Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/156066
Under the Dome Charting The Irish BCS Hangover? History has shown that losing Super Bowl teams in the NFL have a hard time getting back to the big stage the following year. In the college football world, where parity is far more scarce, championship loss hangovers aren't nearly as common. If Notre Dame follows the historical trend, the Irish have a good chance of finishing this season in another BCS bowl game. Nine of the 14 teams that have lost championship games in the BCS era had double digits in the win column the following year. Three teams —Florida State in 1999, Oklahoma in 2004 and Ohio State in 2007 — made it back for a shot at redemption the year after losing in a title game. Of those teams, only the Seminoles were successful, beating Virginia Tech 46-29 in the Sugar Bowl to win the championship. Texas represents the biggest single-season drop-off. The Longhorns went from the 2009 BCS National Championship Game to missing the bowl season altogether in 2010 with a 5-7 record. Wins Year After Losing BCS Title Game 12 10 1998 • 12-0 1999 • 11-1 2003 • 12-1 2010 • 12-2 2006 • 11-2 2002 • 11-2 2005 • 11-2 2007 • 10-3 8 6 4 2011 • 10-3 2000 • 8-4 2004 • 8-4 2008 • 8-5 2001 • 7-7 2009 • 5-7 Brian Kelly Contract Extension 'Imminent' The long offseason process of extending head coach Brian Kelly's contract at Notre Dame seems to be approaching an end. "We have a contract and an agreement," Kelly said Aug. 2. "We have people that are paid money to look at these contracts. They look at them very closely. They don't operate as quickly as I would like to, but there are no issues contractually." Kelly said he and athletics director Jack Swarbrick started talks for a new deal last December following his team's 12-0 regular season. "We had an agreement," he asserted. "There's just legal language. Nothing that has put me in a position, or the university, that we don't have an agreement moving forward for a number of years."