re: Is ND really any more overrated than LSU?

ND's fanbase is national, based largely on religion / heritage. Unlike nearly every other major program, ND doesn't have "state-wide" appeal in Indiana. Every home game on NBC (including a game like Ball St) is beneficial for the fanbase in that sense, in a different way than if OSU was playing BGSU, where it might be reduced to a local channel in just Ohio, because that's all that's needed.

However:

1) Every major team is on nat'l TV now for pretty much any conference game and semi-decent OOC game. Maybe it's cable or (on occasion) a streaming service, but any big recruiting or exposure advantage that once possibly existed for ND from NBC in the 90s is long, long gone now. Nobody besides diehard ND fans are watching the aforementioned ND-Ball St game, and any bigger ND game would be on nat'l TV now regardless if ND had the NBC contract or not.

2) ND makes "only" $67M annually from NBC and (non-football) ACC deals combined. The B1G schools average $76.1M from their current deal. The SEC schools average $72.4M annually.

3) NBC doesn't have a contract with the CFP, unlike ESPN/ABC (home of the SEC). I don't even know the name of NBC's pregame show, but it's nowhere near as prominent as College Gameday (or even Big Noon). NBCSN is nowhere near the behemoth in influence as ESPN (let alone FS1); NBC doesn't have Stephen A. or McAfee or Finebaum. On the plus side, sure, it's nice having an ND football commercial air during SNF. But if a network/company were able to have undue influence, it'd be Disney, not NBC.

4) Even back in those early ND-NBC days, when the broadcasting world was way different, the deal didn't help ND get voted the champion in 1993 over FSU, despite the same record and ND owning the H2H win. Fast forward all the way to 2025, NBC didn't help get ND into the CFP. So if NBC has been attempting to "prop up" ND over the years, then it's done a really poor job.

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That's enough about NBC specifically. More to the point of the thread, I think you're conflating the overall media coverage of ND with being "overrated" in the preseason poll. We have the data in this thread that shows ND is not close to the most overrated. ND is always talked about every year, but that's not the same thing as being predicted to do anything big by pundits, nor being ranked high in the preseason AP poll every year. Some years it's like that, but not every year. If that's the case, ND usually finishes near that high preseason ballpark, with a few exceptions (e.g., 2016 and 2022).

This year, ND is a legitimate championship contender, and the #4 preseason ranking is fair based on the combination of last season's results, amount of returning production and portal/recruiting supplementation.

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This year, ND is a legitimate championship contender, and the #4 preseason ranking is fair based on the combination of last season's results, amount of returning production and portal/recruiting supplementation.

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I agree, in part. I think the preseason ranking is justified. I also think they're playoff worthy, which, on its face, I guess is a "legitimate" championship "contender." I think they go 12-0 or 11-1 (with a loss to Miami).

I'm still...I don't know....I'm still just a little doubtful. I think they can potentially have an elite defense. I don't trust their DC at all, however. They looked rough their first few games. An ND fan will say that "it was early on and in September" or "they were working the kinks out and were playing at an elite level the latter part of the season." Conversely, one can say that those were against ND's two best opponents (Miami and A&M) and the defense was downright bad (mediocre at best). Stonewalling Syracuse, Pitt, and BC just doesn't carry much weight for me.

In regard to the offense, we all know Denbrock can scheme some great things up. I trust Carr to be improved and a top QB in the NCAA. I just see a lot of offensive production loss in Love, Price, the transfer WR from Virgina. They've got a lot of unproven talent having to replace a lot of proven talent. I've heard it all the time with LSU trying to replace certain guys (Fournette, Guice, Chase, Jefferson), "our backfield is loaded!" or "wait till you see these new guys come in, John Doe is a 6-5 5-star WR!" and they don't pan out. I'm just skeptical. I think Love and Price carried more of that offense last year than ND fans realize. Or, alternatively, I think their presence on the field made ND's passing game much easier on Carr than ND fans realize. It'll even out this year and maybe their replacements are great, I don't know. Until I actually see it, I just can't see anything other than a step back in talent and production.

When your coaches have been Brian Kelly, Charlie Weis, and Ty Willingham, you tend to be overrated. That's a bad group right there.

No surprise here - Kelly's LSU teams underperformed too.

Freeman is on a different level than those clowns so ND has been far better and more competitive. This year's team is deep. Plus the schedule is weak.

Since 1988 the last time Notre Dame won a championship LSU has three national championships (with three different head coaches) and six SEC Championships. This is no comparison. One produces one doesn’t.

