Because I understand numbers? Alabama played Western Carolina, Florida Atlantic and, Western Kentucky. You can't rate a schedule based on the inferior teams.
According to Sagarin (which is really quite reliable) here is the SoS:
Alabama 19
Notre Dame 21
The whole only "decent" team they played stuff is just ridiculous. Michigan wasn't decent? You really can't go too far down that road, or else you'll end up saying Alabama didn't play any decent teams.
Notre Dame played two conference champs, and eight bowl teams. The only non BCS conference team they played was BYU, who won their bowl game by the way. In addition, they played one would have been division champ and bowl eligible team in Miami. I'm sorry, but there is no way to say a team that played nine bowl eligible teams didn't play a tough schedule. That's just ridiculous. Seriously, I'm not even sure how to deal with this sort of thing because it's like opposite day or something when you assert playing eight bowl teams is meaningless.
There are schedules you can question, for instance Oregon, Florida St., Ohio St., or Clemson. But Notre Dame's? It was tougher than Georgia or South Carolina's. I'm not sure what other teams could have gone undefeated against that schedule. Oregon sure wouldn't have, since they lost to Stanford.
Michigan wasn't decent...not sure why you would think they were. And you can throw out numbers by saying they played 8 bowl teams and two conference champions but how many of those teams won their bowls games? a 6-6 team can make a bowl, making a bowl means nothing. ND SOS was elevated by who they are and the NAMES they played. Can you say ANY team they played was great? Not even Stanford, which won its bowl game, is great. Did Alabama play any next level great teams? They played two IMO, A&M which got its act together and became one and was one when Bama played them, and Ga which offensively is a next level team. Ga, for all of its weak schedule that you profess it had, would have beaten ND and any team ND played.Shoot I'm pretty sure Vandy would have beaten all the teams ND played. Forget your "numbers" game and tell me what team they played that was great??? The ONLY team they played that was great or next level good was BAMA.
Emerald Isle Classic
09/01/12 vs. Navy Dublin, Ireland W, 50-10
09/08/12 vs. Purdue Notre Dame, Ind. W, 20-17
09/15/12 at Michigan State East Lansing, Mich. W, 20-3
09/22/12 vs. Michigan Notre Dame, Ind. W, 13-6
Shamrock Series
10/06/12 vs. Miami Chicago, Ill. W, 41-3
10/13/12 vs. Stanford Notre Dame, Ind. W, 20-13 (OT)
10/20/12 vs. BYU Notre Dame, Ind. W, 17-14
10/27/12 at Oklahoma Norman, Okla. W, 30-13
11/03/12 vs. Pittsburgh Notre Dame, Ind. W, 29-26 (3OT)
11/10/12 at Boston College Chestnut Hill, Mass. W, 21-6
11/17/12 vs. Wake Forest Notre Dame, Ind. W, 38-0
11/24/12 at USC Los Angeles, Calif. W, 22-13
Yep you're right Miami was awesome this year...???Oh yeah there is OK, traditional power and everything, wait didn't they get their butts handed to them by A&M in their
BOWL game...final record 10-3??? Maybe not so good. Ok lets see Usc, traditional power..lost their starting QB and wind up with a 7-6 record and lost in their
BOWL game. Well lets try Pitt...took ND to what 3 OTs in a game that the refs game them(or missed) two calls and lost convincingly to Ole Miss in their
BOWL game. Lets look at their one "decent" team they played, Stanford. Went 12-2 and won their
BOWL game over Wisconsin. Their two losses, ND and Washington. How do you lose to Washington? That's like Bama losing to au this year.
I understand that SOS is based on numbers but their SOS doesn't pass the eye SOS test or even reality SOS test.