Notre Dame Nostalgia

I've been back to Notre Dame 14 times since I graduated.  Every single time I was back was for football weekend in the fall, with one exception.  I went back for the Blue-Gold Game and a Cubs game in April of 2009.  And I do love Notre Dame football, but that certainly wasn't the only thing I love about Notre Dame.  So this weekend was the first time I was back for anything other than football.  This was also my first trip back in more than a year (since the Stanford game in 2014), which is the longest I've gone without being on campus since I graduated.

During that April 2009 trip, I also went to a Notre Dame baseball game that weekend to see Golden Tate play.  I think that was the only Notre Dame baseball game I've been to.  I was trying to think of how many basketball games I went to as a student and it wasn't many.  I'm pretty sure that the only games I went to my first semester were a win against Rutgers at home and then a loss to Rutgers at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament (when a win might have gotten us into the tournament).  The next year, the only games I remember going to were against Georgetown and Villanova.  I might have gone to one or two others (and I think I went to a women's game or two with Tim).  But for those games against Georgetown and Villanova, we got there really early and got into the first row of the student section.  We lost to Georgetown by three in double overtime.  Villanova was ranked number 6 and it was looking good for us.  I remember they cleared stuff out in front of the student section because they were preparing for us to rush the court.  It was tied and then Kyle Lowrie tipped in the game-winner with 1.7 seconds left.  On ESPN.com, there was a picture where you could clearly see me in the background.  And one of the Chicago newspapers put a picture from the end of the game on the cover of the sports section where you could very clearly see all of my friends in the front row and then I was cut off.  I'm pretty sure I didn't go to any basketball games my final semester.  I was not too enthusiastic about basketball after the two previous seasons and our non-conference home games probably weren't too exciting anyway.  I went to a few hockey games.  I think my last one was the night before my last football game as a student (the game Kyle played in).  We beat Michigan State 4-1 that night.  I remember wanting football to be my last sporting event as a student so I didn't go to any games my last month as a student.

I first arrived on campus as a student in January 2005.  It had snowed the day before I arrived.  The students were still a day away from returning for the spring semester.  I remember just walking around campus and looking at everything in the freshly fallen snow and thinking how great it looked.  I also remember how it just snowed all the time that winter.  When it wasn't snowing, it started snowing.  Usually the snow wasn't too heavy, but it was a constant presence.  It's all part of Notre Dame.  It was also cold.  There was one weekend in 2006 when it was so cold that I'm pretty sure I left the dorm once per day to get something to eat and that was it (I could go to mass in the dorm, so I didn't have to worry about leaving for that).  So it was appropriate that the high on Saturday for my first non-football trip back to campus was 13 degrees and it was snowing.  I actually thoroughly enjoyed it.  This coming weekend it's supposed to be 57.  I'm glad I went went it was cold and snowy.  It reminded me of my time as a student.  If it had been warm, it wouldn't have felt right for the winter.

So anyway, I flew in on Friday night.  I stayed at the O'Hare Airport Hilton and then took the bus early the next morning.  On Saturday night I was staying at the Inn at St. Mary's.  After dropping off my stuff, I headed to campus around 1:00.  I decided to walk and it was cold, but it didn't bother me (when I'm home, I hate anything below 30 degrees, but I was good). My first stop was the Grotto.  It's pretty much the first thing you come to when you're walking from St. Mary's, but I'm glad that was my first stop.  It looked gorgeous with the snow.  I stopped, lit a candle, and said some prayers.  I spent a good amount of time there when I was a student.  When you go for football, the Grotto is always so crowded.  That's why I would try to stop by early on Sunday morning when I would stay with Jon when he was in law school.  It was nice to be there again with just a few other people.

First stop

Next up was my old home, St. Edward's Hall.  I'm pretty sure I hadn't been inside since I last stayed with Jon when he was an AR there in 2013.  It's been renovated since then.  The lounge looked very different.  It looked nice, but the furniture is already beaten up. And there should really just be two recliners there permanently in honor of Jon and me.  I walked around for a little bit.  The old place looked good.  I went up to the fourth floor where I lived during my entire time there.  There was my first semester with Kyle when we had a quad that was pretty much a glorified double because Dan and Jorge were very rarely there.  They almost never slept there (I could probably count on one hand the number of times that all four of us were asleep in our beds at the same time).  And then at the end of the semester Dan got kicked out for a keg party (not that it really changed much since he was never there anyway).  My favorite memory from living there was when Kyle, Jorge, and I stole cable in the middle of the night.  We got a cable splitter and laid a cable from the fourth floor lounge to our room.  We did it in the middle of the night as if that was going to keep people from noticing.  We had to disconnect it after a week, but we did have it for St. Patrick's Day 2005, which was the greatest random Thursday in the history of sports.  My next year I lived in a glorified single because my roommate was a football player that probably spent 10-20 nights there the whole year.  And I was with Nick my final semester.  I was really the honorary fifth roommate with Jon, Dennis, Wilhelm, and Chris that semester.  The best story from living with Nick was very unfortunate for him.  His bed was the victim of some drunken freshman shenanigans one night that he wasn't in the room.  I'm not going into details, but that probably made it sound even worse than it was.  Before leaving, I checked out some pictures of all the guys from the dorm each year that were on the wall on the first floor.  I found the one from the spring of 2006, but I couldn't find myself in it.  I feel like I would have participated in that, but maybe not.

