College Football Projections: Independents

It’s been a few days, as I’ve been preoccupied with family from out of town and the Olympics. By the way, Michael Phelps is awesome. The next group of projections is a simple group: independents.

Notre Dame won all of three games last year. Count me in as one of many lifelong Irish haters that enjoyed that body of work. The Irish will never be back in the elite of college football as long as they are expecting both Ivy League academics and national championship caliber football. However, if they win 9 games in a year, they’ll be in a BCS bowl long enough to get pasted by a good team from a strong conference. The Irish won’t sniff a BCS bowl this year, but should win six games and steal a bowl bid from a Big East team. Maybe someday Notre Dame will humble itself and join a conference. In the meantime, they’ll lose three September games to Big Ten teams on its way to an up and down season.

Navy has been on a good run for the last several years under departed coach Paul Johnson. Now, new coach Ken Niumatololo is faced with following up that success, including dominance of rivals Army and Air Force and last year’s win over Notre Dame, the Midshipmen’s first since Roger Staubach was their quarterback in 1963. The Middies are quarterbacked by the captain of the All-Time All-Name team, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada. The Midshipmen will struggle a bit more this year, losing the Commander-In-Chief Trophy to Air Force. However, they should once again beat Army and finish 5-7.

Army continues to struggle. The Black Knights of the Hudson look to be underdogs in every game except one. Stranger things could happen, though. West Point is about a lot more than football, though. The men from there and Annapolis will lead others to defend our country before long.

New to the Football Bowl Subdivision is Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are in an interim period before joining the Sun Belt in 2009. WKU plays several Sun Belt teams this year, but look to only be favored over two FCS (1-AA) teams. It’ll be a long year in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Projected Finish:
Notre Dame 6-6
Navy 5-7
Western Kentucky 2-10
Army 1-11

Next: Big East

Wake Up The Echoes, And Start Up The Plane, Part Two

Last week in this space, I opined on Notre Dame's future traveling road show, playing home games in Texas and Florida. I asked why the Irish are playing Washington State in San Antonio, instead of another Texas school. Well, it turns out that the Irish are playing a Texas school in Texas. It was announced this week that the Irish are playing Baylor at the new Cowboys stadium in Arlington on October 6, 2012.

This is a guaranteed sellout. This will be the biggest non-conference game in the history of Baylor football. There will be plenty of Irish fans there, but Baylor will be very well represented, with the game being played in the heart of the largest base of Baylor alumni. This is an interesting matchup between the world's most famous Catholic university and the world's largest Baptist university (even though both the student population and the faculty of Baylor are only around 50% Baptist, a good percentage of which are not as conservative as the general perception of Baptists). On the field, Notre Dame should be able to have their way with the Bears.

The author of this blog is a Baptist, but is not a fan of Baylor, mostly for reasons not having to do with athletics and reasons better discussed on a non-sports blog. A dirty little secret: I was accepted into Baylor a long, long time ago, but chose not to go there. I don't regret that decision. However, I will be cheering for the Bears on 10/6/2012.

This is also a matchup that the city of Dallas tried to lure into the soon-to-be sort-of renovated Cotton Bowl. That begs the question: If you're Notre Dame and Baylor, where would you rather play? A patched-up pig of a stadium in Fair Park, or Jerry Jones' new palace in Arlington? With no tradition tied to the Texas State Fair, Jerryworld is a no-brainer.

For one day in 2012, Sic 'em Bears!

Postscript: The Irish are also coming to Oklahoma. In 2012, the Irish will visit Norman to play my Sooners, and OU will play Notre Dame in South Bend in 2013. This will be the first visit by the Irish to Oklahoma since 1957, when they broke Oklahoma's record 47-game winning streak.

Wake Up The Echoes-And Start Up The Plane

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame this week announced the first of their off-site home games. It will be in the Alamo City of San Antonio, where they will face Washington State in 2009.

The Irish have been planning a traveling road show for a couple of years. They desire to play winnable games in large stadiums in areas where they can draw fans and recruit players. South Texas has a large Catholic population, providing for a lot of potential Notre Dame fans, at least for one game. The state of Texas is not hurting for talented high school players. The Irish gain some recruiting exposure in this state. By bringing in the Cougars from the Palouse, they deny a Texas school the spotlight that this game will offer.

I am surprised they are playing Washington State in the state of Texas. Couldn't they find a Texas team to play? I'm sure a school like Houston or SMU would love to play the Irish in a Texas stadium that is not their own. TCU would jump at the chance to play Notre Dame. Baylor would be an easy win for the Irish. I guess Wazzu is considered to be good for TV ratings. Notre Dame is arrogant enough to believe they can sell out a stadium 1300 miles from their campus on their own.

I'm no fan of Notre Dame. I think they're the most overrated, over-exposed program on earth. They are living on past glories of the black-and-white TV era. My dislike of Notre Dame has nothing to do with Catholicism. It is because they are seen as the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel, when they have been little more than ordinary for the last 15 years. The BCS era has brought this to light, as they are consistently drilled in BCS bowl games like they were by LSU in last season's Sugar Bowl. The Irish have lost their last nine bowl games in a row, most of which occurred in ugly mismatches.

I hope there are 20,000 empty seats at the Alamodome for this thing. I hope Wazzu beats the Irish to a pulp. I hope this road show blows up in their face.

If Notre Dame wants to be relevant in the world of big-time 21st-century college football, they need to join a conference. Traveling road shows against supposedly beatable opponents won't get them there.