Van wrote:Terry, ESPN has three Domers in key positions. Their main CF guy, besides Kirk Herbstreit, is a mush mouthed Domer. He was a senile embarassment LONG before the "Dr Lou" segment...
So you're saying that Lou probably isn't the greatest source for ESPN to rely on when it comes to ND?
It's not important that ESPN "gets" ND.
It wouldn't be, except for their rather implicit claim to be THE source for sports.
Nobody "gets" ND, and everyone "gets" ND. What's there to "get"? Posing the question of whether ND ought to join a conference is perfectly valid. Who cares if it's not part of their tradition?
It's what they need to do now.
They added girls, right? That didn't used to be part of their tradition either.
For that matter, it used to be that ND didn't do bowl games, period, no matter the circumstances. That has changed as well.
Not to change this thread into yet another Great Conference Debate, but I don't agree with your take that ND should join a conference, but I'm hardly a reflexive proponent of independence no matter what. Case in point: about a decade and a half ago, ND's fanbase was having this same debate when it came to the basketball program. Back then, I was a strong advocate of ND joining a basketball conference. That may sound inconsistent, but it really isn't: in both cases I was/am going with what I thought was best for ND's program.
In any event, reasonable minds can differ as to whether ND should join a conference. If ESPN wants to advocate for that, I don't have a problem with that if they go about it the right way. But that's not what's happening.
If you want to advocate for ND joining a conference, you need to start by acknowledging that independence has been an important part of the fabric of ND's football program. You have to acknowledge that ND will lose certain things by giving up independence. Then you focus on what ND would gain in a conference, and argue that those gains outweigh the losses.
But that's not what ESPN is doing. ESPN is bringing to the table the old chestnut that "everyone else does it" and nothing else. I remember, as a kid, going to the "everyone else does it" card with my parents a time or two. And I suspect most others in here did the same thing at one point in their lives or another. I know how that turned out for me. I suspect I know how it turned out for everyone else. And that argument should never carry any more weight than that even when applied to the question of whether ND should join a conference.
All that matters is ESPN continues to hype ND, far and above anything merited by ND's performance. ESPN recruits for ND, every time they do another fluff piece about the tradition of ND.
They don't do such pieces on, say, Auburn, or Cal.
Let's be clear about why they do it. It's not about any pro-ND bias. They do it because, plain and simple, ND sells. ESPN is about bigger ratings, more subscriptions to their magazine, etc., and ND provides that in a way Auburn or Cal never will. (More on that later, btw.) For that matter, it need not be positive coverage of ND to sell, and as I pointed out earlier, you can find plenty of negative coverage of ND on ESPN as well.
As for the racism question, of course it was merited. ESPN and ND made a big deal out of hiring a black guy, so of course they made a big deal out of ND breaking tradition and firing him before his five seasons were up. The issue took on a helluva lot more validity when ND gave Weis more rope than they gave Ty, despite a poorer performance by Weis.
Of course ESP was forced to address the question. Thing is, ESPN is so goddamn PC that they never really addressed it with any of their usual hype and fervor. They tip toed around it, barely paying it lip service...
ESPN may have made a big deal of it, but again, ND probably was one of the highest-profile programs ever to have a black HC (Oklahoma is the only comparable program to come to mind, and if you blinked, you missed the John Blake era). But ND never made a big deal about hiring a black guy. In fact, if you look at the particulars of that hire (the Gruden snafu, followed by the O'Leary resume fiasco), the opposite conclusion is in order, i.e., that ND wanted to get the hire behind them and get the program back to normal ASAP.
As for firing Ty before the five seasons were up, there was a difference in his contract from those of his predecessors: the buyout provision (Davie had one as well, but not in his first contract. His second contract, after White foolishly re-upped him following the 2000 season, had a buyout.) Weis also has a buyout provision, so the only possible comparison for Ty, among ND coaches, is with Weis. That being said, there are at least three reasons I can think of, all non-racial, as to why Ty was bought out but Weis wasn't.
1. Recruiting. Ty had one good recruiting class, his first, then got really lazy on the recruiting trail. Weis' first class wasn't good, but it was essentially Ty's last class, and he was still the Patriots' OC until just a few days before LOI day. Under the circumstances, he did a pretty good job keeping the class together. His next three classes after that were ranked, in order, #8, #8 and #2 (btw, that last ranking came from both Rivals and Scout; the WWL had the class ranked at #9 -- what's that again about a pro-ND bias at ESPN?) Personally, I've always been somewhat skeptical about recruiting rankings, for reasons I've posted here in the past. But they're not about to go away just because I, and others, have expressed some doubt over them. Good results in recruiting often can get a coach a temporary reprieve when the team isn't performing up to expectations on the field.
2. The buyout. Ty was actually paid more per season under the buyout than Weis was being paid to coach the team. That fact alone tells you that the buyout payments are bound to be pretty substantial. Now remember, Weis signed a significant extension during his first season. In hindsight, that was a mistake on ND's part, but we're stuck with it now. Reportedly, Weis' buyout is worth $20 million. That's a pretty significant dead horse. Of course, the buyout will diminish somewhat after next season.
3. Assistants. Weis at least has shown a willingness to get rid of assistants who failed to live up to expectations. Ty, OTOH, was loyal
to a fault to his assistants. Admirable though that trait may be, on a personal level, it's not likely to buy you a whole lot of patience from either the administration or ND's fanbase.
As for ESPN being too PC about it, you couldn't possibly have been watching the same stuff on TV as I was. John Saunders (on ESPN's sister network) made it the centerpiece of his halftime show during the ND-Washington game in '05. Btw, New Mexico State fired their African-American head coach right around the same time ND fired Ty. And unlike Ty, that coach happened to be the all-time winningest head coach in that program's history. Of course, ESPN isn't going to generate a whole lot of ratings by accusing New Mexico State of racism.
