I was listening to the blake and scrappy show today and they brought up an interesting topic, "what school is the new notre dame?" I thought about this in light of the situation with ESPN opting out of going to ND for the Michigan game. It was actually a pretty logical question. I almost called in. The majority of callers said it was either Miami or FSU....Blake says Oklahoma...Scrap was for anyone in Florida...I think this was a good topic...the critieria issued by the great scrappy was this...Teams that are known widely and they have hats, jersey's etc everywhere you go. A team that even if they lose, no one cares b/c there fan base doesnt really have a lot of true fans, they just like them b/c they are miami or fsu or w/e. I used to be like as a kid with notre dame. I used to have a shirt and hat and i wasnt even a fan. I didnt know i single player. I jus knew notre dame was college football. Any one hear this? Any thoughts?
You can't really have another Notre Dame, because ND is really the only college left that isn't bound by it's region. People from all over the country, who don't play sports, go to ND over their state's schools. From the begining ND was viewed as the nation's catholic college, that is why people from all over the coutry follow the football team (along with the fact ND was very successful on the field). But for the most part, those older ND fans would follow the team no matter how poorly they did because they identified with the school's values. Now, I do know what you are talking about. I grew up in New Orleans and at that time you would see just as many ND hats/tshirts as you would LSU and Tulane. Back then, it was because of football success. The reason no school can replace ND, is because all of those other schools mentioned above have their own history and are tightly bound by their region. You still see lots of Miami and Fl St hats/tshirts outside of Florida and that is because of sporting success. But they can't replace ND. People don't identify with those school's values, so the fan base is much much smaller for those other schools. There are still little old ladies out there that tune into NBC every Sat afternoon to have ND on in the background, and it has nothing to do with sports. They are just supporting, what they think, represents their values. I don't think we will see that with any other university. The only exception is the service based schools (Army, Navy, and Air Force), but they are no real threat to be national contenders . . . however, TV ratings for service schools tend to be very high. Those are just my thoughts. I think it is an interesting debate.
This is a crazy topic. Notre Dame is an independent private religious based university. Really, I can think of no similar D1 school that really compares as a replacement. Miami replacing them????? - Thug U, in a major conference, come on get real. Forida State ??? - See Above.... As for their criteria of "Teams that are known widely and they have hats, jersey's etc everywhere you go", there really aren't any teams that satisfy those criteria like Notre Dame does. Notre Dame, despite all of its recent struggles, still has fans all over that proudly (I think) wear its colors. I am sorry to hear about your difficult childhood. Not all of us are blessed to be brought up on LSU football and LSU sports. Fortunately you wisened up with age. :helmet: ldskule: :geaux:
