Let the echoes sleep in

It's Thursday in America, and what better way to celebrate than by dissecting the rigor-riddled corpse of Notre Dame football?

First, courtesy of The Big Lead, comes this link to one of the best ideas I've seen in a while. I don't know how long they'll let this stay up, but...damn. It's definitely nice to see ESPN finally come clean with how they really want their website to look.

Meanwhile, the "real" media has been hitting the Irish (and their fans) fast and furious over the last week. Of course, we all know about the 0-3 start to the season. We know that the Irish haven't scored an offensive touchdown. We heard this week that exiled former starter Demetrius Jones (the guy who didn't get on the bus to Ann Arbor) wants to transfer to football powerhouse Northern Illinois, except the Notre Dame athletic department won't release him from his scholarship. And of course, running under all of this is the subtle (and not so subtle) accusations of racism, due to Notre Dame's unceremonious dumping of Ty Willingham for subpar results and recruiting. That has ultimately become the main story...but should it really be so?

We've seen a wide variety of articles, columns, and other written and televised statements from the "real" media decrying Charlie Weis as a fraud --- a gastrically-bypassed con-artist who got to two BCS bowls simply because he had Willingham's players. Now that those players are gone, the "real" media claims, Weis' offensive system has been exposed for the ineffective machinery that it is, his team's defense is non-existent, and the Irish are on the hook for millions of dollars thanks to the 10-year contract extension they handed Weis in his first year. Should Weis be fired? Should the Irish officially apologize to Willingham? The questions and accusations seem to never end with this situation.

Ultimately, though, it's all B.S. story-flogging by a media that have inexplicably refused to realize one simple fact: Notre Dame simply isn't a bellwether football program anymore. In fact, one could go so far as to say that Notre Dame isn't even that relevant in college football anymore. What relevance they do possess is due to nothing more than the sports media's inability to let go of past glories --- glories that themselves were artificially pumped up by the media themselves.

Among other things, Willingham's tenure in South Bend was ended early due to poor recruiting. Although Weis' first two classes were very highly ranked, he's been highly criticized for having those classes be ineffective so far. If anything, Weis should be congratulated for being able to draw those top recruits to Notre Dame in the first place. What the heck has Notre Dame done in the last decade that would make a top player want to go there? The Irish have lost their last NINE bowl games, stretching back to the 1995 Fiesta Bowl. Despite having the BCS bowl selection code written specifically to get the Irish into a top bowl, they've only played in three such contests since the BCS started - the 2001 Fiesta, 2006 Fiesta, and 2007 Sugar - and have lost all three by an average margin of 24.3 points.

What advantage does a player receive in going to Notre Dame? It's not tradition --- we've effectively eliminated history and tradition from the minds of America's youth in all areas, let alone sports. It's not location, either. Anyone who's ever been to South Bend and decided that they wanted to spend five years there probably isn't smart enough to pass the entrance exam for Notre Dame.

And it's certainly not the "Notre Dame mystique", or "football played the right way" that could draw top talent to South Bend. Of all the attributes for Notre Dame football that the media bandies about, it's this one that is easily the most laughable. The water is no different in South Bend than it is elsewhere. Notre Dame's ascension to prominence in the late 80's and early 90's was built on the same sort of cheating chicanery that Oklahoma, Florida State, the entire SEC, and other programs utilized. The list has grown rapidly over the last 15 years, be it Kim Dunbar, the O'Leary mess, the Willingham firing, et cetera. No, the water is no different in South Bend...and for Notre Dame fans and media lackeys to have ever assumed otherwise demonstrates a naivete that borders on the idiotic.

If we look at the current situation from an honest perspective, we can easily see that the current feeding frenzy regarding Charlie Weis is yet another manifestation of the "real" sports media's inability to realize that the glory days of Notre Dame are over. It's not the fault of any one person, be it Charlie Weis, Ty Willingham, or even Bob Davie. The decline of Notre Dame football has been a truly collaborative effort, involving all levels of the Irish athletic and administrative programs. Much of the blame can be laid at the altar of Notre Dame's hubris, which declared many years ago that Notre Dame was bigger than any conference or team in college football. By remaining steadfastly independent, and by segregating themselves on television from the rest of college football, Notre Dame set themselves on a path towards obsolescence in the minds of many young fans and youth football players. The Irish were always able to pull in a certain number of recruits each year that "dreamed of playing for Notre Dame since they were children". Well, who exactly dreams of playing for Notre Dame now? The 17 and 18-year-olds of today were 3 or 4 years old the last time the Irish even won a bowl game. Because of these and other factors, the failure of Notre Dame on the football field SIMPLY ISN'T NEWS. That ship sailed long ago. But the media continues to pump this program up like it's a serious national contender, subjecting the vast majority of college football fans to news they don't want about a program that doesn't deserve the attention anymore.

Even if the Irish rebound this year and make it to a bowl game, the equation will not have changed. By taking themselves out of college football's mainstream and setting themselves on a pedestal, Notre Dame sealed their future as an afterthought on the national scene among talented high school players outside the midwest. I fully expect that someday soon, the self-serving and arrogant braintrust at Notre Dame will approach some conference and beg to be admitted as a member...and after the decades of self-importance in South Bend, it would be the most appropriate thing in sports history if that conference told them to take a hike.