teams just play us harder than they do other teams.

Makes ND special. As far as the schedule we can’t help that USC, FSU and Stanford are no good. Wisconsin is a top opponent and we beat them, and our only loss is to a team that was rated higher than us and is now #2.

At the end of the season, Cincinnati is likely to have played (and won) more games against ranked opponents, along with a better top win.

Yes, in some regard there's a lot of name teams having down years on our schedule. But, the ACC requirement is holding us back. Over the last ten years of the five ACC teams on our schedule (50 total seasons), there have been the following finishes:

Top 5 (4%)
2 (FSU 13, FSU 14)

Top 10 (10%)
5 (FSU 12, FSU 16, GT 14)

Top 25 (24%)
12 (VT 11, VT 16, VT 17, UNC 15, UNC 20)

Our ACC opponents have finished the season ranked less than 25% of the time over the last decade.

The rest of our schedule, (which includes Toledo and Navy) has done:
Top 5 (2.9%)
USC (1)
Stan (1)

Top 10 (12.9%)
Wisc (3)
Cinc (1)
USC (2)
Stan (3)

Top 25 (34.3%)
Wisc (7)
Cinc (3)
USC (6)
Navy (2)
Stan (6)

The ACC portion of our schedule would be expected to be worse than the rest of our schedule, nearly half of which is against non-power 5 teams.

and closer to their historical strength, we would be 3-3 not 5-1.

That argument only works when you are winning handily.

Only 2 top programs (both down), instead of 3 or 4. And the 5-team ACC deal drags it down naturally.

and then I break into a rendition of "HERE COME THE IRISH" of Notre Dame!

North Carolina was at least a Top 22 team when we scheduled them.

But seriously, these are some dogshit schedules. Next year offers the chance to lose to the only two ranked teams on the schedule (OSU and Clemson) if current trends hold. I contrast that with my freshman year, 2000. How's this for an introduction to ND football?
- Texas A&M (No. 25)
- Nebraska (No. 1)
- Purdue (No. 13)
- @ Michigan St. (No. 23)

could have been 1-3 (if we dont kick GW FG against Brees led Purdue) coming out of that. Was in East Lansing on that 4th and 10 TD to Herb Haygood. That one hurt...

The ACC does not have more than one reliable Top 25 team. This has been true since it began. There has been one power and then every couple of years different teams take turns being the second team or occasionally the third team. But given scheduling lead times, none of those are ever a reliable quality opponent. Because it's a lot of mediocre teams beating each other up, you do usually get someone coming out on top from that group. But with a five game slate, ND will never be in a position to confidently have scheduled a top 25 team.

The ACC did.
The league office decides which ACC teams owe play. Not only did they not schedule us to play Clemson, the only true marquis team in the league, but we aren't going to play any of the 3 current top 25 teams the league has.

Can anyone (without looking) name those 3 teams?

you get the point.

It is also a one-coach program and is not a good bet moving forward to be a ranked team.

I don't see any other path to credibility.

looks something like:

Top 10:
Clemson
Miami
FSU

Top 25:
Pitt
Louisville
Va Tech
BC

Top 50:
NCSU
UNC
Georgia Tech

The rest:
Wake Forest
Duke
UVA

The current version of the ACC is:
Top 10:
[inaudible]

Top 25:
Wake
NCSU
Pitt

Top 50:
Virginia
Clemson
BC
UNC?

The rest:
Louisville
Georgia Tech
Va. Tech
Duke
Syracuse
FSU
Miami

Half the conference is a random bag of suck. Clemson having a really down year has exposed how shallow and weak the whole conference is.

What is wrong with you?

They're a historically mediocre program that has had intermittent success in the past and currently has a world-class coach. If Swinney got hit by a bus tomorrow, you couldn't rely on Clemson to go on winning 10+ games every year.

program has as many National Championships as Notre Dame has over the last 43 years. That's a long time! Factor in Dabo, and they have the same amount of titles as ND does in the last 54 years. I believe college football went to an 11 game schedule 50 years ago. Clemson and ND both have 16 10+ win seasons in that span. With much more recent success than ND, I'd say it's a safer bet to rely on them winning 10+ games than ND if both of our coaches got hit by buses tomorrow.

There's a big time atmosphere to sell to recruits even if the performance has only recently justified that. It is driving distance to a lot of talent.

There's good reason to think the next coach might prefer Clemson over either Miami or FSU.

I think the bigger stretches are relying on the second tier other than Va Tech to be ranked. One of BC/Pitt/Louisville could do it with some regularly. But I think it's much more likely you could see the first tier all in the top ten several straight years than you would see all the second tier in the top 25 several straight years.

That doesn't mean the most likely. Though, if I were picking teams like stocks, I'd take Clemson over Miami. Not sure what I'd do about FSU.

Edit to add:
Part of the measure of "Best" is whether the rankings of the particular teams feel strong or weak. Like, Cincinnati at #2 right now may or may not be deserved, but it feels weak. Similarly, even if Wake Forest goes undefeated, they feel much weaker than FSU or Miami or Clemson being undefeated. A top ten Clemson, Miami, and FSU is going to create more buzz, attention, and excitement than the other schools in the conference (see also, our "big" win in 2018 over #12 Syracuse)

That's some savvy scheduling there my friend. JS is probably working feverishly with Anthony Travel on the details of potential bowl travel junkets.

That's the narrative. I see a lot of 6-6 teams destined for pre-New Year's Day wins against directional schools in bowls named after condiments and lawn care products.

By virtue of the transitive property and eminent domain I don't see why Swarbrick can't usurp those bowl Ws and give a little cushion to Kelly, maybe look into some co-branding opportunities at the local Piggly Wiggly or Tom Thumb with Duke's Mayonnaise.

Who wants to buy Jack one?

Like a post-Thanksgiving couch shit.

That was a horrific football game.

Mertz only attempted 15 passes and fumbled the ball away once to Army. Badger fans are tiring of him.

Wisconsin ran the ball 43 times and only won by six points. Wisconsin is not a good team and it's amazing that they are currently favored in the Purdue game on the road this coming Saturday. Despite all that, they still have their fate in their hands because of Iowa's loss on Saturday.

One trivia note from the game: I did learn that the wo Chanal brothers who play for Wisconsin are from the small town of Grantsburg and have 14 other brothers and sisters.

Expected W/L records for 2021 (updated today by ESPN):

Cincinnati 12-1
Virginia 8-4
Purdue 7-5
Toledo 7-5
UNC 6-6
Wisconsin 6-6
USC 6-6
Virginia Tech 6-6
Stanford 5-7
Georgia Tech 5-7
FSU 4-8
Navy 2-10

There is no "AP-Coaches Poll".

Point then you are mistake