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It’s been a rough few days for players on Notre Dame’s football team. They lost their head coach to LSU on Monday night, had to get up Tuesday morning for a 7 a.m. meeting so their former head coach could say a very quick goodbye, and then got slapped in the face Tuesday night by the College Football Playoff committee.
Let’s not get crazy here – the 13 members of the committee didn’t all travel to South Bend, line up Notre Dame’s football team and slap each player in the face. That would be pretty sick. And rude. And punishable by law.
But they did deliver a disgusting blow to the team when they said during the playoff rankings show on ESPN that the departure of Brian Kelly could play a role in keeping Notre Dame out of the playoffs if things took a crazy turn in the conference championship games this weekend.
Which. Is. Gross. And mean. And mind-blowing. And a bunch of words I can’t say here because I enjoy being employed and being able to buy food for my dog.
In all seriousness, though, some kids who have worked their butts off could miss out on a trip to the playoffs because their rich coach left them to become even more rich at different school?
(BRB, off to slam my head into a wall a few times.)
(OK, back.)
That makes no sense to me. Like, at all.
Notre Dame is currently No. 6 in the playoff rankings and needs a lot of help to jump into one of the top four spots. The likelihood of that happening isn’t great at all. But still, just the thought of punishing players because their coach left is an embarrassment and should be booed by everyone and anyone who has the ability to boo until they run out of breath.
Here’s what committee head Gary Barta had to say about the situation:
“The committee is aware of all the coaching changes while we were going through the rankings, this week it didn’t apply… Once the championship games wrap up, our protocol does include the ability to consider a player/coach not being available.”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I’m not a Notre Dame guy. I’m not really a college football guy, either. So I have no emotional ties to this whatsoever. But I do have common sense and can pick up when somebody is trying to screw over a bunch of kids who have done nothing wrong and that’s something I can’t support.
If some of the top teams lose this weekend and 11-1 Notre Dame doesn’t move up into the playoffs because their coach left to make a boatload of money somewhere else then everyone who says they love college football should be irate and demand that Barta and the 12 other committee members step down from their positions because it would be one of the most ridiculous and disgusting moves in the history of college sports.
Which is saying a lot.
Quick hits: Latest NFL playoff picture… NHL power rankings… Klay Thompson highlights… And more.
– Charles McDonald breaks down the NFL playoff picture heading into Week 13 and makes a juicy Super Bowl prediction.
– Mary Clarke has her December NHL power rankings.
– Brian Kalbrosky looks at Klay Thompson nailing 3-pointers and nearing a return.
– Charles Curtis has some good fantasy football advice heading into Week 13.
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