Just some things to clean up while waiting for the Stanford week to officially start:
- Notre Dame is No. 11 in the latest ESPN Power 16 poll.
- Another ESPN nugget -- Brady Quinn is fourth on the Web site's Heisman Watch behind Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson and Northern Illinois running back Garrett Wolfe. In a perfect world, where hype disappeared, Wolfe would win this year's Heisman Trophy.
- In the latest Graduation Success Rate released by the NCAA, Notre Dame did typically well. Here's breaking it down a little bit more: Overall as a school, only Navy had a better percentage of individual teams with perfect rates. Navy had 16 of its 19 sports and Notre Dame had 17 of its 22. In football, the Irish finished third behind Navy (98) and uber-rival Boston College (96). Notre Dame had a 95 rating followed by Stanford and then Wake Forest, Air Force and Duke all tied with 93. In men's basketball, Notre Dame finished in a tie for fifth with Michigan State (91). Ahead of ND was Navy, Wake Forest and Florida -- all with 100 -- and Army with 97. In women's basketball, Notre Dame tied for first (100) with Arkansad, Florida, Idaho, Kent State, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon, Rice, Syracuse, Tennessee, Navy, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.
- Off topic, but Title IX relevant -- James Madison University cut 10 sports on Friday to meet Title IX standards. The school, when I covered sports in Harrisonburg, tried to present a diversified plan like Stanford or Notre Dame. This, though, is a potential byproduct of what happened. http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=6574&CHID=3
- Apparently, instant replay is starting to draw ire around college football: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2606195
Two things to tell you about as well. First, no one won the Notre Dame-Purdue contest, although Mark Diaz and Gordon Humphries came close. So, the kitty gets raised again for Stanford. E-mail predictions to mrothstein@jg.net by kickoff Saturday to be eligible. First person to get it correct wins the mountain prize of a T-shirt, pins and game programs.
Also, we received some guff for complimenting Michigan State's tailgating skill -- especially the students up in East Lansing. So we're asking you to prove me wrong. E-mail me your tailgate, what you do special that makes you feel you should be ranked among the top tailgaters. The one which sounds the most interesting we might just stop by before the Stanford game. Again, e-mail it to mrothstein@jg.net.
-By Michael Rothstein of The Journal Gazette
Comments