With college football teams conducting spring practices, Brian Kelly departing Notre Dame for LSU is back at the forefront. Kelly has said the Tigers have better resources and facilities for winning a national championship than the Irish. Matt Fortuna of The Athletic says that’s the only way Kelly’s decision will be validated. In an editorial available only to subscribers, Fortuna makes it clear that now is the time for Kelly to put up or shut up.
In fact, how both LSU and Notre Dame look depends on Kelly’s success or failure to put the Tigers over the top. Fortuna says so in his lead:
“Here’s the thing about Brian Kelly, LSU and Notre Dame: Kelly needs to win a national title at the former to validate his decision to leave the latter. And the latter needs him to not to do that in order to validate its own approach to doing business.
Plain and simple.”
In the long history of college football, there surely have been rivalries between programs that haven’t even played each other. The Tigers are not a future Irish opponent, so this would qualify under that umbrella. Depending on what Kelly does in Baton Rogue, this could be an intense such rivalry. Fans on both sides will be wringing their hands in anticipation.
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