re: Josh Pate “ND would win the SEC this year.”

Josh Pate did well riding Nick Saban's dick but has fallen off sharply since then.

Indiana just win a Natty and some SEC fans believe it’s 2021.

The entire sport has changed now that everyone is willing to buy players. We are still in the early stages of NIL. Every year more and more teams are coming online - and a lot of these teams have very deep pockets and they aren’t in the SEC. The SEC has the fans and the stadiums but they lack the deep money outside of 5-6 teams (Texas, A&M, Vandy, UGA, and Bama), I don’t see LSU having the deep money it will take over the next decade to buy the big time players.

ND has to do it first, but there is no doubt they will fairly soon.

There is plenty of doubt

Maybe all yall engineers can get together and give Georgia Tech a shot

Idiot

They are being purposefully obtuse and praying to god that an SEC team wins the Natty this year. It’s all they have. When 80% of SEC fans realized their own team had no chance they began the “SEC” chant and ESPN knows this fan group will fall for anything so they marketed it to the max.

Unfortunately for SEC fans (which I’m one) the days of winning 1 or 2 games to claim a BS Natty are over. You now have to play a series of strong teams back to back to back - and so far the SEC hasn’t handled it well and their myth of saying they play strong teams every week is being exposed. The one team last year who can actually say that was Miami. They played a strong ACC schedule, lost some games along the way, but got better week to week and blew thru Texas A&M, Ohio St, and Ole Miss like it was nothing. That’s what most SEC fans can’t handle.

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Notre Dame would absolutely compete for the top spot in the SEC Until y’all win a championship the SEC and Big10 guys will continue to roll their eyes at yall though I give zero shits about y’all’s run a couple of years ago. Win everything and this entire board will go radio silent

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I actually don’t disagree with that. Given ND’s performance since the early 2000’s, it’s still at least a bit warranted.

But I don’t think clowns like Madking - and the legions of “SEC!” Parrots behind people like that - fully appreciate the structural change in the sport over the last 4 - 5 years. It shifted quickly and decisively away from the SEC programs and $200K handshakes to programs with genuine frick you money - Miami, Notre Dame, USC, Oregon, Michigan (if they can unfrick themselves), Ohio State, Texas, A&M, and Georgia. Florida would be on it if they decided to be, which they have not done so far. Potentially Penn State. That’s pretty much the list right now - those are the Yankees and Dodgers of the sport at this point.

Notre Dame has done it as well as anyone so far (hence why ESPN had us as the #1 best positioned program in the country moving forward like 3 weeks ago), and last year’s playoff snub to that shite arse Alabama team apparently fueled the fire even more with certain people with the resources and influence to matter.

Edit: One other thing - look at the two national title participants last year. ND gave one of them the last loss they’ve had (and kind of beat the frick out of them at that, obvious caveat that it wasn’t Mendoza playing QB), and took the other to a tied game on the road with 45 seconds left in the first game of the year with a brand new QB and DC. Alabama and Oklahoma had no shot to win the title last year. ND did, especially with the way we were playing at the end of the year, and that’s what pissed off so many of the money people.

You don’t think Bama and LSU are on that list?

That’s interesting

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Edit: One other thing - look at the two national title participants last year. ND gave one of them the last loss they’ve had (and kind of beat the frick out of them at that, obvious caveat that it wasn’t Mendoza playing QB), and took the other to a tied game on the road with 45 seconds left in the first game of the year with a brand new QB and DC. Alabama and Oklahoma had no shot to win the title last year. ND did, especially with the way we were playing at the end of the year, and that’s what pissed off so many of the money people.

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Let me start with this just to make sure we’re all clear and on the same page: I largely agree with Buckeye Fan 19 and you regarding Notre Dame and its improvement. The most casual fan should be able to clearly see that the talent and athleticism on the field is substantially improved. Freeman has made them objectively better. They have an elite secondary, arguably a top 5 linebacker unit, and solid defensive line. Their offensive line is stout, as usual, and Carr is top 5. I’m unsure on their WRs and RBs, but we saw what their backs have done under Freeman since Estime. I’ve said they, along with UGA and Texas, would be the top 3 favorites to win the SEC, and I definitely think they could.

THAT SAID, for the love of God, can we give the magical 2024 run a rest? Notre Dame fans are milking the 2024 run for all it’s worth. Indiana 2024 does not equal Indiana 2025. Indiana 2024 was essentially James Madison. 2025 they brought in 23 transfers and had, I believe, 15 new starters — including Mandoza. They aren’t the same team.

Then, look at UGA. The loss of their starting QB, Beck, was not beneficial. I don’t care what anyone says, if Beck was healthy, Kirby was going to play him. Stockton held his own, but again, you can’t act like that was a good thing for UGA — even if their dumbass fans said differently.

Then, the Penn State game. Look, we all saw how hard it was for ND to win that game. We hear time and time again, Franklin is Brian Kelly pt. 2, can’t win the big one. Well, he was fired the very next year, mid season. It was a hard fought win against a team that crumbles in the biggest of stages.

And then the Ohio State game….we saw how hard it was for ND to move the ball and score. It was what, 31-7 before I could go take a leak and freshen up my drink. Sure, they fought back, had a couple trick play, double-reverse 2pt conversions, but come on….Ohio State was vastly better.

Regarding 2025, I think Notre Dame was a top 5 team, but it had two tough games, and it lost both. Sop pouting and blaming Oklahoma, Alabama, etc. I do think ND was better than both, but despite OU and Bama’s bad losses (FSU), they actually had good “wins” on the resume; Notre Dame didn’t. They both proved they could win against good competition, Notre Dame didn’t. And aside from the 4th quarter, Miami kinda beat the shite out of Notre Dame…

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No, Bama and LSU are not on the list - yet

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This is a ludicrous statement

I’m saying LSU and Bama don’t have the money that a lot of other places have. Yes, they spent money on old coaches and new coaches and they bought Leavitt, That’s right now today, They just don’t have the deep money that others have. Nothing I can say will convince anyone. The only thing that matters are results so let’s see how the next decade under NIL unfolds. So far, the SEC has been very unsuccessful with NIL in the playoff era.

And yes, I’m a GT fan. What does that have to do with anything. My team, while improved, is also not spending big time money. We’ll see if we do over the next decade.