Ah, the typical Alabama fan provincialism with, "Unless you won the national championship, your program is irrelevant." Using this kind of logic, Miami and Washington (who as a reminder just played in the title game) and Colorado are irrelevant. Never mind that Washington has appeared in a championship game SINCE ALABAMA HAS!!!
Last September, Notre Dame drew the 2nd highest rating for a regular season football game on NBC in thirty years. Who's in the #1 spot? Also Notre Dame (1993 FSU). Of course, the objection to this is going to be, "Of course they did, they've had a TV contract with NBC since 1991 and are about the only team that plays on there." Okay, let's continue then.
For the four-week span of September 23 through October 14,
Notre Dame ranked SECOND OVERALL in TV viewership behind Colorado. And AHEAD of Alabama.
Wanna see whom the opponents were?
NOTRE DAME - Ohio State, Duke, Louisville, USC
ALABAMA - Ole Miss, Miss St, aTm, Arkansas
Notre Dame outdrew Alabama by 8.3 million viewers and while we'll all admit Ohio State is a draw, Duke and Louisville most assuredly shouldn't be drawing as many fans as the others. And taking the entire regular season,
Notre Dame ranked #8 in average viewership. And let's all admit Colorado's rating was largely the product of hiring a provocative coach people wanted to laugh at.
Notre Dame draws eyes to the television, more than any SEC team not named Alabama or Georgia, more than Oklahoma and more than any Big Ten team not named Michigan or Ohio State.
And as far as being relevant in the winner's circle lately,
in the last six seasons Notre Dame has a record of 63-14 with two playoff appearances and a #5 final CFP ranking thanks to a loss to Cincinnati.
So let's see how "irrelevant" they are in the wins picture:
Alabama 74-9 (one CFP title, five CFP appearances)
Georgia 73-9 (two CFP titles)
Clemson 69-13 (one CFP title)
Ohio St 66-9 (0 national titles, 3 CFP appearances, 2-0 vs Irish)
Notre Dame 63-14
Michigan 61-14 (note: Irish and UM have met twice in those years with a 1-1 record each team)
Oklahoma 60-18 (as many national titles and playoff wins as the Irish with more chances)
Oregon 57-18
LSU 56-22 (one CFP title, one losing season)
Penn St 52-22
Washington 50-21 (one CFP finals appearance, 2 losing seasons)
USC 41-29
Among the FBS big boys, they're fifth in wins - RECENTLY.
They're also 5th in winning pct.
No, they haven't won a national championship. That's the ONLY shortcoming in recent years - and they haven't ever had the best team in CFB or even close to it on the field. They have more wins than LSU despite the Tigers having a national title.
And guess what? If you told a TV executive, we have two teams here we need you to pick from to award a national contract and those two teams were Notre Dame and LSU, guess who gets picked before a full breath has passed?
They tried to join the Big Ten (Western Conference)
In 1899.
In 1901.
In 1902.
In 1913.
In 1917.
In 1919.
In 1924 (Delaney likes to pretend we don't know Michigan Coach Fielding Yost was scared of them)
In 1926.
In fact, when they applied for admission in 1913, they'd played 29 games against B1G schools and gone 16-9-4. They were rejected UNANIMOUSLY by the then-Western Conference in a 9-0 vote (Nebraska was rejected, 5-4), probably because of anti-Catholicism.
Of course even in 1926 they couldn't come out and SAY that so they hid behind "academic reasons."
Depends on if you wants eyes watching the game or not.
They may not have won a national title in 35 years, but they're still a big draw, certainly in the Top Ten among the 130 FBS teams. If I'm the SEC, why wouldn't I push out Vandy or Miss State to accommodate Notre Dame? (It's probably a legal thing, but we all know who the bigger draw is).
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