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Monday, August 24, 2026

August: La Belle Époque

But the warm summer breezes
French wines and cheeses
Put his ambitions at bay... 



Dateline:  Paris

Bistro des Augustins
...looking for answers to questions that bothered him so.  

Like "can a person subsist on only fresh baguettes, gratin chaud, pane au chocolat and vin de Bordeaux?"

The answer is yes.  Yes, you can. 

At said, Jerrence and Defarge were there to do a job:  for 18 days, take care of daughter Shea's nine year chow chow, Jack (or Jacques, depending on your cultural providence) while she did a two week language immersion in Italy.


Admittedly, not the world's toughest assignment.  

Au contraire!  Going on 5 years in the city, Jack may as well be the mayor of Paris's 11th arrondissement.  

He glides down any street with his own unique swagger, a canine Tony Manero, stayin' alive.   He's a looker and he knows it. 

At any given corner restaurant or bistro, one might hear his name called, the proprietor already handy with a water bowl for him. 

One half-expected to hear, "The usual, monsieur Jacques?"

At one point Jerrence thought (foolishly as it turned out) if one were single, Jack would make a phenomenal wingman with the local jeune fille.

Turns out, Jerrence was his wingman. 



What's any of this got to do with Notre Dame football?  

Other than that it pairs well with a nice coq au vin recipe and a 2016 Chateauneuf-du-Pape?  

It's this:  leadership can often come from the most unlikely of candidates -- even a chow chow.

And if there's one critical variable we see, year in and year out with ND's fortunes, it's where does the player leadership come beyond the ususal suspects?  

Because even with all the obvious talent, at some point, we're gonna need it.

Quote of the Week

"How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?"

                     Charles DeGaulle


Not one of the questions that originally troubled Jerrence but since you bring it up, it does explain alot. 

Word of the Week



Used in a sentence paragraph
:  

"Hey Dog Boy, it's 'go' time..."

Indeed it was 6:30pm and the appointed time for Jack's evening walk around the 11th and 12th arrondissements.

While Jerrence didn't need to be reminded of his role in Jack's two-week guardianship -- he was the Designated Walker -- the derision in Defarge's voice was palpable, unmistakeable. 


Hurtful words. Insubordinate and churlish.  Yet ever striving to be the bigger person, Jerrence found sympathy for his spouse's proclamation.

How was she to know, much less understand, The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name between man and dog?  She was a cat person. 

And who was she to talk, anyway, given the weird relationship she had with her chickens...

Whatever that was... it was just unnatural.


August Thoughts

Money, money, money, money, money
Money, money, money, money, money



Less than two weeks... and a remarkably uneventful summer off-season.  So, in the absence of anything especially dramatic to talk about, a few thoughts:



1.  Patches In what can only be described as breaking news like 'water is wet' Notre Dame has joined the trend of college athletic programs partnering with organizations for selling signage on their uniforms -- specifically  with SoFi as its official jersey patch sponsor.  

The six-year deal with SoFi is expected to be the most valuable jersey sponsorship deal in college athletics history at an average of $18-20 million annually.  So for all those haters out there spewing the 'the ND brand isn't relevant' rubbish, suck on that.

But is this a Sign of the Apocalypse?  I think not.  

Just the inevitable outcome of the singular Law of Nature that rules our world now:  follow the money.    And as a fan, I'm glad to see the school competing.

Plus, truthfully, it's not that intrusive.  Good for you, ND. 

That said, news of Class of '76 alum Bob Hinton ponying up $20M for naming rights to the ND Stadium Tunnel does beg the question, where does this end -- I dunno but I'm thinking there's a future the urinal with Jerrence's name on it....  




So 'on brand' for Lane...

2.  Oxymorons. We all have our favorite contradictions in terms -- jumbo shrimp, bittersweet, government intelligence, 'act natural', Italian war hero...

...how about 'professional amateur'?  Amidst the ongoing chaos that is college athletics, a Louisiana judge (but of course) has challenged the NCAA's new definition of eligibility, now allowing players WHO HAVE PLAYED PROFESSIONALLY to return to college if they still have eligibility left.   

Where they can, ostensibly, make more $$ via NIL than, say, going on an NFL team's practice squad.

Unbelievable.


3.  5-for-5  One additional thought re the benefit of the 5-for-5 ruling... no longer do we have to hear about the irritating (and fundamentally deceptive) designation of the redshirt year.

Which is to say, no more hearing "So-and-So is a redshirt freshman."  No, he's not -- he's a sophomore who didn't play his freshman year.  

