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Post being replied to

We've had worse teams and played worse opponents by nihilist in golf pants

I think the lack of enthusiasm today is due to a few factors. Some have always been there, but most are directly related to Swarbrick/Kelly's reign:

1) ACC opponents are seldom compelling. Yet we play 2-3 of these teams each year. Clemson was compelling last year. Florida State and Miami are sometimes, though not recently. None of the other ACC teams are fun in any way. Score this as 100% on Swarbrick.

2) MAC tomato cans are not interesting in the least. Nor can you expect Cincinnati, Connecticut, Tulsa, UNLV, or South Florida to be interesting. Yet we schedule 1-2 teams like this every year. Spare me the lauding of Cincinnati, it was blind luck that they happened to be competitive the year we hosted them. Again, 100% on Swarbrick.

3) Price gouging. Again, 100% on Swarbrick.

4) The perception that this won't be a championship team. The only people that don't perceive this are the deluded. 100% of this is on Swarbrick/Kelly. While I'm not sure how to apportion, it doesn't really matter.

5) The fact that ND is a national school, unique to all football powers. Most alumni would need to fly or drive over eight hours to attend a game. That has been the case for virtually forever, so it's not a new factor.

6) COVID fears; the one new factor that Swarbrick doesn't control.