Well Played, Notre Dame...and Other Sunday Morning Thoughts

Big College Football day yesterday.....

• Congratulations to the University of Notre Dame on their 22-13 win over USC last night.  The win secures an undefeated regular season and a berth in the BCS title game in January.  They thoroughly earned that victory last night, especially with those goal line stands.  Very impressive.  If I am a Notre Dame fan, however, I would be concerned that the Irish had to settle for field goals on multiple occasions when touchdowns were within easy reach, but that is a concern for another day.
• One of the many ridiculous aspects of the BCS System (which has one more year to live) is that ND now must wait 45 days to play in the game that will decide the Championship.  With a conference title game ahead of them, their presumptive opponent,  Alabama or Georgia, will have "only" 38 days of idleness before taking on the Irish.
• As I said, I salute Notre Dame for their terrific season, but, and with apologies to my friends who are ND loyalists, I find Brian Kelly to be a very hard guy to like.  This, of course, does not make him unique among college football coaches.
• With apologies to SABR Buddy, Facebook Friend, Razorback Alum, and SEC Loyalist Madison McEntire, I have to say that I am delighted to note that there will NOT be an all-SEC BCS title game this year.  
• Does Pitt's shellacking of Big East leader Rutgers yesterday say more about Pitt, Rutgers, or the overall quality of Big East football in 2012?
• And does Pitt's near victory over title game-bound Notre Dame a few weeks back say more about Pitt or Notre Dame?
• I think that the Big East as a football conference is done.  Dead as a doornail, as Scrooge said of Marley.  I think that the Big East needs to reinvent itself back into what it was originally intended to be - a basketball only conference for non-football playing and predominantly Catholic colleges and universities.
• Penn State closes with a win over Wisconsin and an 8-4 record.  If you are reading this, you know all about the obstacles that faced the team and new head Coach Bill O'Brien coming into this season, so I won't recount them again.  Suffice to say that what O'Brien and his players did was one of the best stories in college football this year.
• Special props to the Penn State players who stayed when they had a chance to leave, but the real test for O'Brien and the team will begin now.  Will players who are now sophomores and juniors decide to leave if the opportunity presents itself? And what will be the quality and the number of players that O'Brien will recruit when those players know that they will have no chance of playing for a conference championship or in a Bowl game over the course of their four years?
• And what about Bill O'Brien himself?   Stories of him being on NFL teams' wish lists persist and he is coyly making no effort to scuttle those stories.  From a pure football point of view, should he decide to leave Happy Valley, that night be a blow almost as difficult from which to recover as any other that has faced PSU in the past year.
• I would like to think that O'Brien will stay the course and remain at Penn State, but if you rely on the sense of loyalty of college coaches, you are bound to be disappointed.
• On the subject of those players who stayed, it was a great gesture for all the Penn State players to wear the number 42, the number of injured senior Mike Mauti, on their helmets yesterday.  More than any other player, Mauti really symbolized Penn State this year.
• Oh, and speaking of coaches who are difficult to like, as I was earlier, did you see where Ohio State honored their 2002 National Championship team at yesterday's game?  This included honoring Coach Jim Tressel and having those '02 players carrying Tressel into the stadium on their shoulders.  
• No doubt the Buckeyes Nation roared their approval of this.  I guess they forgot that Tressel is the prime reasons why this year's 12-0 team is on probation and ineligible to compete for the BCS Title. 

Moving onto the pros, the Steelers take on the Hated Browns today on the lakefront.   I have to be honest and say that the rash of injuries that have confronted the team, especially at quarterback, have diminished my expectations, which weren't all that high to begin with, for the team for the remainder of the season.  Don't get me wrong, I'll be planted in front of the tube come 1:00 and rooting like always, but the emotional investment that comes with high expectations just aren't there.  Of course, all of that could change with a win today in Cleveland and in Baltimore next week, followed by an earlier than expected return by Ben Roethlisberger, but at this point, that's not the smart way to bet.