody wants to be known as the Notre Dame administrator who relinquished the school's football independence. Sooner or later, though, especially with a 31- year drought from a national title in football, that stance could become more and more passé as the decades roll on without the brass ring. Playoff Expansion/ National Title Competition From the time the College Football Play- off four-team format commenced in 2014, it has been more a question of when, not if, regarding an expansion to eight teams by the time the original contract expires in 2025. If it does, is that a positive or negative for Notre Dame? The plus side is the likely allowance of more "at large" teams such as independent Notre Dame instead of just Power Five conference champs. Plus, it would facilitate the school's desire to remain a football independent. The negative is the necessity to win not one, not two, but three consecutive contests against premier top-five competition in order to capture a championship. Notre Dame has not defeated a top-five team at the time of the game since a 17-10 win in week two at Michigan in 2005, nor has it won a "major" postseason bowl outing since the 1993 campaign. The 1966 national champs didn't even have to go to a bowl and won the title with a 9-0-1 mark. In 1973, Notre Dame needed only one win in the postseason to finish No. 1, and in 1977 with one loss and a No. 5 ranking it was matched up against the No. 1 team — not possible in the current four-team format. Notre Dame's 1988 national champions in today's format would have had to have a rematch with Miami before also first playing Florida State in a playoff. Going a fourth straight decade without a championship (1990s, 2000s, 2010s) would only exacerbate the hand-wringing of whether a program that won 13 NCAA recognized national titles in the 70 years from 1919-88 will ever win one again in today's landscape. More Power/Choices For The Athletes This April, the NCAA proposed a plan that would permit student-athletes to profit monetarily off their Name, Image and Like- ness (NIL). The deadline to draft this legislation isn't scheduled until October of this year, and it is not planned for now to be voted on later than January 2021. If it passes, then it can be a re- ality at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Paying college athletes beyond the tradi- tional grant-in-aid for tuition, room, board and books is now more of an appetizer — and a potential greater slippery slope. It allows for student-athletes to "receive compensation for third-party endorsements both related to and separate from athletics … other opportunities, such as social media, business they have started and personal ap- pearances," per the NCAA. However, what defines that "third party" and what a player can be paid for, and does it create an even greater balance between the haves and have-nots in college football, thus precipitating more of a "super conference" and a break from the NCAA? College athletics have been far from pris- tine since the outset, but this can result in even more gray area and unintended consequences, not to mention internal jealousy or friction. Newly named offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, who turned 28 in May, has been on a meteoric path in his coaching ascent at Notre Dame. Could he be an eventual successor to Brian Kelly in the next decade or will the school's next head coach come from somewhere else? PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA