“Stupid Rule”, Stupid Coach
Wisconsin’s coach is a guy named Bret Bielema. He coached his team to a 10-1 regular season last year which was good enough to capture third place in the Big Ten.
All major conferences agreed to a rule that allowed only two teams per conference into the BCS bowl games. This rule kept Wisconsin out of the BCS last year. This rule also protects all the major conferences from hoarding all the BCS slots. Someone needs to explain this to Bret Bielema.
The second year coach, instead of focusing on the conference rule which Wisconsin signed on for, is railing against the Irish.
“I understand why certain teams get exemptions. I don’t understand why Notre Dame does,” Bielema said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “If they want to play by conference rules, join a conference.
Bret, I’ll tell you what. Notre Dame has been independent a lot longer than Wisconsin has been in the Big Ten. Why don’t you leave your conference? You won’t. You want the security of the Big Ten. You want the bowl tie-ins. You want the guaranteed bowl money. But you don’t want the two BCS team limit. You can’t have it both ways, Bret.
Let’s take a step back. It’s not like the 2006 Wisconsin Badgers were all that impressive last year. They had the most watered down schedule this side of West Virginia. Wisconsin beat two teams in the regular season that finished with a winning record: Purdue and Penn State. Oh wait, Notre Dame beat them too. In addition to these plus-.500 teams: Georgia Tech, UCLA, and Navy.
Wisconsin’s out-of-conference schedule included these powerhouses: Bowling Green, West Illinois, San Diego State, and Buffalo. That was in a year that Ohio State was not even on the conference slate.
Bret, maybe you should make your schedule less laughable before getting riled up about Notre Dame.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:06 am
“Stupid Rule”, Stupid Coach…
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April 19th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Not to get all educational here…oh well, screw it, I am going to get educational. There is a great book by Murray Sperber (yes, that is a real name) called Shake Down The Thunder – The Creation of Notre Dame Football and it details, among many other things, the Big Ten’s early despise of ND Football. In the 19teens and 20’s Notre Dame applied repeatedly to join the Big 10 and were denied time and time again. The reason stated by the Big 10 powers (namely Fielding Yost at Michigan) is that ND did not adhere to the supposed rigid rules of conduct of the Big 10. Which, not unlike today, is a joke since at the time the Big 10 was the masters of breaking the rules and illegal recruiting practices. So, Notre Dame was forced to schedule games with many non Big 10 schools such as then national power Army, Navy, USC etc. Notre Dame was snubbed by the Big 10 and then evolved into a national independent power, in part, because of that snub. Now the Big 10, what can only b described as part jealousy, part revisionist history and part failure to be able to read a books that clearly document said history, is hyper critical of the ND that will not join a conference. The Big 10 has only themselves to blame, both in recent and long ago history, for ND’s football prowess, national following and year in and year out invitiations to major/BCS bowl games. That and the fact the Big 10 can’t count is all you need to know.
April 24th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Here’s a response to Bielema that ends with the following, “In picking between two monoliths, the choice should be easy. The BCS includes Wisconsin. It needs Notre Dame.”
Decent read at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/sportsline/main10144774.shtml