Something is very wrong with how College football runs their operation. Head coaches can get out of their contracts and take other jobs before their season concludes. It seems in most of the sports, players themselves can opt out, become free agents, and transfer to another institution. How many times are there where players skip bowl games because they do not want get hurt for the upcoming NFL draft? Then conferences taking on way too many teams, more than they can handle. They call one conference the Big Ten because it was named after 10 teams in the Midwest of the heartland. Now you have teams from the East and West coast were added to the Big Ten. They have not changed the name to actually how many teams are presiding in that conference. Too many teams. Too many bowl games which most are watered down. To declare the National Championship every year was a joke with the rankings which still are a joke. The College football playoffs went to four teams & now it has expanded to a 12 team format. When the University of Notre Dame saw their ranking after the weekend concluded, a University that expected to be seated in the 12 team format, they went ballistic. Like a kid in a neighborhood game not liking the results, they took their ball and went home. The Fighting Irish declined any part of any bowl game they would get because of the snub they got in the rankings and not being in the playoffs. Does the Catholic school University have the right to walk away from being in a bowl game? Is this University that kid you knew in that pick up game of whatever sport you were playing? If it did not go his way, he would leave with the ball while throwing a tantrum.

Notre Dame does have a gripe here as they came into the weekend with a ranking of number 11. The Fighting Irish have been ranked ahead of the Miami Hurricanes for weeks in the weekly rankings. The University of Alabama were destroyed in the SEC title game by the University of Georgia. The Crimson Tide finished the season 10-3 with that loss. The Hurricanes beat the Fighting Irish earlier in the year by a score of 27-24. After Notre Dame suffered two straight losses out of the gate, they won ten in a row. Miami finished with the same record as Notre Dame at 10-2. The Hurricanes moved up due to BYU losing as they had the tie breaker head to head beating the Irish earlier this season. BYU finished the season 11-2. Somehow Alabama moved up and are one of the 12 playoff teams while Notre Dame and BYU are two teams ousted at the very end. Now they get the booby prize playing in one of the bowl games that are not any of the big and proud ones. It seems like the Irish were led to believe they would make the College Football playoff format by the ESPN weekly ratings show. Declining a bowl game, the Catholic university is giving a giant F-U to ESPN which televises most of the bowl games.

Notre Dame’s Athletic Director went on the Dan Patrick Show and said: “Like, where’s the logic? Where’s the rationale? Why are we being kind of punished and the only ones that seem to be moving in the wrong direction, and yet winning and having an unbelievably dominant end of season”.

The selection show on ESPN is part of a 7.8 billion deal with the college football post-season. Notre Dame has an independent deal with NBC. The selection committee said that Alabama looked very good versus Auburn at least in the first half of that contest. They mentioned Notre Dame had a strong game in their last contest versus Standford. The Fighting Irish are only mad at the selection committee. Not other schools or the ACC, which they made a deal with the conference to play 5 teams from the conference each season. In College Football, Notre Dame is an independent. The University felt like the ACC was attacking their school for this decision they made. Notre Dame has many other sports that play in the ACC. Notre Dame was not the only university to decline a bowl bid. Iowa State and Kansas State backed out of any bowl game bids because each program is going through a head coaching change. The Big 12 fined each school $500,000 for declining a bowl bid. Every conference wants to see more of their own schools in post-season play or in bowl games in general to feel the power over other conferences.

What happened to the old saying, “When the going gets tough the tough get going?” What kind of message are Notre Dame and other schools sending to the athletes when they back out? When you play football or any sport, it’s always the theory of “next man up” since we started playing when we were kids. Why can’t teams play when their current coach takes another job somewhere else? I think the ESPN selection show is a bunch of BS as well. Notre Dame does have a beef there. Going out to play the bowl game and showcase the talent to rub their faces in it would be a better option than closing down the shop too early. What about some players that may be seniors and will not get a chance to play in a bowl game because you gave up? The line, “Always next year or tomorrow,” is one of the worst in sports.

