Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1293421
6 OCT. 10, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED FAN FORUM YOU'RE WELCOME! In a recent issue the idea seems to be out there that Notre Dame "owes" the ACC for allowing them to play. Not so fast — the ACC and all of college football, Big 12, SEC, and now Big Ten, should thank Notre Dame as being the key player in keeping this season alive. On the opening weekend of col- lege football, ESPN sent a "thank you" letter to Notre Dame from "the other 76" as being the linchpin to even having a season. All of college football, if the entire season happens, "owes" Notre Dame for facilitating it to occur. Notre Dame's leadership, from the President on down, needs to be praised for all they have done, being at the forefront both in terms of giv- ing the nation a college football sea- son, as well as getting students back on campus in order to get our lives back to as normal as they can be. Mike Chmell Via the Internet SUGGESTION BOX Congratulations on the start of another season of great coverage of Notre Dame sports. I have been a loyal reader/subscriber since the first issues of your publication. Your thor- ough and unbiased articles on all the "goings-on" in the world of Notre Dame sports have been excellent. Keep up the good work! I have one suggestion. I miss the brief summaries of Notre Dame op- ponents' previous games that used to appear in the mid-week preview newsletters. I realize that it may be too late to resurrect them in this sea- son, but please consider adding them for the 2021 season. Mike Kroeger '69, '71 Phoenix, Ariz. Mr. Kroeger, first thank you for you decades of continued support and patron- age. It is greatly valued. Your request will be taken into consideration. BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007, Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com The Sept. 22 announcement from Notre Dame that the scheduled game at Wake Forest four days later would be postponed (moved to Dec. 12) because of COVID-19 brought home the reality of how fragile every game is this weekend. That prompted more questions about whether a full season could actually be played this season with so little margin of error with open dates. This was a small sample of the reaction on our BlueandGold.com website. BGIUser2232: The best personal analogy I can come up with is when I went on a trip to Cuba as part of a historical preservation tour group (say what you want about the country, but there is a lot to look at). Once I was there, I realized the daily routines of my life would be turned on its head, and if I gauged everything in the way that I would evalu- ate my normal daily life back home, this would be a disaster. So, I turned off that kind of critical eye and just rolled with it. It turned out to be a really good time, even with a certain amount of deprivation. As fans, we're going to have to just learn to roll with a certain amount of deprivation. Like I was in Cuba, we are now strangers in a strange land. Irish Diego: These events makes me wonder yet again if the Big Ten can really go eight straight weeks with no postponement. No bye weeks; no proverbial wiggle room. The Big Ten Champion- ship falls on Dec. 19th, with the College Football Playoff selection the following morning. Desteffm7: Maybe it'll be like Major League Baseball and it'll get slightly worse, and then a whole lot better. Ryno1134: Works for me. I get to watch potential meaningful college football well into December. Irishfan_1983: In hindsight it might've ben- efited the ACC more to scrap the plus-one non- conference games, play nine ACC games, and then have all teams on common byes (Oct 3, Nov 21, and Dec 12) to ensure the games get played on/before Dec 19. I just don't see how Notre Dame dominating USF, Clemson taking down The Citadel or Wake Forest vs. Campbell added to the allure of foot- ball when the schedules don't match up to allow a tweak in the conference schedules, which is the only thing that matters. Just my $.02. We can't change the past. NDbeatSC: With cancellations inevitable, per- haps the new Jan. 1 games will be the Feb. 1 games. Spaddy: Weird the Notre Dame student popu- lation wasn't hit hard at all, but the Notre Dame football team was. Kcndmis97: The December games should be better as far as less infections because all stu- dents will be gone by Thanksgiving (the first semester ends Nov. 20, and the second semester doesn't begin until Feb. 3). AJcgn: I say cancel the Nov. 7 game and replace the opponent with Wake. Thomasna: Remember when we didn't even worry about whether Notre Dame would play a game each week they were supposed to? Good times. FROM THE WEB JOIN THE CONVERSATION! GET A 60-DAY FREE TRIAL WITH CODE IRISH60 Notre Dame's leadership — from Father John Jenkins (above) on down — deserves praise for how they have handled the COVID-19 pandemic. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS