Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly met with the media today after practice -- the last time he'll meet with the press prior to Saturday night's PRIME TIME game with the Naval Academy.
Notre Dame's women's basketball team was ranked #3 in the country in today's Associated Press Preseason Poll -- not bad for a team that lost three starters -- two drafted in the first nine picks to the WNBA...
You can add Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops to the bandwagon of those questioning why Notre Dame is ranked only 10th in the first College Football Playoff Ranking.
The folks at ESPN -- who rarely ever talk about graduation rates of college student-athletes -- created a formula called ESPN GRADE which factors in graduation rates when ranking teams. Unfortunately, it doesn't get any play...
Well, ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook penned this piece where he took the College Football Playoff Rankings and "mashed-up" the ESPN GRADE ranking system against their TOP 25. Here's the new rankings of teams based on graduation rates:
Well, the "first-ever" College Football Playoff Poll was released in the past 30 minutes and our Fighting Irish are ranked #10 -- with six weeks left in the college football season.
If you look at the rankings -- each of the "Power Five" Conferences have a team ranked ahead of Notre Dame -- is that a coincidence? I don't think so.
We're the "eighth best" one-loss team in the country? Really???
That is the question being floated around by the Detroit media these days...
The former Notre Dame student-athlete had his best game as a professional in London, England this past Sunday -- subbing for the often injured Reggie Bush.
What if, the College Football Playoff Committee announced a list of the 28 teams today -- still in consideration for one of the FINAL FOUR SPOTS -- instead of a ranking? Then, every week -- for the next six weeks -- they eliminate four more teams from the list.
So, on Tuesday, December 2nd -- the Committee would announce the list of EIGHT TEAMS still under consideration for the College Football Playoff -- with the Final Four announced on Sunday, December 7th. The Committee would then announce their seeding of those four teams at that time.
So, here's my list of the 28 teams that would still be under consideration for the COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS on October 28, 2014:
Notre Dame fans can tune-in LIVE at NOON ET today to watch Coach Kelly's press conference. He'll be addressing another Fighting Irish PRIME TIME contest this Saturday night against the Naval Academy.
The "first-ever" College Football Playoff Rankings will be released today at 7:30 PM ET on ESPN. This poll, which is the work of a 12 person committee, will lead to a FINAL FOUR which will be unveiled on December 7th.
Here's what a few of the media prognosticators are thinking how the Committee will rank the teams -- and what to look for this evening:
There are five teams in the NFL that have at least three former Notre Dame student-athletes on their payroll this morning -- and they are a combined 26 - 13 this season...
ARIZONA CARDINALS: 6 - 1
DETROIT LIONS: 6 - 2
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: 6 - 2
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS: 5 - 3
MINNESOTA VIKINGS: 3 - 5
Four of the five would be in the NFL Playoffs if they started this week -- do you think some NFL General Managers are taking notice?
ARIZONA CARDINALS
Michael Floyd
Jon Carlson
Robert Hughes
Troy Niklas
DETROIT LIONS
Golden Tate
Theo Riddick
T.J. Jones
Joseph Fauria -- he transferred out of ND
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Jonas Gray
Darius Fleming
Kona Schwenke
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS
Chris Watt
Manti Te'o
Trevor Robinson
MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Harrison Smith
R.J. Blanton
Kyle Rudolph
John Sullivan
That's DOMERS Michael Floyd and Robert Hughes in the photo above.
Former Notre Dame student-athletes Golden Tate (#15) and Theo Riddick (#25) led a huge Detroit Lions' second half comeback today -- scoring the FIRST TWO TD's EVER by former Notre Dame players in England! Golden led the Lions with seven catches for 151 yards and the TD!
Be sure to check out Theo's GREAT CATCH -- on the game winning drive!
The Lions erased a 21 - 0 halftime deficit to win the game 22 - 21 on a last second 48 yard field goal!