My old home

After St. Ed's, I walked around Main Quad and took some pictures.  Then I went to the bookstore and looked around, but I didn't buy anything.  From there, I walked over to the library to take a look at Touchdown Jesus.

Such a beautiful sight

Touchdown Jesus

Stay warm, Father Joyce and Father Hesburgh.

Finally, it was time for my stadium tour.  If I remember correctly, they didn't do those when I was a student.  I remember that the RAs got to take a stadium tour, but I don't think that they had them for the public (although let's not rule out the possibility that I was an idiot and didn't realize that they were available then).  So I've always wanted to do it, but they never had them on football weekends.  Back in 2013 when I was out there a day early because I was off on a Friday for All Saints Day, I did the tunnel tour, which is where you can walk down the tunnel to the field (something I had done as a student), but that was all you got to see.  The stadium tour actually starts in the Joyce Center.  They were already letting people in for the basketball game, so they kind of rushed us through the Purcell Pavilion side (with a short stop in Heritage Hall, which is pretty cool) and into the field house.  I think the first time I was ever in there was with Jorge for some fencing and I met Mariel Zagunis, who won gold medals in 2004 and 2008.  Jorge didn't tell me until later that it was the gold medal winner.  That used to be where we played hockey.  And it was a crappy set up for hockey.  I'm glad I got to see it again because later it would help me to appreciate the Compton Family Ice Arena even more.  The highlight of course is the football stadium.  It was interesting to see how it looks from the inside with the renovations going on (they've definitely made some progress since our last home game in November).  You don't really see all that much inside the stadium other than the locker room and the field, but that's all I needed to see anyway.  I guess it would be nice to go into the press box, but I don't think we have a press box right now with the current state of the renovations.  The locker room was really cool.  They tell some stories in there about the history of Notre Dame football (most of which I knew already anyway).  Then you get to walk down the steps and touch the Play Like a Champion Today sign.  This was awesome.  I have a Learn Like a Champion Today sign in my classroom so my students will appreciate the picture of me touching the sign.  Then you get to walk out to the field.  It was covered in snow, but I did get to stand in the end zone.  People had dug out a couple of small patches where you could see the field turf (I miss the grass, but alas).  I dragged my foot along the field turf to kick up the black rubber pellets.  I picked up a couple of them.

Win just one for the Gipper.

The locker room

Play Like a Champion Today

The east side of the stadium

The west side of the stadium

Me in the end zone

I could have stayed on the field for as long as they would let us, but I had a ticket for the basketball game, which was already starting.  So I rushed over to Purcell Pavilion.  I got in right at the first TV timeout.  Missing four and a half minutes of the game for the stadium tour was totally worth it (a couple of people actually left the tour early to go to the game and missed touching the Play Like a Champion Today sign and going on the field).  It was back and forth for most of the first half, but we had a pretty bad finish to the half and we went in down 43-36.  Nobody was really playing well for us except for Demetrius Jackson, who had 20.  We got out to a slow start in the second half too.  I think Louisville's biggest lead was 11.  But we finished the game very strong.  We led by six late in the game, but Louisville hit a three and then V.J. Beachem missed the front end of a 1 and 1.  Louisville missed a three that would have tied it and Zach Auguste was fouled with 4.4 seconds left.  He just needed to make the first to secure the victory, but he made both.  Auguste wasn't great, but he rebounded and made some big plays on both ends late in the game.  Jackson finished with 27 points and five assists.  Steve Vasturia was excellent in the second half and finished with 20 points.  Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton were both in attendance with the NBA All Star break this weekend.  They both got a rousing ovation when they were recognized during a timeout.  Well deserved.  I was reminded of Grant going nuts at the end of regulation against Louisville in my favorite college basketball game of all time.