Notre Dame fans are stuck in 1977 and it’s pitiful they don’t realize how irrelevant they are.

Kelly got just as close to a natty as Freeman

Cool he won some bowl games

I remember thinking it was kickass when LSU won the Sugar Bowl in 2001

ETA: I will be the first to eat crow if ND wins a national championship

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I think they can potentially have an elite defense. I don't trust their DC at all, however. They looked rough their first few games. An ND fan will say that "it was early on and in September" or "they were working the kinks out and were playing at an elite level the latter part of the season." Conversely, one can say that those were against ND's two best opponents (Miami and A&M) and the defense was downright bad (mediocre at best). Stonewalling Syracuse, Pitt, and BC just doesn't carry much weight for me.

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Understand, and yes, your quotes are my thoughts. First, I think the "bad" performance against Miami is a little overblown. They struggled for a stretch in the 2nd/3rd quarter, but overall, they held Miami to fewer yds/play, yds/pass and yds/rush than both Ole Miss and Indiana did, fewer yds/rush than OSU did, and even to fewer yds/rush and yds/play than A&M did. And unlike all 4 of those teams, ND entered that game without much prior knowledge of Malachi Toney. (Leonard Moore did not cover him. Leonard Moore will move to the slot to cover him in November.)

But yeah, the D was absolutely terrible against A&M. But I'd note it was also terrible the next week (particularly the first half) against Purdue. That sounds like a weird comment to make, but the point is if they were terrible against A&M and then shut out Purdue, then it's simply an opponent thing. But I think there were major schematic and/or personnel flaws that were corrected during/after Purdue before Arkansas.

They performed well thereafter against two pretty good offenses in Arkansas (complete mess of a defense/team... but not a mess of an offense) and USC (mediocre defense/team... but not a mediocre offense) and were dominant defensively against every other opponent (no, not murderer's row). I just think there's way too much talent to not be an elite defense, and Ash is much more knowledgeable of / comfortable with his players and the college game now than at the beginning of last season (he hadn't coached in college since 2020 prior to last season).

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I just see a lot of offensive production loss in Love, Price, the transfer WR from Virgina. They've got a lot of unproven talent having to replace a lot of proven talent.

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I'm much more concerned about this than the defense. I think ND has a lot of good (non-QB) skill players, but I'm not sure if there are any great ones. I think there are a lot of possible #2/#3 WRs, but don't know if there are any true #1s. I think Williams will be a really good college RB, but he doesn't have the game-breaking ability that even Price did, let alone Love. Do they have a "trump card" skill player to bail them out when needed? I'm not sure...

My thought is with Carr (who I expect to solidify himself as a first-round pick) and a talented OL (which also has a few unknowns / first-time starters, but I expect to gel into a very strong unit by mid-season) the skill position players will still be good/deep enough that the offense, when coupled with an elite defense, will have ND right up there at the end of the year. But would be a nice bonus if at least one skill player (either a perceived "top" guy like Williams or Faison, or someone young/unexpected) breaks out into a true alpha/star.

Anyway, as I said in that other ridiculously long ND thread, it's not just that I think 2026 ND has better talent and better coaching than any point in at least the past 30 years, but also the top team(s) are no longer as dominant. Wouldn't shock me if any of OSU, Oregon, Miami, UGA, Texas, ND or IU are standing on the podium at the end of the year. But no matter who it ends up being, wouldn't feel optimistic for any of them against 2018 Clemson or 2019 LSU or 2020 Bama or 2022 UGA. Just a different world now in cfb with the portal and NIL.

LOL

They lost to the only two teams they played last year, one at home. They haven't won a Title since 1988. Spare us all the other bs, since you are a fan and can't be objective. We measure success by Titles....apparently you measure it by rankings when playing weak schedules. BTW, this year is an absolute joke. Your next best team behind Miami is Syracuse. LOL. In contrast, LSU play 4 of the top 11 I believe, maybe 5...then Tenn and Clemson on top of that.

LSU actually wins national championships. Notre Dame has no results to support being overhyped every August.

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Is ND really any more overrated than LSU?

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ND hasn’t won a natty since 1988 yet media acts like they are up to par with the juggernauts and could absolutely win it.

LSU has won 3 this century (2003, 2007, 2019)

When LSU is in natty ppl think they have a chance to win…

When ND is in natty… well… no one thinks they’re going win and the two that ND were in this century proved them right….