Granted, I had clung on to the naive belief that one's academic school year was the basis of how you should be veiwed in college sports.  Silly me.

But now, we just call it what it is:  year 1-thru-5 of your eligibility.  

I guess that's progress.


4.  My favorite camp anecdote I'm not sure who asked who this question but it was posed, of all the guys on Notre Dame's football team...
  • Who would you want on your side in a bar fight?  Cooper Flanagan.
  • Who would you on your side to prevent it even getting to a fight?   Tionne Gray.

Seems reasonable.

5.  If this link doesn't get you pumped for the season...



And for those heading to Mecca Lambeau in two weeks -- enjoy (you're gonna love it)! 


Buddy's Buddy


I don't suppose anyone remembers this story -- I ran across it recently and immediately thought, "If Lini had been an Aeronautic Engineering major instead of Econ..."

No doubt due to the beer reference (now it would be Brunello).

-----------------------------

On July 2, 1982, a truck driver from California flew 16,000 feet into the sky in a lawn chair. 

Larry Walters, 33, from San Pedro, had dreamed of flying his whole life. He bought 42 eight-foot helium weather balloons, tied them to a regular Sears lawn chair, strapped on a parachute, packed a BB gun to pop balloons to descend, a CB radio, sandwiches, and... a six-pack of beer.


He expected to float a few hundred feet above his backyard. He cut the rope and shot up like a rocket — to 16,000 feet. He drifted directly into the main approach path for LAX. Two airline pilots radioed the tower: they had just passed a man in a lawn chair holding a gun at 16,000 feet.

For 45 minutes, he floated over Los Angeles, freezing cold, too scared to shoot balloons because he might fall. Finally, he started popping balloons one by one and slowly descended.
He landed tangled in power lines in Long Beach, California, causing a blackout. 


When police arrested him, they asked why he did it. He said, 
"A man can't just sit around." 

The FAA fined him $4,000. He became a national folk hero Lawnchair Larry (Jerry?) — and inspired the movie, "Up."



RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)


Okay, so a few things for consideration:

1) There was some feedback about last month's plagiarized Sampson article being it was Just. Too. Damn. Long. -- 

A fair comment -- so this one'll be shorter.

2)  There's also a prevalent undercurrent of 'Hold Me I'm Irish' doomsaying despite -- or possibly because of -- how strong the team is (and how mediocre the schedule looks)...

...so I'm offering a 'glass half full' Q&A that allows one to worry while still finding cause for some 'we could still do this, right?' optimism. 

3) Plus who doesn't love some prop bet type scenarios to consider?

-----------------------------

For Notre Dame to win a national title, it needs some good breaks. Pick two of the following five scenarios as the “break” that powered the Irish to lift the trophy in Las Vegas:

1. Jaden Greathouse plays at the Penn State/Ohio State level.
2. All 11 starters on defense stay healthy.
3. Mylan Graham has a 2019 Chase Claypool season.
4. Oregon and Ohio State suffer severe injuries across their starting lineup.
5. Aneyas Williams has a 2021 Kyren Williams season.

— Paul G.

Give me Aneyas Williams duplicating the junior year of Kyren Williams and Graham producing at a level close to Claypool’s senior season. For the record, that would mean Notre Dame’s starting running back accounts for 1,361 yards rushing/receiving and 17 total touchdowns, while the Ohio State transfer Graham puts up 66 catches for 1,037 yards and 13 touchdowns. That’s not exactly a Jeremiyah Love/Jadarian Price replacement — they combined for 36 total touchdowns last season — but it would go a long way. Also, see the question above about how rare that kind of receiver production has been at Notre Dame.

For Notre Dame to win the whole thing, the offense will need to produce some surprise stories while the defense needs to do what most (maybe not Jim L) expect them to do. 

The Irish haven’t had a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver on the same team since CJ Prosise and Will Fuller in 2015, so getting Williams and Graham to hit that level would be surprising, on top of the expected production from Faison.

It’s too hard to pick out injuries for Oregon and Ohio State, but clearly, if the Ducks lost Dante Moore or the Buckeyes lost Jeremiah Smith, it changes the calculus for defending them. Notre Dame’s defense appears deep enough to withstand a few injury blows, as long as it’s not Leonard Moore. The Irish rotate so much on that side of the ball that the staff basically prepares for inevitable injuries. As for Greathouse replicating his CFP performances of two years ago … that feels like a reach, even for this hypothetical exercise.

So let’s take Notre Dame’s having a legitimate No. 1 running back and No. 1 receiver in Williams and Graham as the choice … with the caveat that Faison is just as good.


