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If Notre Dame wins, it will be because (yes, I said it) Irish played tougher schedule than SEC
Published: 1/7/2013 2:45 PM
Last Modified: 1/7/2013 2:45 PM

I’ve got Notre Dame beating Alabama tonight because someone who is way smarter than me about football convinced me the Fighting Irish’s schedule made them more battle-tested for a big game.

This is the place where Southeastern Conference proponents will say that’s not remotely possible because Alabama played in the SEC, best conference in all the land.

It’s not only possible. It’s a fact.

The perception is (and you can blame national media for adding layers to the hype) is that college teams faced inferior competition if they didn’t play in the SEC. The truth of the matter is some of the programs in the SEC are the embodiment of the old gray mare ain’t what she used to be. Conclusion: Not everybody from a tough neighborhood is tough. Victims live there, too.

Alabama played four road games (all in the SEC) this season. Only one of them came against a team (LSU) that finished the season with a winning record.

Five of Bama’s SEC victories came against teams that failed to finish the season with a winning record. That means you, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Auburn.

You can tell me they wound up in that predicament by feeding me the company line that they beat up on each other in league play. But I’ll tell you that’s no excuse because the SEC (like the Big 12) plays next to no one in non-conference games, so league members still had every chance to win enough games to post credible records.

Give the Crimson Tide credit for playing a neutral-site game against Michigan. But the Tide also played three teams -- Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic and Western Carolina -- that you won’t find on Notre Dame’s schedule, probably ever.

You can play a more grueling schedule than an SEC team without competing in the SEC and Notre Dame proved it, both from a competition and travel standpoint.

Notre Dame survived a schedule that began with a tough commute to Dublin, Ireland, to face Navy. Anybody else want to make that trip and then turn around and play a game seven days later?

The Fighting Irish also played road or neutral-site games against Michigan State, Miami, Oklahoma, Boston College and USC. Home games came against Purdue, Michigan, Stanford, BYU, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest. With the exception of Boston College and Wake Forest, every one of the Irish’s opponents ended the season with a bowl trip or a winning record.

From a talent standpoint, I don’t think Notre Dame is better than Alabama. From a scheduling standpoint, the Irish is better prepared for the challenge.


Reader Comments 1 Total
TheRealFacts (last month)
A big swing and a miss on that prediction and opinion if a tougher schedule. Notre Dame had a lot of big names on it's schedule but most of those teams were pretty bad. OU was probably their best win and they were shown to be down this year too.

All you need to know about Notre Dame was they almost got beat by Purdue who was absolutely killed by OSU. Almost every team the Irish had a "big win" over was destroyed this bowl season.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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