All of this is part of the reason I don't care for college football. Notre Dame is still treated like some sort of sacred entity when the reality is they are just another 'next tier' team that hasn't deserved the reverence they get today for over 20 years. I understand that they have that mystique and a huge following, but that is because of successes from a long time ago. Can we start treating them as just another ACC football program now? That is really all they are.
Well, they ran the table in the ACC regular season, aided by Lawrence missing the game in South Bend. But if not them, who? Texas A&M? They lost to Bama by 28. Cincinnati? They didn’t play anyone, the constant argument against non-Power 5 teams. Coastal Carolina? See Cincy. Two loss Oklahoma? You can make an argument that they were playing as well as any team at the end of the season, their 2 losses were in weeks 2 and 3.
Is it possible that Clemson has been overrated the last 2 years? They beat Ohio St. on a blown call, then blew a 10 point lead in the final, losing by 17 after climbing back into it.
It’s all about TV and until the time that Notre Dame can’t carry a network package on their own, they’re always going to be in the conversation. Their NBC contract runs until 2025. Maybe when that expires, they’ll be forced into the ACC full time, but not until then.