My view for the basketball game

I was thinking about who our biggest basketball rival is.  Greg mentioned Louisville, Syracuse and Pittsburgh.  All legitimate choices.  Kyle said Boston College, Marquette, and Louisville.  I wish we still played Marquette, but we don't anymore.  And Boston College is just so bad that it's hard to say them (Greg also said Boston College when we were students).  I would say Louisville.  We've been playing great games against them for a while.  The ACC scheduling formula has every team playing two teams twice annually, two teams twice on a rotating basis, and everybody else once.  The two teams we play twice annually are Boston College and Georgia Tech.  I'm fine with Boston College (the only other Catholic school in the ACC), but I wish we could replace Georgia Tech with Louisville.  We were really developing a great rivalry at the end of the Big East days and they're fairly close geographically.  Check out these numbers on Notre Dame-Louisville games, which have all been played since 2006 (13 overtime periods in 15 games).  So we should play them twice per year, but oh well.

After the basketball game, I headed across the parking lot to the Compton Family Ice Arena.  I had tried to check it out my last time on campus before the Stanford game.  Before meeting up with Wilhelm, I figured Compton would be open so I walked over there and the doors were locked.  On the doors were signs saying that the building was open until 1:00 and the doors would lock at 12:50.  I checked my watch and it was 12:51.  It is a beautiful facility.  It holds just over 5000.  Despite the small size, it does have some decent concession options.  In each corner of the arena was a different version of the interlocking ND logo.  This was my second Notre Dame hockey game of the year and third in the last three years (I saw us play UConn at Barclays Center in November and Boston College at Fenway Park in 2014).  I was sitting pretty much on one of the blue lines in the ninth row behind Maine's bench.  We had beaten Maine the night before 4-1.  We definitely got off to the better start in this game, but Maine's goalie had a pretty good first period.  We were out-shooting Maine early, but we couldn't break through until about 14 minutes into the game.  Maine ended up out-shooting us for the game 41-35, but I really felt like we were getting the better chances.  We ended up going up 5-0 in the third period.  I was hoping for the shutout, but Maine finally scored with just under three minutes left.  The final score was 5-1.

My view for the hockey game

After the hockey game, I finished up my day by going to the Subway at LaFortune for old time's sake.  It was also nice to walk around at night because it reminded me of the first time I was ever on campus (at night in November 2004).  I loved having Subway for free maybe 200 yards away from the dorm when I was a student.  I walked back to my hotel and went past the Grotto again (it looks great at night with all the candles glowing).  When I got back to the hotel, I had a victory beer at the bar for a great day of sports.

The Golden Dome in the dark

I got up early the next morning to go to mass in the crypt of the basilica.  I would have liked to go to a regular basilica mass, but they didn't have one early enough.  So the 6:30 mass in the basement worked well enough.  I walked around Main Quad one last time not knowing when I'll be back again (I don't know what I'm doing for football next season yet).  It was so good to be back.  I finished up by walking past the Grotto one last time.  It was three degrees that morning.  That morning and the night before, I felt warm standing at the Grotto.  It was a strange feeling.  Once I started walking back to the hotel, that was the only time I felt really really cold.  It was strange that it was colder walking back when the sun was coming up than when I was walking over in the dark.

The Grotto glowing at night with the Golden Dome in the background.  I felt warm despite the weather.

So the next time I'll be back will probably be for football.  But I'm glad I got back for something else.  The stadium tour was great.  Beating Louisville in basketball was awesome too.  Whatever happened in the hockey game wasn't going to disappoint me, but I'm glad that was an easy win as well.  Dodger Stadium is probably my second favorite place in the world (even though I have it ranked behind Fenway Park in my stadium rankings).  Notre Dame is number 1.

Supporting the Team

I took my first trip out of the state of 2016 on Super Bowl weekend.  I had been to 44 states.  Surprisingly, one of the states I hadn't been to borders New York.  I finally got to Maine last summer, so this trip to Vermont finished off New England.  Now the closest state that I haven't been to is South Carolina.

John had mentioned this weekend to me as a possibility back in the summer.  It was John, Sean, and Sean's wife Anne doing a Penguin Plunge in Lake Champlain.  I was glad to use this as my excuse to cross off Vermont.  They were raising money for the Special Olympics.  I definitely was not interested in participating, but much like David Puddy, I was willing to support the team.

Burlington is the biggest city in Vermont.  It's the smallest city to be the biggest in a state.  Its population is about the same as Hicksville, New York, where I work.  It's less densely populated than Hicksville because it's geographically bigger.  I flew up to Burlington on Friday night.  I figured a $137 round trip was worth it.  John drove up early Saturday morning.  We got breakfast at the Skinny Pancake and met Sean and Anne there.  I had the Crepedilla, which was quite good.

