National Criticism Of Notre Dame Football Is Just Lazy

It would appear that Notre Dame has become a hot topic of conversation lately, and it shows the lazy nature of modern engagement in sports

Apparently I didn't get the memo that last week was "Make your lamest criticism of Notre Dame" week for members of the media. What we saw last week from various national media members, who all launched into a similar form of criticism of Notre Dame, was at best group think and at worst just ignorance, but all of it is just plain lazy.

Do you know how often I talk about irrelevant topics on my shows, or in articles, or on the IB message board? Never, because they are irrelevant. No one that does this job wastes time on irrelevant topics, so anyone claiming that Notre Dame is irrelevant, while talking about Notre Dame, is making it obvious that Notre Dame is in fact very relevant.

But that's not even the point, that's the easy pushback. The greater point is that the latest batch of annual Notre Dame bashing is just ignorant and lazy. No one actually going at Notre Dame is making any kind of coherent point. The only thing that remotely lands is the whole "Well they haven't won anything," and "It's been 35 years since they won a title."

Was Ohio State irrelevant in the 31 seasons between its national title from 1970 to 2002? Did Georgia only become relevant in 2021 when it won a national title, it's first in 40 seasons? Was Michigan irrelevant for the 49 years between its 1948 and 1997 titles? Or should I say Michigan's half a title in 1997? The Wolverines then went another 25 years without winning a title.

Oregon has never won a national title and no one seems to have a problem hyping up the Ducks every year. Penn State's current national title drought is 37 years and counting. Texas A&M's current no title streak is at 84 years, but that doesn't stop the world wide leader from overhyping them every season.

We don't ever hear petty rants about those programs, do we? No. 

Why don't we ever hear these silly rants about those programs? They aren't Notre Dame, and that is the entire point. The fact Notre Dame gets the obsessive anger from national analysts and opposing fanbases contradicts and undermines their entire argument. You can talk all you want about Notre Dame not having won a title in a long time, that is totally fair game, but that is always preceded by or proceeded by talk about "irrelevance."

It's silly.

This notion that Notre Dame isn't a top program because it hasn't won a title is also shallow, misguided and spin used to take a shot at Notre Dame. Notre Dame hasn't won a title, and that is something the program needs to correct, because that's ultimately what Notre Dame should be judged by big picture. But to dismiss the fact that Notre Dame has been one of the nation's best programs for the last decade shows that analysts aren't trying to have a rational discussion about Notre Dame's standing in the world of college football, it shows they are simply using the love-hate relationship fans have with Notre Dame to generate views, clicks, or whatever shallow manner in which people fight for attention nowadays.

Again, proving the entire conversation about relevance is just lazy and ignorant.

I'm a numbers guy, so let's look at the numbers. Here are the P5 programs with the most wins over the last decade. I've broken it down to the five most recent seasons and then the last ten seasons.

So the program that is tied for 5th in the most wins over the last five years, and is 6th in most wins over the last decade, is irrelevant? Overrated? Not worthy of being discussed? Of course they are, that's why this same tired, lazy, spin filled narrative pops up every single year.

Every. Single. Year.

It's a rinse and repeat cycle during the down time of the offseason. Need clicks? Write something negative about Notre Dame. Need to boost your social media interactions? Say something negative about Notre Dame. Talk about Notre Dame's irrelevance while proving their relevance with whatever silly talking points you want to grab onto.

That's when group think takes over. Someone at ESPN makes an absurd statement about Notre Dame and now every wanna-be with a social media platform, a show or a platform to write follows the leader and puts their own ridiculous spin on it.

That's what passes for "analysis" now a days. Let's not have a rational argument Notre Dame's place in the modern landscape, let's not have a conversation about where Notre Dame's on-field product falls short, let's not stack up Notre Dame's win-loss record against the Power 5 conferences. 

No, we can't do that, we have to act like petulant children who are still mad about not being able to get into Notre Dame and go on silly rants that do nothing but invoke emotional responses. We have to say that the program that only five programs have won more games over the last decade is irrelevant, and question whether or not they have won anything.

Lazy.

For Notre Dame's part, it would be nice if they could just shut everyone up and win a title. But let's be honest, if that happened there would be some new silly mantra that took a shot at Notre Dame, because the two things that I don't see changing anytime soon is that lazy analysis centered around a desire to make easy money is going to lead anyone looking to make a buck to talk about one program ..... Notre Dame.

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