Why does ESPN have so much power just because of the money and telecasts? Is this the same network that has a chubby for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox 24/7? Maybe Alabama is their cash cow in College football for ESPN over the Catholic institution. College football has many problems. The playoff system that they have in place is horrific. You may need more divisions along with more playoff formats in college football because there’s too many teams. Too many overpacked conferences. The transfer portal seems worse than any professional sports free agency. Then the coaches getting out of contracts is a joke. In basketball, players treat the college level like a minor league system to the pros. Then in football you have the players that will sit because they seek riches in the NFL. College football is a league with too many moving parts that they can’t control. Too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s that simple. It comes down to money and greed like everything in sports, it seems. Notre Dame will be the butt of many jokes and memes because they quit when they hit a bump in the road. I would be embarrassed if I was a die hard fan of this historic institution. In the end, who you hurt the most is the students and the fans of the Fighting Irish. Trying to get justice would have been playing the bowl game while getting the morons in the selection committee fired. Finding a better solution so this shenanigans does not occur again. Most of the time these guys are not good at what they do when it comes to ranking teams. I feel like I just watched an episode of dodge ball on the playground at ten years of age. They may be better experts on ranking the teams than what we have in place over at the Network.

Many people from around the Chicagoland area will tell you Pat Fitzgerald got a raw deal being fired from the University of Northwestern in 2022 . Fitzgerald was the face of the Northwestern University football program for decades as a player, assistant coach, & then taking over as the head coach. He was a local guy who grew up on the southside of Chicago. It was not the record at the end that would get the coach fired. He was suspended & then fired because graphic incidents of hazing with his players emerged on his watch. Fitzgerald claimed he did not know anything about it. The investigation by the University says it was a well known thing. In August of 2025, Northwestern University settled a lawsuit with their former head coach which ended that chapter. Now Fitzgerald will return to the Big Ten with a different school and program. Michigan State has signed Fitzgerald to a 5 year deal worth 30 million for him to be their next head coach. Fitzgerald, a local kid from the Chicagoland area, played linebacker for the Wildcats for 4 seasons and suddenly Northwestern had a solid football program in the Big Ten conference.

Pat Fitzgerald as a player put life into a dead football program that was in the grave for decades rotting. He played linebacker for the Wild Cats from 1993-96. In 1995 the Northwestern Wildcats had a 10-1 record and were awarded with a trip to the Rose Bowl. It was only the university’s second bowl appearance and first since 1949. That’s how bad Northwestern was, which was known for their academic accomplishes more than their sports programs. During the same year the Wildcats beat Notre Dame in South Bend who were ranked number 9 at the time, as Fitzgerald had 11 tackles in that game. It was the first time Northwestern had beat the Irish since 1962. The Wildcats also beat Michigan that year 19-13 and they were ranked number 7. Fitzgerald was a wild man in that game with 14 tackles, two of them were loss of yards on the plays. It was the first time the Wildcats beat Michigan since 1959. Fitzgerald averaged 13 tackles a game in 1995. The awards he achieved on the college gridiron would lead you to think he would have been at least drafted by an NFL team. He was 2x winner of the Bronco Nagurski award along with being a 2x winner of the Chuck Bednarik award. He won the Jack Lambert award in 1996. He was 2x All-American along with being a 2x Big Ten defensive player of the year. In 1997 he earned the Big Ten medal of honor. In 2003 he was inducted in the Northwestern Hall of Fame. In 2008 he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. After college he did sign with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. He was given his walking papers after two preseason games and then went into coaching. He worked with a few other college programs. Then in 2001 he resurfaced on the Northwestern campus as a defensive backs coach.