The view of Lake Champlain from my room.  Just kidding, my view was a parking garage.  This was from Sean and Anne's room.

We headed down to the lake around noon.  The weather was about as warm as you could reasonably hope for in Vermont in February.  John and Sean said that usually there's snow on the ground and the lake is frozen.  Not this time.  The high was 37 degrees.  They got pretty lucky because eight days later the high was 3.  I did notice that it felt much colder down by the water because the wind was blowing a lot more down there.  John was in and out as quickly as he could be.  He was the first one out of the water from his group.  Sean and Anne lingered in there for a little longer.  After the plunge, we met up with John's friend Rebecca (former Camp Alvernia employee) and her husband.

If not for those two people bundled up in the background, you might think it was warm.

After going back to the hotel and warming up for a bit, we went to a late lunch at a pizza place.  But apparently you weren't allowed to call the food pizza.  They were flatbreads (but if you had leftovers, they gave you a pizza box to pack them up in).  It's well known that I'm a pizza snob, but this wasn't bad.  John and I split a breakfast pizza (they were still serving brunch).  I cut out quickly to make it to the 4:00 vigil mass at St. Joseph's.

Pizza that we weren't allowed to call pizza.

After mass, I headed back to the hotel. John and Sean were watching some movie.  I wasn't really paying attention.  After the movie, we were planning on going to dinner, but not for a little while.  So I went back to my room and watched some of the Notre Dame-North Carolina game.  We left for dinner in the second half so I didn't see the end of the game.  I think we had tied it right around when we headed out.  I had to follow the end of our victory on my phone.  We got dinner at a Chinese place for Chinese New Year.  Then we went out and did some drinking.  I enjoyed various Vermont beers.  And at one point we met a Burlington TV personality who was friends with Anne (I don't remember her name).

I think this was a Grodziskie (a Polish Oak-Smoked Wheat Ale), which John ordered for me in honor of St. John Paul II.

So that was my 45th state.  It was a good time up in Vermont with everybody.  Number 46 will probably be South Carolina or Louisiana.  If it's Louisiana, Mississippi will by number 47 (that will be the same trip).  Alaska is most likely to be number 50.  

Saturday Sports Spectacular

Today is a pretty good Saturday considering that it's not a regular Saturday of college football.  We have the start of bowl season, some good basketball games, and Jets-Cowboys tonight.  I was going to update my bowl name rankings, but it seems that names haven't changed and the only new ones don't have good names (the Cure Bowl and the Arizona Bowl).  Instead, let's go over who I'm rooting for in each game:

New Mexico Bowl:  New Mexico over Arizona.  I don't want to root for Bob Davie, but he's going against Rich Rodriguez.

Las Vegas Bowl:  BYU over Utah.  I like Mormons and independent college football programs.

Camellia Bowl:  Appalachian State over Ohio.  I'll always appreciate Appalachian State for when they beat Michigan.

Cure Bowl:  Georgia State over San Jose State.  If I can avoid rooting for a team named the Spartans, I will.

New Orleans Bowl:  Louisiana Tech over Arkansas State.  Louisiana Tech is the Bulldogs, which was Orel Hershiser's nickname.  And they wear red, white, and blue.

Miami Beach Bowl:  Western Kentucky over USF because we once lost a miserable game to USF.

Boca Raton Bowl:  Temple over Toledo since we played Temple.

Poinsettia Bowl:  Boise State over Northern Illinois.  I was in Boise this summer.

GoDaddy Bowl:  Georgia Southern over Bowling Green.  I don't really care, but Urban Meyer used to coach at Bowling Green.

Bahamas Bowl:  Middle Tennessee over Western Michigan because Western Michigan has ugly colors.

Hawaii Bowl:  San Diego State over Cincinnati for Kyle and Lauren.

St. Petersburg Bowl:  UConn over Marshall.  I can root for Bob Diaco.

Sun Bowl:  Washington State over Miami.  This one is obvious.

Heart of Dallas Bowl:  Southern Miss over Washington.  I'll usually go with a Group of 5 team over a Power 5 team.

Pinstripe Bowl:  Duke over Indiana.  ACC over Big 10.

Independence Bowl:  Virginia Tech over Tulsa.  I have nothing against Frank Beamer and it's his last game.

Foster Farms Bowl:  UCLA over Nebraska.  If I had to pick a Pac 12 team to root for, it's definitely UCLA.

Military Bowl:  Navy over Pittsburgh. This one is easy.

Quick Lane Bowl:  Minnesota over Central Michigan for Courtney and Dennis.  And Lou Holtz coached at Minnesota.