Source: The Athletic
August 21, 2026


Re those glass full / empty' analogies:
  • An optimist sees the glass half full
  • A pessimist sees the glass half empty
  • An engineer see the glass as twice as big as requirements.



Cocktail of the Week


Conventional wisdom suggests that you're supposed to love all your children equally.

At least that's the theory.

But when one is an 'empty nester', and your kids aren't living locally, and you start talking to your liquor cabinet because THEY'RE THE ONLY ONES IN THE HOUSE WHO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY... 

And when those spirits start talking back to you... one can develop something of a familial relationship.  Those bottles become like offspring.

Theoretically.  And right now, my gin children -- beautiful Bombay Sapphire, scappy Hendricks, diffident Tanqueray, feisty Gunpowder and the little scamp, Monkey 47 -- are the apples of Jerrence's eye.  (Bourbon, you'll have your turn.)

But then again, as one writes this, it is Martini Friday so there may be a bit of recency bias...

F. Scott Fitzgerald's
GIN RICKEY

"First you take a drink, goes F. Scott Fitzgerald's 
frequently recited distillation of inebriation, "then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you." 

The life and works of the beloved author are steeped in booze. The Great Gatsby, sopped by champagne and its trademark sparkle, leaves as an aftertaste the burning solemnity of a gin martini. 

When he was off the wagon, Fitzgerald liked gin best (he thought it was hard for others to detect it on his breath). When he was drying out, he stuck to beer, which he drank like water.



-- 2 oz. gin

-- ¾ oz. lime juice, freshly squeezed

-- soda water

-- lime wheel for garnishing

-----------------------------

Fill a collins glass with ice. Add gin and lime juice, and top with soda water. Garnish with the lime wheel. Dance naked in a fountain with your favorite southern belle. Or your Dillon roommate.

Source:  How To Drink Like A Writer
By Margaret Kaplan



Schedule 2026


September 
                                                  
6                Wisconsin                                   @Lambeau Field                      
12               Rice                                     
19               Michigan State     
26              @Purdue

October  
                                                                                                     
3                 @North Carolina   
10                Stanford                                  Alumni Hall reunion weekend      
17               @BYU                                       Martini's a-flowin' in Lakeville, CT
24               BYE       
31               @Navy                                    

November 

 7                 Miami                                     There Will Be Blood
14                Boston College                             
21                SMU                       
28              @Syracuse                              
                                                       
December

TBD    (after 2025, making no great assumptions)

Wager 2025

Before I walk on the water...
Put the money down.




Reminder:  Insofar as this is probably the last time I'll be writing pre-kickoff, predictions need to be in by kickoff on Sunday, September 6th. 

Wins

ND Equivalence

Domer

12

Peaky Blinders



Tommy fookin' Shelby.


The biggest badass in all of England -- a "take no fookin' prisoners" kind of guy.


And what I aspire for my 15-0 Notre Dame team this year. 



JERRENCE

Kevin C.

The Dim One

John L.

Jim S. 



11

Oppenheimer

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Not exactly 'Play Like  A Champion' but I'd embrace it as a 2026 mantra.

Perhaps not a perfect movie but damn good - and Cillian was the ultimate winner.

Just how I'd see an 11-1 team (that still wins the natty) turning out. 


Matt L.
Gutsch

10

The Wind That 
Shakes The Barley


 An underrated, great film about The Troubles in Ireland -- unique in it's family-oriented frame of reference.


Hardly anyone (I know) has seen it, which is a small tragedy.  


Has some of the most realistic British torture-of-the-Irish-rebels scenes... which would probably approximate how ND Nation would view a 10 win season. 

 


Brian W.



9

28 Days Later


 

Danny Boyle redefines the zombie movie genre. 


Clever and stomach turning -- and probably something you only want to see once.


Just like a 9 win ND team.


 





Sports Imitating Art

Courtesan Counting Money by Jan van Mieris, 1680

Schadenfreude of the Week


Putting my cards on the table -- this is going to be a very, very special season for the Irish.

So leaving nothing to chance, that is, wishing to keep all of our karmic powder dry... 

...there'll be no gratuitous schadenfreude celebrations (e.g., LIV Golf's implosion) this week so... 



-----------------------------------------------

Terry's Tools




But no matter who you think you are
There's always someone with a different view
There's always someone thinks he's got a right
To say what's good for you...







Curt Cignetti.  Exhibit A.

I actually don't want to hate coach Google Me -- part of me pines for the Return of The Curmudgeon Coach.  There's something very American about the fascist dictator head coach archetype.

