It’s been a busy month for playing that favorite college football parlor game, “What’s Wrong with Notre Dame?”





In the first half of August, my friend and former colleague Rick Reilly said everything is wrong with Notre Dame – that the football program is such a disgrace it should give up its NBC contract, give up its seat at the BCS proceedings and basically apologize every time someone in the media says a kind word about the Fighting Irish.

On Wednesday, former Irish running back and current Irish radio analyst Allen Pinkett says Notre Dame is too law-abiding. He says the Irish need “bad citizens” and that championship teams have “criminals” on the roster. He actually is heartened by the fact that Brian Kelly’s third team in South Bend starts the season with several players suspended for either one or two games.

Pinkett’s comments were so absurd that they elicited a swift statement all the way from Ireland, from athletic director Jack Swarbrick: “Allen Pinkett’s suggestion that Notre Dame needs more ‘bad guys’ on its football team is nonsense. Of course, Allen does not speak for the university, but we could not disagree more with this observation.”

[Related: Sophomore Everett Golson to be named Notre Dame starting quarterback]

Now it’s my turn. You want to know what’s wrong with Notre Dame? I’ll tell you.

Nothing is wrong with Notre Dame.

There is something wrong with the rest of us for thinking there’s something wrong with Notre Dame.

Yeah, the Irish could win more. They could win like they did under Holtz, Devine, Parseghian, Leahy and Rockne. But times have changed in college football since those days, and largely not for the better. Meanwhile Notre Dame – while trying to win big – has had the backbone to stay largely the same.

Without that backbone, they might have to follow the knucklehead advice of Pinkett to win like the old days. Or the apparent belief of Reilly and others: if you’re faced with the prospect of losing, make like the other football factories in America and simply compromise your standards.

I find the national glee/outrage over Notre Dame’s demise as a national football powerhouse to be a staggering display of selective perception.

Penn State sacrificed its principles on the altar of king football, with tragic results. North Carolina has made a mockery of its academic reputation in an effort to admit and keep eligible marginally prepared football stars. There are looming NCAA clouds over Miami and Oregon, a postseason ban at Ohio State, and just-concluded penalties at USC.

We see all the fresh carnage caused by a loss of perspective. We howl at the scandals that diminish the game.

And still Notre Dame gets ripped and mocked for not winning enough.

How dare the school continue to stand for something more than going 12-0? How dare the school decide that leading the nation for the past three seasons in the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate is more important than leading the nation in the polls? How dare the school recruit future societal leaders instead of the future medium-security detainees Pinkett wants?

Last week I spoke with Don Bishop, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment at Notre Dame, and director of admissions Bob Mundy. Bishop worked at Notre Dame in the late 1970s, went to a couple of other institutions and is now back at the school. Mundy has been there for 29 years. They’re proud to work at a school that has resisted cutting academic corners in exchange for regaining football glory.

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