Armed Forces Bowl:  Air Force over Cal.  The military over dirty smelly hippies.  Easy.  But I am considering going to Cal's opener next year.

Russell Athletic Bowl:  Baylor over North Carolina.  I don't like North Carolina.

Arizona Bowl:  Colorado State over Nevada.  One state has legalized marijuana. The other has legalized gambling and prostitution.  I guess legalized marijuana is less bad.

Texas Bowl.  Texas Tech over LSU.  I can't root for Les Miles.

Birmingham Bowl:  Memphis over Auburn.  Group of 5 team against an SEC team.

Belk Bowl:  NC State over Mississippi State.  ACC over SEC.  And Lou Holtz coached at NC State.

Music City Bowl:  Notre Dame over LSU.  Wait, that's what happened last year.  Louisville over Texas A&M.  Again, ACC over SEC.

Holiday Bowl:  Wisconsin over USC.  Barry Alvarez is a former Lou Holtz assistant and Wisconsin's current athletic director.  And USC is USC.

Peach Bowl:  Houston over Florida State.  Even if Everett Golson was playing, it would still be hard to root for Florida State.

Orange Bowl:  Clemson over Oklahoma.  It would be nice if Clemson went undefeated and won the National Championship and we were the team that was closest to beating them.

Cotton Bowl:  Michigan State over Alabama.  Michigan State is nowhere near as evil as Michigan and I can't root for Alabama so this time I will root for the Spartans.

Outback Bowl:  Tennessee over Northwestern.  Tennessee is not as despicable as most SEC teams and I don't like the Big 10.

Fiesta Bowl:  Notre Dame over Ohio State.  Good over evil.

Citrus Bowl:  Florida over Michigan.  Not quite evil over very evil.

Rose Bowl:  Iowa over Stanford.  I really dislike Stanford.

Sugar Bowl:  Ole Miss over Oklahoma State.  I'm mad at Oklahoma State for not helping us and getting destroyed against Oklahoma (our defense didn't help us either, but still).

TaxSlayer Bowl:  Georgia over Penn State.  I have no interest in rooting for Penn State.

Liberty Bowl:  Arkansas over Kansas State.  Lou Holtz coached at Arkansas.

Alamo Bowl:  TCU over Oregon.  I'm assuming TCU's uniforms will be less offensive than Oregon's.

Cactus Bowl:  Arizona State over West Virginia.  Just because West Virginia is a school that has employed Rich Rodriguez and Bob Huggins.


So I'm going to be working on a running diary here starting around 2:00.  New Dodgers' road game broadcaster Joe Davis is calling Auburn-Xavier on Fox Sports 1 right now.  I was listening to an interview with him.  He's 27 years old and he grew up in Michigan.  When he was asked if he was a Michigan or Michigan State fan, he said he grew up a big Notre Dame fan.  I like this guy.  As much as I don't want Vin Scully to retire, I hope Joe Davis is good and takes over for Vin when that very unfortunate day comes.  As for other basketball, Utah is up on Duke at Madison Square Garden right now.  Virginia is beating Villanova.

Let's get the running diary going:

1:59- Utah and Duke are tied with less than a minute to play.  And now Utah can get the last shot.

2:00- Timeout, Utah with 12.8 left.

2:01- Utah's uniforms have a little Houton Rockets thing going on.

2:02- Utah misses an NBA three at the buzzer.  It was a good look, but you have to go to the basket there.

2:05- Notre Dame and Indiana tip off.  This is a big game for us.  If we can go in to conference play with three wins against Big 10 teams away from home, that would be pretty solid.

2:06- Indiana gets on the board first.

2:07- V.J. Beachem hits a three for Notre Dame's first points.  5-3 Indiana.

2:10- Bonzie Colson scores to give us our first lead, but Indiana quickly takes it back with a three.

2:12- Bonzie gives us the lead again and draws the foul as we head to our first TV timeout.

2:13- Utah is up six on Duke with less than a minute to go.

2:19- It's taking several minutes to play the last minute of this Utah-Duke game.  Utah is making their free throws and they're going to win.

2:20- Duke has a chance for a four-point play to cut it to two with 6.7 left.  How do you foul there?

2:21- The free throw is good and Utah had to call a timeout because they couldn't get the ball in.  This isn't over yet.  Meanwhile, Notre Dame is up 25-17 and Bonzie is off to a very nice start.

2:23- Utah turned it over.  This is ridiculous.  They're going to review it, but it's off Utah.

2:25- Duke has it with 6.4 left and they're down two.

2:26- Duke was having it trouble getting it in, but they get bailed out because the clock started running.

