Play-Off Game: #7 Notre Dame vs #2 Georgia -- Sugar Bowl -- 1/2/2025 at 4 PM [ESPN] (Updated)

I disagree. I think they ran him more because they didn't trust him to throw on time. Their receivers couldn't get any separation and the Line didn't block to well but ND kept blitzing knowing that he was not going to hit the hot route and beat them.

 

It shows the days of SEC dominance are ending. Now that the wizard has retired, there is a balance in the force (I can't really call Saban a Sith, Dan Mullen owns that). Now it will come down to who has deeper pockets. If the Ivy League schools ever got over their disdain for athletics, they could dominate college football. Harvard alone has deeper pockets than the entire SEC.

 

The road to college football goes through …

… the Midwest ?

 

I’ll disagree with your ‘whoever has the deepest pockets wins’ suggestion. Bama and Georgia just took the air out of that one. Texas is slammed with talent and has looked anemic in their past 2 games against underdog opponents. Texas A&M has thrown big oil money bags at recruits and didn’t accomplish anything this season. There’s enough talent out there so even teams with top 15 rankings can field a squad capable of doing what ND did yesterday.

There might be more to this concept of “team” that’s been widely overlooked as everyone drools over the 5* superstars out there. I like what we have going, and our stated rejection of entering into bidding wars

 

I agree. I think the reality is all teams in the bigger conferences are going to have plenty of money to throw around at players; that, coupled with the transfer portal, means no team is going to be able to stock up on 4&5 stars sitting on the bench as backups, waiting their turn, unless something else is drawing them to their current team. It's going to come down to coaching and culture. Coach Napier is doing this right...building this the right way: from the foundation (culture) up.

 

History (at least of the last 15 years or so) tells us otherwise. The programs that were willing to pay their players under the table had the best players and won the most hardware. The calculus may change some since now its "legal" to pay the players, but the highest payers will still get the lion's share of recruits, and talent wins games. I'm not saying that coaching isn't very important too, which is why Saban did so well in the former system: Outstanding coaching staff and willing to bend the rules to have the best talent available.

The Alabama's, Georgia's, and OSU's of the world will find a way to game this new system. The entire history of their programs indicate that.

 

I'm not saying that Napier isn't building this the right way, but he frayed a lot of nerves his first 2.5 years. If the team continues to improve in 2025 rather than regressing, things will look a lot rosier. That being said, UF has to (maybe already has) come off the dime on competing with the biggest payers in the SEC if they intend to win Championships in Football in the SEC. If not, the outlook won't be much different than it has been since 2010.

 

If we want to look at the last 15 years there is no argument against what you’re saying. The last 15 years had only a select few programs really differentiating themselves with high dollar talent. Of course we know that selective enforcement of the rules by the NCAA was to blame for creating the “haves” and the “have nots”. That and a transfer policy they did enforce.

Deep pockets wasn’t even an issue - it was purely that some teams were made examples of (think 1984 Florida Gators) while those select few favorites were allowed to cheat like hell knowing the crooked NCAA would literally give them a pass.

So yeah, looking back you’re 100% correct. But that’s not the case anymore, now that everybody can pay players without the threat of sanctions. Teams with unlimited NIL support like the 2 in Texas will still land some superstars that we can’t (or won’t), but the talent disparity across the board won’t be as ridiculously lopsided going forward as it was 10-15 years ago. At least I hope not.

And hey, there’s no way the Alabama alumni base is richer than ours. Doubtful Georgia’s is either. The difference is more about how much a coaching staff is willing to do for one individual in the face of building a cohesive team.

 

It was weird to tune in and out of this game. Seemed like every time and checked in Georgia was moving the ball. Yet, ND spotted UGA an FG then outscored them 23-7 the rest of the way. Evidently ND made all the right plays at all the right times.

 

Excellent observation and more evidence of the importance of character and commitment in an individual - or a CFB team. Talent is almost always available to those who work hard to identify it and then go on to develop it after landing it. It just isn't enough in and of itself. Courage, tenacity, composure under duress and personal integrity are a different matter altogether. FTR, I love that BN has refused to sacrifice the culture of brotherhood and commitment to "team" he has built at UF to the allure of overpriced hired guns and selfish prima donnas. The ETNs and Princelys of the world can kick rocks. We don't need that BS to win big at UF.

 

I think the masses that enjoy football (besides team loyalists and alums) are hoping for change at the top. Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State...people want some new blood. Ohio State has under-performed recently, but this year, they could bring home the big one. People are sick of Georgia and Bama. ND looked surprisingly decent.

We're rising in popularity and the timing is great. I just hope we can get a handful of kids from the portal to fill some needed positions.

Our last few games this year were kind of hard to ignore. There was a feel that hasn't been around for quite some time.

I think we could have beaten a couple teams in the playoffs this year.

Go Gators.

 

I think the disparity might be even more pronounced. We've already seen 2 conferences separate themselves completely from the pack revenue-wise. In each of those 2 conferences we know there are a handful of teams that have shown that they aren't above creative interpretation of the rules. History says two things about them: 1) they will do what it takes to win and 2) The NCAA will be powerless (or culpable) in the rule bending.

I don't think that matters nearly as much as how much the alumni base is willing to spend.

 

We were beating them and had left a ton of points out on the field.
Then they just handed the ball to Jerome Bettis in the second half and ended up embarrassing us. The worse part was listening to ND fans in the French Quarter the rest of that night. Mostly well mannered folks intensely focused on spouting ND lore.