But Cignetti is making it difficult.

There's no denying he's a really good, possibly great, coach -- and kudo's for pasting Alabama and knocking off Miami in their historic national championship run.

But you might want to put your ego in check until after you've done it more than once.  There's something to be said for having a modicum of humility when one succeeds -- or maybe its just basic professionalism. 

So your tired "Notre Dame needs to play us in Bloomington twice because they're not in a conference" is really easy to say when you didn't have to play them at all.  And your canceling the ND series in order to schedule more Little Sisters of the Poor schools doesn't exactly scream 'we baaad!' 



...finally, about that conveniently short memory of yours -- where was this attitude when you were down 27-3 to ND with 4:50 left in the 2024 playoff game. (And yes, I googled that.)

New season, new SEC Shorts!   Easily the best thing about the SEC - these guys are brilliant.




Name of the Week


In this month's edition of 'Things You Probably Didn't Know About Jerrence" is his lifelong addiction to... bread.  (Many of you are aware of my annual six weeks spent in rehab, commonly known as Lent.)

My brothers would suggest our mother is to blame, providing me with warm rolls at each evening meal -- it made her happy, who was I to deny her that indulgence?  The fact that I was the only one living at home at the time was surely just a coincidence... 

So this month's nominee harkens to mind an avenue of naming that never even occurred to me, even as Defarge and I struggled with agreement on daughter's names back in the day -- which we legitimately did.  In an alternate universe...
  • Ryan could've been Brioche Corrigan.  Tres posh, oui?
  • Shea, knowing now her affinity toward Italy would definitely have been Focaccia.
  • Hell, I would've pressed for a 3rd child just to name them Naan

Antwuan 'Cornbread' Adams


Cornbread is a 6', 4-star safety from Chattanooga, TN, with offers from basically every SEC school.

And, as of earlier this month, Notre Dame. 

And sure, it's not the most original of monikers -- for those of us living in Boston in the early 1980's when the Larry Bird-led Celtics (aka South Africa's Team) was dominating the NBA -- we had Cornbread Maxwell.

Still, some classic names never go out of style.

Trivia


Q.  Pearl Jam was originally named after which the All-Star NBA point guard before they changed it?


A)     Mo Cheeks
B)     Fat Lever
C)     Mookie Blaylock
D)     Penny Hardaway
E)     Ungie

-------------------


Answer to last month's trivia question:  Harry Chapin's biggest hit, "Cat's In The Cradle," was actually adapted from a poem written by his wife, Sandy!

"When you comin' home, Dad?"
"I don't know when, but we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then..."



Final Thought


I love Chicago any time of year.  But especially summer Ravinia season.








 
Just give me one thing that I can hold onto
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go...



Thanks, Raymond. 





Wednesday, July 22, 2026

July: Green Grass And High Tides

I lose my fear of war and dying
And all the clouds just disappear
Only my mirror sees me crying
Each time I lose another year..



Dateline:  Flint Lake


"It's okay, mom, we don't understand Tim either..."
When last we heard from The Jerrence, he was in a dark place, attitudinally -- with grim thoughts of his impending mortality accompanied by increasing evidence of a body beginning to fail him... notwithstanding the slippery slope of an already fragile cognitive state.  

Since then, a trip to "Is this heaven? No, Iowa..." to visit The Matriarch changed all that.

Kay, now 101 years young... still surprisingly alert... still with a trademark wry sense of humor... still unrepentant about her legendary 'tough love' waterboarding of a young Timmy... 

Geez, you adopt one Nazi disciplinary practice and they label you for life.

Still, the take-away to Jerrence's visit was clear:  

-- Stop being such a nancy-boy.  
-- Old age isn't for sissies!  
-- Nut up or shut up.

Alrighty then, it's  carpe diem time and not just for Jerrence.  The Class of '79ers are now beginning their final lap through their 60's at a time when ND football is saddling up for what's, arguably, their best shot at winning a national championship in the last 30 years.

Let the games begin.


Quote of the Week

"Never ask what you did -- it's better not to know..."

                 Peter O'Toole


A young Michael Caine goes out to dinner with Peter O'Toole, wakes up two days later to find that he (they) have been banned -- for life -- from said restaurant. 

Who amongst us hasn't had evenings that could later be described as regrettable...

He says before heading to Ireland with Lini and Ungie.

Word of the Week


Used in a sentence paragraph
:  It had reached the 9pm hour -- and that meant bedtime for Jerrence.

Sloane too, for that matter.  Which also meant story time for both of them.