2:27- Duke misses a short shot off the back rim.  It was a great opportunity after the defender fell down.  They fouled with 0.6 left.

2:28- Utah misses both free throws, but survives 77-75.  It took fifteen minutes to play the last minute of the game.

2:32- Beachem hits a three to put Notre Dame up 30-21.

2:33- Steve Vasturia completes a three-point play.

2:34- Now that Utah-Duke is over, ESPN goes to the New Mexico Bowl.  Arizona is up 7-3 and Bob Davie is upset about something.  I believe this game is being played across the street from where the Albuquerque Isotopes play.

2:41- We take a timeout up by eight.  I'm going to take a break to get ready for mass after the game.

3:09- I'm back and we're up 14.  Bonzie Colson already has a career high with 18 points.

3:10- New Mexico kicks an extra point to cut Arizona's lead to 14-10.

3:15- Bonzie just got called for a flagrant foul.

3:16- Indiana makes the two free throws and they have the ball.  They're on an 8-0 run right now.

3:17- Beachem makes a three to stop the run and then he gets a dunk after a turnover.  Beautiful.  We're up 13.

3:25- Indiana's gone on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to six, but Bonzie scores again to put us back up eight.

3:30- We're up eight with 7:02 to play.  Indiana is hanging in there.

3:33- Demetrius Jackson just had a pretty nice put back dunk.

3:37- We just had a shot clock violation.  We're up five with five minutes to play.  We need to get it together.

3:38- Indiana just tied it.  This is ridiculous.

3:42- Bonzie gave us the lead again.

3:45- Bonzie is going to the line with the game tied and 1:15 to play.

3:46- He missed both.

3:47- Zach Auguste just fouled out with 57.5 seconds to play and Indiana just went up two.

3:48- We turn the ball over and commit a foul on the other end.

3:50- Steve Vasturia just missed a three.  We foul down four with 26.9 left.  It's not looking good.

3:51- Jackson just missed a three.  We couldn't hit anything from the outside late in this game.  This is a very disappointing loss.  We were in control for most of the game and played terrible basketball at the end.  Indiana finished on a 17-2 run.  But it's a college basketball game in December.  This would have been a nice one to win, but it's not going to keep us out of the NCAA Tournament.  If we get the job done in ACC play, we'll be fine.  This isn't like losing a football game.

3:54- Utah gets on the board first with a touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl.  Both teams are wearing dark jerseys.  It's a good contrast with Utah's red and BYU's blue.

3:55- They're reviewing the touchdown.  It definitely looks like the ball carrier was down short of the goal line.

3:56- The call stands.  I definitely disagree.  I'm going to a 4:30 mass.  I'm taking a break until mass and I'm eating dinner after.  So I'll probably be back around 6:00.

6:13- Well I'm back.  Arizona beat New Mexico.  BYU couldn't stop turning the ball over in the first half and they were down 35-0.  Now they're down 35-14.  This was one of the more interesting early bowl games, but it hasn't been too interesting so far.

6:16- Appalachian State is up 7-0 and Ohio just punted.  I'm going to take it easy for now and pick up these games again on the diary if they get interesting.  Scrooged comes on AMC at 7:00.  That's Plan B until the Jet game starts.

7:00- BYU is staying in it.  It's 35-21 with 9:30 to play.  During my break I bought my 2016 Big East Tournament tickets.  They are in the same section as last year and one row closer to the court.  Each ticket was $50 cheaper than last year.  I hope the Big East has a good year.  Obviously Notre Dame is my favorite basketball team.  But after us, I would love to see a Big East school win the National Championship.  It's been 31 years since a team that didn't play major college football win the National Championship in basketball (Villanova in 1985).

7:05- Utah has fourth and 1 in BYU territory.  It looks like they're going to go for it after a timeout.  Huge play coming up.

7:09- BYU gets the stop.  They have five minutes to make up the 14-point deficit.

7:11- BYU gets a first down on third and 10.

7:12- BYU completes a deep pass to the four yard line.  First and goal.

7:13- BYU scores, but this is probably getting reviewed.  The quarterback took off, extended the ball, and lost it.  Did he score before he lost the ball?  I think he did.

7:15- The ruling is confirmed.  The extra point is good.  3:23 left to play and it's 35-28.

7:17- BYU's kick goes out of bounds just short of the goal line.  Looking at the replay, I can't tell if that's the right call or not.  It was close.  It will cost BYU ten yards.

7:18- Utah gains six on first down.  Timeout, BYU.

7:19- It's going to be third and about one and a half for Utah.

7:21- Utah picks up the first down on the option.