Pat Fitzgerald continued to climb the ranks of the coaching world with Northwestern. It was the sudden death of Randy Walker who was the head coach of the Wildcats that gave Fitzgerald his first chance at being a head coach at the college level. From 2006 until 2022, it was all Pat Fitzgerald running the Northwestern football program. He played at Northwestern. He worked as an assistant coach for 5 seasons & then had a long run as head coach at Northwestern where which he set new records for the long history of the school. His record overall was 110-101. His 110 wins, and 64 wins in the Big Ten conference, are school records. He was the first ever coach at Northwestern to take his team to back-to-back bowl games. He had 5 straight seasons from 2008-12 where his team reached a bowl game. Then he had his team getting to 4 straight bowl games from 2015-18. He took the Wildcats to ten bowl games and won 5 of them. He won two coach of the year awards. Most recently was 2020 when he had his team at 7-2 and in the Big Ten Championship. They would go on to play in the Citrus Bowl and win it versus Auburn University. After that he did not do too well. His teams only won 4 games in his last two seasons going 3-9 in 2021 then 1-11 in 2022. From 2019-22, his record as a head coach was 14-31. Perhaps Northwestern should have fired him for his record rather than the alleged hazing incidents.

For Michigan State University, they continue down the same path hiring guys that have created drama or scandals for the program and school. In 2023, the University fired Mel Tucker who was the Spartans head coach at the time for sexual misconduct allegations. Tucker sexually harassed an anti-rape activist who was a vendor the school hired as a speaker to speak to the team. What a fucker, the Tucker was trying to get laid from a anti-rapist who probably would not like strong come-ons the coach may have been throwing at her. Who knows what else he was doing. Then recently the university fired Jonathan Smith, a guy who inherited NCAA violations from that other guy we named. He was fired for his team performance on the field which did not even last two full seasons. Some will say how the hell did Pat Fitzgerald get fired? All the details were published about the hazing incidents by two former players that played for Northwestern in the school newspaper. The school’s investigation came up empty about Fitzgerald knowing anything. The Penn State situation years and years ago was worse with allegations against their famous head coach, Joe Paterno. He was part of the cover up of his assistant coach Jerry Sandusky when he sexually assaulted children. Paterno denied accusations that he knew about it. The FBI investigation back then concluded Paterno and others failed to protect the children. Penn State University settled law suits from the Paterno family back in 2020. Fitzgerald sued the school in a wrongful termination lawsuit. In August of 2025, Northwestern University settled that lawsuit with their former head coach.

Pat Fitzgerald may have known about the hazing going on in his program. How much do you think he knew? If he did not know about this man, did get fired for the wrong reasons? The hazing incidents are probably disturbing especially in the world we live in today. Times have changed. The old ways are being abolished. This has been going on since mankind started as we have evolved and we certainly think we are getting better. Many people that don’t want to see Fitzgerald get a second chance in life probably have beliefs about whether criminals deserve a second chance in society. Why we let murderers out to kill again is just absurd. This is about universities and higher learning. They should know better is their rational. Fitzgerald as a player probably went through some type of hazing. He may have not batted an eye because he went through it and life went on, he survived. Did the hazing change? It most certainly could have. Not really clear evidence like a smoking gun to prove he knew. This is hearsay nonsense. Why would the University have settled with Fitzgerald on the lawsuit? It tells me that there is a smoking gun and they made a mistake. I’m sure the university is tired and wants this to conclude. About 8 colleges contacted Fitzgerald about a job offer. Why wouldn’t you kick the tires on Fitz being he is a solid coach? Ending the lawsuit puts Fitzgerald back in play. Will any future evidence come forward on this hazing incident? This is the roll of the dice for Michigan State. New stuff pops out of the woodwork all the time. From my perspective, I don’t know Fitzgerald personally even though he is from the same stomping grounds where I hale from. I always thought he was a good guy with great character. I would not want my daughter or son to have their life ruined from something like hazing. Most everyone in this world is popping some kind of medication for some emotional distress. It is real. No evidence is the big sticking point here. When these things happen why should only the football head coach be fired? All the higher ups in the food chain of the university should be canned because it happened on all their watch. How do we know all those higher ups did not know what was going on? One thing I could tell you a fact about. No hazing will happen at Michigan State as you know Fitzgerald will be all about preventing that from happening to him again. Overall for right now this is a great hire by the Spartans. I know Fitzgerald will get this program better.