No Such Thing as Elite in Age of Parity

I love countering quality argumentation. It’s why I am continuing to lose popularity amongst those who know me, and will eventually suffer a death by forced exclusion from rationality (once I argue enough). I am a terribly acerbic person. I even hate it (or maybe love it?) when I argue with myself.

But I love it when I hear the following (really, these first four words burn my brain, and I’m left with no alternative but to counter):

Notre Dame is elite. It shouldn’t join a conference.

And to his credit, one Yahoo sports columnist, a Mr. Dan Wetzel, argues his point quite eloquently. “The Fighting Irish may be the nation’s most despised team, but ignoring its institutional advantages and assuming the Irish will never again amount to anything is folly,” Wetzel argues, “The program has tradition, a massive fan base and unequaled media attention. The school’s will to win is considerable, with all the necessary budgets and facilities.”

He’s right. The school is the biggest buck sign in the nation, and has all the amenities and rich traditions that ensure it will prosper.

And yet,

No other school in the nation continually makes itself a mockery than the Irish. And why is that? Probably because of all the reasons he gave. Count them on your fingers. One, it’s a smart school. Very few recruits go to academic schools, given the opportunity. The idea of multiple intelligences, pioneered by the developmental psychologist Howard Gardner in 1983, has permeated so much into our everyday fabric that even something as trivial as football can be considered an intelligence. Look at Brett Favre. He’s the greatest specimen out there flinging pigskin. And he’s not overly bright. Has made two gaffes recently with not knowing when to quit. He wasn’t ready, and he now knows it.

Two, the program has tradition. Does Cincinnati have tradition? Does Boise State have tradition? Does Oregon have tradition? No, they don’t. And yet those are three programs that have consistently been in the top ten over the last three years. Dominance in the age of equity can only be pushed rarely and sporadically. Florida State ruled the ACC for the nineties. And then it got old fast. A couple of seconds ago, Bobby Bowden decided to retire. He should have done it years ago.

Time, it would seem, is both the benefactor and malefactor for the Irish. They want to live in it, but even when they do, it pushes them toward the brink.

Now, this is not to say that Wetzel is wrong – he argues that Notre Dame can regain its brand equity, and that’s shooting fish in a barrel as an argument. Of course it can. Beat up on the service academies, never travel unless it’s to a recruiting hotbed like California, and do whatever to ensure that holding calls on the opposition are always enforced both before and after the game. But to say Notre Dame has advantages is to state the obvious and what’s “obvious” is never as obvious as it seems.

Consider the third point – Notre Dame has a desire to win. Well, so did Connecticut two weekends ago. So does Missouri, so does Georgia Tech. So what? Every school has a desire to win, regardless the basin of money it’s pulling from. The classic example is Boise State. Incredibly poor, and yet fields a quality team year to year beating opponents much richer than it could ever be.

Boise State is the classic explanation why Notre Dame will never be elite. Not now, not for a long, long time. Elite teams are a myth – just ask USC after losing two coaches. Money doesn’t make teams in a global era – quality coaching does. And as teams and conferences shift like tectonic plates, it would be wise for Notre Dame to do the same. Because as they stand right now, is there really any difference between them and the service academies? One could argue there is. One could argue Navy is a better program than Notre Dame and has been for some time.

Point is, this line of reasoning for Notre Dame’s supposed reemergence has been made time and time again. And it’s always old. It was old when Bob Davie got fired. It was old when Ty Willingham got fired. And it’s old now. Wetzel’s arguing semantics at this point and digging up the annals of Notre Dame’s past to substantiate his argument. The better argument lay in the anagnoresis the administration in South Bend will have to go through. If they decide to hire a new coach, they better decide upon a new vision as a school. Do they decrease or maintain the academic standards? Do they focus more on football and less on advertisement? Advertising has only hurt Notre Dame over the course of the last decade. It can help again, but as most marketers know, it's WHEN to advertise that can really impact how others view your product. Until the school stands in the mirror and reevaluates who, what and where it is, tradition will be nothing more than a bad marketing tool.