7:22- Utah gets another first down.  That should do it.  BYU played a really good second half, but when you turn the ball over five times in the first half, you're in big trouble.

7:23- Apparently Utah's coach went to BYU.  I could never ever under any circumstances coach against Notre Dame.  I just couldn't do it.

7:29- The Cure Bowl is underway.  No score with about five minutes left in the first quarter.  Ithink I'm going to take it easy until the Jet game starts.

So I kept my running diary going through the Jets' victory over the Cowboys, but apparently I didn't save that part.  So it's gone.  Here are some quick thoughts:

I was very happy with the Jets going into this game, but still not optimistic about them getting into the playoffs.  Even if they went 3-0 to finish the season, they'd need either the Chiefs or Steelers to lose.  The Chiefs have a really easy schedule and the Steelers have an easy schedule after they play the Broncos today.  The Jets still have the Patriots and Bills left.  They're the most likely team to miss the playoffs, but I'll be rooting for the Ravens and Broncos today.  And Rex Ryan isn't the coach and Mark Sanchez isn't the quarterback anymore.  So things are looking up for the Jets.  It was kind of an ugly performance against the Cowboys, but I'll take the win.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was on last night.  I quoted some good lines.  If you're reading this on Sunday afternoon, it's on again tonight at 7:00 followed by Elf.

Brent Musburger apparently said something about feeling bad for BYU fans not being able to drink when they were down 35-0.  I thought during the game as they were trying to pull off the comeback that it would be lame to celebrate the victory if they could pull it off without drinking.

Appalachian State, San Jose State, and Louisiana Tech won their bowls yesterday.  I've got Temple-Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday night as the best pre-Christmas Bowl left.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch RedZone for the next six hours.  I'm rooting for the Giants, Bills, Ravens, Browns, Titans, Broncos, and Cardinals today.

College vs. NFL

I'm back to tackle a subject I've tackled before:  college football vs. professional football.  I originally wanted to do this for my 200th post, but what I did instead was quite appropriate.  To review briefly, the NFL used to be my favorite sport.  Football in general has dropped behind baseball, but the NFL has also dropped behind college football.  That started when I transferred to Notre Dame, but I was still a bigger NFL fan than college fan while I was at Notre Dame.  Really it was the Jets that made me a bigger college fan.  But that was due mostly to Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan.  By the way, last year I was worried that the Jets would somehow end up with Jameis Winston.  If that happened, I was out.  I would still be an NFL fan, but there was no way I was ever going to root for that guy.  Anyway, Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan are gone and we avoided Jameis Winston, so can the NFL move back ahead of college?  Let's break it down.

Professional Athletes vs. Student Athletes
I'm partial to student athletes.  The problem is that not every school is Notre Dame.  What percentage of SEC football players are legitimate students?  It's probably pretty low except maybe at Vanderbilt.  College football isn't as bad as college basketball where you have Kentucky and Duke with players that have to act like students for only one semester (yes, Duke has become just about as bad as Kentucky), but it's still bad.
Edge:  NFL

Regular Season
College has the obvious edge here, but one of the best things about college football can also be one of the worst.  In 2013, Notre Dame's season was over by the end of September (two losses).  So it's awesome that the games mean so much, but it can also make life as a college fan pretty miserable.  On the other hand, you have the NFL where the regular season matters more than other professional sports except for baseball, but it still doesn't matter that much.  The 2002 Jets started 1-4 and then ended up winning a playoff game (41-0 against Peyton Manning, still the last home playoff game for the Jets).  The 2011 Giants went 9-7 and then beat the cheaters from New England for the second time in four years in the Super Bowl.  I mean that was wonderful, but yeah, I'll take having every regular season game matter.
Big Edge:  College

Method of Determining the Champion
College has come a long way.  They used to vote for the National Champions.  In 1993, Notre Dame beat Florida State during the regular season.  Both teams won their bowl game and finished with one loss and yet Florida State was voted National Champions.  Now we have a four team playoff with the teams chosen by a committee.  It's a big upgrade.  In fact, I don't know if I'd made any changes.  Brian Kelly wants an eight-team playoff, which would be very good for Notre Dame this year.  However, it would make the regular season less important and you'd get a lot of two-loss teams and possibly even three-loss teams competing for the championship.  I wouldn't like that.  I don't think it's perfect, but I don't know how to fix it.  Notre Dame dropped from 4 to 6 in the rankings after an ugly win against Boston College.  As my brother Sean pointed out, in the NFL all you have to do is win.  There's a 12-team tournament where all the spots are determined by record and tie-breakers.  Simple.  There's no debate.  Everybody knows the rules and how to make the playoffs.
Edge:  NFL

