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| Fighting Irish fans prep for game day |
Is Notre Dame dissing Alabama not so subtly with their BCS Bowl ad which they have just released?
With ESPN predicting a record all time viewership for a college game, all eyes will be on the Irish and the Crimson Tide on Monday night.
The undercurrent in the game however, is the rivalry between two colleges whose student athlete graduation rates and the type of degrees they achieve could not be more different.
Notre Dame football team graduates 97 per cent, first in the nation indeed. Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick has stated that he is at least as proud of that figure as he is of the team reaching the national championship game -- and rightfully so.
Alabama is in the low 70s percentage in the past few years and have been improving steadily but there is little comparison in the quality of degrees earned or the entrance test.
Some cynics have dubbed the BCS Bowl the ‘Catholics Vs Cousins’ stand off. During a game Alabama played in, rival supporters held up a blown-up picture of a library and a comment that essentially said “Hey SEC this is a library.”
All of which is the reason why the prime time ad is so interesting that Notre Dame have put together.
It shows a bunch of Notre Dame students gathering, walking across campus lighting candles and you think it is leading to a scene at the grotto or the church. There is even a shot of Touchdown Jesus.
It eventually fades into a shot at what looks like Notre Dame stadium and the candles held aloft by the students, standing in a narrow circle of lights together spelling out the words
“#1 in student athlete graduation”
Interesting focus that, given who they are playing don’t you think?
15 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.tievemore | Jan 03, 2013, 09:10 PM EST
Lou Holtz: "To those who know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary. Those who don't, no explanation will suffice". Sean, you must do better. I have always respected your Notre Dame articles. You were the first columnist to report Notre Dame's hiring of Brian Kelly in 2009. (Rick Reilly could learn a thing or two from you about being first with an internet scoop!) Don't become like Rick Reilly and the rest of his ESPN "columnists". There is no reason to become a hair-puller to get page views. Follow the path of Dan Wetzel on Yahoo. As Lou Holtz alludes to in the above quote, Notre Dame is not trying to diss anyone with the BCS ad. We are who we are. God, Country, Notre Dame.
johnshiel | Jan 03, 2013, 08:15 PM EST
sounds like some at ND aren't too confident of a win on the field, so they want to at least claim a victory (in terms of having real student athletes). Still, a pretty impressive organizing job; would you call that community organizing?
Athcliath 1963 | Jan 03, 2013, 06:01 PM EST
Notre Dame is no more Irish than The Washington Redskins are Native American. Only college in the US with true Irish heritage is Boston College. Makes me want to puke every time I see that monkey lookin leprechaun mascot than belongs more in the anti-irish Punch Magazine.
joan1954 | Jan 03, 2013, 02:44 PM EST
I may be Irish American and Catholic but I am a true southerner first. Go Alabama, way to go "Tide." Beat the Irish. My bet is that ND will be a 10 point underdog.
pilib04 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:54 PM EST
Donal, I've heard of typos, but "Southroom?"
pilib04 | Jan 03, 2013, 01:52 PM EST
Has a SEC player ever seen a library?
dawgface | Jan 03, 2013, 01:04 PM EST
Micks for the hicks! Roll Tide Roll brothers...
Nicomax | Jan 03, 2013, 12:54 PM EST
ND and Stanford were well-recognized exceptions this year by succeeding at the top levels while maintaining outstanding academic performance levels. For the most part, those schools with solid graduation rates are at a disadvantage to those who essentially serve as a minor league option for the NFL. In all the restructuring of conferences, there should have been one called the Academic Conference where the teams would be on an equal footing.
JBRAFTREE | Jan 03, 2013, 12:41 PM EST
Domers have a great team, super chemistry great history. They're not dissing the 'Tide'. ND shouldn't be 9 pt. 'dogs',
PhlutiePhan | Jan 03, 2013, 10:15 AM EST
Gene Stallings was a great and ethical coach for Bama who also coached the St. Louis Cardinals before the move to Arizona. The Tide of today are the best team that money could buy. Coach Saban came from the NFL and brought the same techniques of economic motivation. ND is great but overmatched with steroids and Ben Franklin.
donal1951 | Jan 03, 2013, 10:01 AM EST
Despite being Irish and living in Indiana, I have no ties to Notre Dame. I will join many of my Southroom friends in rooting for Bama.
TTDeShone | Jan 03, 2013, 09:30 AM EST
Sean O'Shea; Your article alluded to a differance in 'quality' of degrees between Alabama and Notre Dame. Does this imply that the university which recently dropped its School of Education is more scholarly than the one still schooling teachers? Is a high graduation rate of student-athletes genuine if the academics expectations of varsity athletes are subpar to the student body at-large? Who counts how many Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with a university to rate its excellence as much as the acceptance to rejection rate of undergraduate applicants? Most of us here in Michiana are proud of our most-famous entity's 12-0 season record. Yours, Terrence Thomas DeShone in Elkhart Indiana 16 miles east of Notre Dame Stadium
like2tweet | Jan 03, 2013, 09:24 AM EST
Go irish, over 100 academic all americans too
kelauggie1 | Jan 03, 2013, 09:19 AM EST
Slow day for stories, is it? You couldn't find anything of substance to discuss? You have to create a controversy? So a statement of indisputable fact becomes a point of contention? Please - wait until you have something to say before you say anything.
wjb1tex | Jan 03, 2013, 08:30 AM EST
Without knowing the facts I suspect the admission requirements for Notre Dame are a lot more stringent than Alabama's. There are a couple of ways to look at that but one is which school is doing more to educate students who are more in need. That would certainly explain the difference in graduation rates.