Postseason
This is closely related to the last topic, but not exactly the same.  College has made some great changes.  I love the New Year's Six.  College has reclaimed New Year's with the six biggest bowls.  And it's nice to have two of those bowls having a hand in determining the National Champions each year again.  It's also nice to have the bowls on during my Christmas vacation.  In fact, I'm a little disappointed that I'm going to miss the Miami Beach Bowl on December 21 because I have to teach and then coach a basketball game that day.  But really, the only reason I'm interested in it is that it's played in a baseball stadium.  It's 11-2 Western Kentucky against 8-4 South Florida.  The game is pretty much meaningless.  And so are most bowl games.  Was I supposed to be happy two years ago when we won the Pinstripe Bowl?  I mean, it was fun, but I wasn't happy with our season.  One thing that college needs to figure out is how to get the National Championship Game off of Monday night and have it played on a Saturday instead.  The NFL gets the postseason right.  All the postseason games matter.  And they're all well-attended, unlike a lot of college bowl games.  I also really like the first two weekends of the NFL Playoffs when you have two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday.  One thing that would make it better would be if we were always off the day after the Super Bowl (I'm not totally opposed to Super Bowl Saturday, but I'd rather just be off on the Monday), but at least the Super Bowl starts at 6:30 and not 8:30.
Big Edge:  NFL

Not Having a Huge Gap in the Season
We have almost four weeks between the last game for Clemson, Alabama, and Michigan State and their playoff games (almost five for Oklahoma).  It used to be even worse.  In 2006 and 2007, Ohio State had more than seven weeks between their last game and the Championship Game.  And people complain about two weeks between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl.
Edge:  NFL

Rules Differences
I don't mind the rules differences.  I like that the rules aren't the same.  One foot down in college, two in the NFL.  A ball carrier being down when on the ground in college, down by contact in the NFL.  The different hash marks.  I'm partial to college's wider hash marks because the field looks nicer and field goals are more difficult, but I can live with the NFL's hash marks.  I also think the NFL's long extra points are silly, but I'm good with either set of rules.
Small Edge:  College

Overtime
This is the exception to the rules differences.  Football has kickoffs and punts.  College overtime doesn't.  In football you have to earn good field position.  Unless you're in overtime in college.  If you want to make sure both teams have a possession fine, but don't take all special teams except for field goals out of the game.
Big Edge:  NFL

Day of the Week
This one is easy.  Saturday is just the best day of the week.  It's not even close.  I don't have to go to work that day or the next day.  It's wonderful.  Sunday is the end of my weekend.  If there's stuff I put off because I wanted to watch college football, I have to do it on Sunday.  And I have to go to work the next day.
Big Edge:  College

Weekly Schedule
I don't like Monday night games.  They end late and I still have four days of work after that left in my week.  So that's not helping the NFL.  Both have games on Thursday nights that I don't really like either.  College has Friday night games which I don't mind, but they're usually not particularly interesting games.  But let's just focus on college's Saturday schedule vs. the NFL's Sunday Schedule.  On Saturday the games start at noon.  You usually don't have great games at noon, but you might have something interesting.  At 3:30, you get most Notre Dame home games, an SEC game on CBS and maybe something interesting on ABC or ESPN.  Then at night you get lots of games on ABC/ESPN and probably Fox also.  Usually the best games are at night.  I love when Notre Dame wins in the afternoon and then I can just drink beer and enjoy the night games.  It's the best.  If you're lucky you might get a good Pac 12 game starting after 10:00.  Good times.  The NFL, on the other hand, ugh.  At most you're getting 14 games on Sunday (except for week 17) because of the Thursday and Monday games.  You have a Sunday night game.  So that leaves 13 games for Sunday afternoon.  For some reason, the NFL has decided to play the vast majority of these games at 1:00.  This weekend for example, we have eleven 1:00 games and two 4:00 games.  This is inexcusable.  If you're playing 13 Sunday afternoon games, at least four of them should be at 4:00.  If you only have two or three late games, you're left with a decent chance that none of those games are good.  And then you have one game at night that might or might not be good.
Big Edge:  College

My Teams
Notre Dame vs. the Jets.  I mean, the Jets had Joe Namath and Curtis Martin, but...
Big Edge:  College

Verdict:  I had ten categories.  (Did I miss anything?)  Of those categories, we have the NFL with the edge in three and a big edge in two.  College has a big edge in four and a small edge in one.  If we're awarding one point for an edge and two points for a big edge (and none for a small edge), college wins by a score of 8-7.  I actually think three points would be more appropriate for a big edge, which would give us college by a score of 12-9.  Yeah, I like college better.