But what to read?  Jerrence hadn't yet bought Gruley's new novel, "River Deep" a procrastination which he greatly rued -- Sloane LOVES hockey and to a lesser extent, Michigan.  She'd probably love Bryan's latest page turner.

And of course, the Pam Ungashick follow up novel was also still MIA.  

"Zombie peas, Gaga!"
Jerrence could sense Sloane's low energy, lubugrious vibe -- she'd been swimming non-stop all afternoon -- and rather than push his preference upon her, he thought it best to let her choose.

"Never be afraid to take that bite," she shouted!

Ah, of course.  Jerrence knew immediately.  Sloane was referencing the latest Jerry Perez opus, "Laurie And The Great Vegetable Rebellion" --  a thriller involving militant produce that were mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore.

David Lynch meets Green Acres.

Sloane loved the story -- evidenced by having already read the story twice this week and her, now, calling for a third telling.  

But why?  Was it the heartwarming tale of a young, recalcitrant lad learning to step outside his food-related comfort zone?   

Jerrence thought perhaps it was something darker -- her identification with the activist vegetables was unmistakable.  And he wondered, just where had she learned the expression, "Viva la Revolution!"  

That can't be good, he thought. 


July Thoughts

What are we gonna do now?!




Who's ready for some football?!  The Jerrence is.  And yet, we're still 44 days away.  And with a remarkably low drama offseason to boot.  What to think?  What to do?  

A few random thoughts...


1.  The Schedule.  With the benefit of hindsight (or not), if one looks back at last year and asks the question -- not unreasonably -- what genius thought it was a good idea to start the season against two Top 10 ranked teams...

...this year's schedule would suggest the subsequent implication to that question, rhetorical or not, was "message received!"

Fun fact:  ND doesn't play a team with a 2025 winning record until October 17th (BYU).  Basically, on paper, it's a 2-3 team schedule: Miami at home in early November, BYU at Provo three weeks earlier and possibly, SMU (at home, the latter half of November)

Get used to the national hue 'n cry of ND's weak schedule.  But guess what:  look at any of the last few national champs' schedules and you'll find two, AT BEST, challenging games on any of their schedules, pre-playoffs.  (Michigan's was particularly embarrassing.)

The moral of the story:  Get to The Dance, then we can talk about whether we're deserved or not.

2.  Chicken or Egg.   So, the schedule looks eminently doable. You've got continuity virtually everywhere, from coaching staff to starters.  The portal appears perfectly played for filling in whatever gaps there might be -- WR,  DL, CB/S and yes, K.  Outside of the perpetually snakebit Jagusah, the team health looks to be pretty solid come September -- certianly by mid-October -- and deep when the inevitable injury occurs.

So what possibly could go wrong?  

Other than that we're talking about athletes that are mostly still teenagers -- a cohort known, historically, for making consistently sound decisions... 

Cynicism aside, I find myself, therefore, looking squarely at our Coordinators Denbrock and Ash.  

Talent level would not appear to be an issue at any position.

Ergo, don't f*ck tbis up. 



3.  Recruiting.  By all accounts, we've been killing it on the recruiting front.  Back-to-back Top 5 classes seem virtually assured.  

And yet, call it hubris but here's why one doesn't recruit at Hogwarts.

Wizards are flakes

Trey Tagliaferri?  Call yourself whatever you want to the muggle world... 

Sure. Whatever.

We know Ron Weasley when we see him.  Good luck at Oklahoma but be advised -- they've never even heard of Quidditch out there.

4. 5-for-5.  Precious few of us would suggest that getting the government involved in, well anything, is a winning strategy but I am intrigued by the pressure it's putting on the NCAA to take action.  Any action. 

The new 5-for-5 rule seems like a nice baby step to reducing the madness.  

As I understand it (!), every athlete is going to get 5 years of eligibility within a hard five year span that begins from the earliest date of a) when you enroll or b) your 19th birthday.  

No more extending one's college eligibility through medical deferments until you reach social security eligibility.

Not sure about the 'work arounds' for things like Mormon missions but what appears immediately interesting is what it does to / for the Notre Dame roster calculus going forward.

Had one year of eligibility remaining, now have two:
  • LB Drayk Bowen
  • WR Jordan Faison
  • CB Christian Gray
  • DT Elijah Hughes
  • S Luke Talich



Had two years of eligibility remaining, now have three:
  • DT Francis Brewu
  • OL Anthonie Knapp
  • CB Leonard Moore
  • K Spencer Porath
  • DE Loghan Thomas
  • LB Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
  • RB Aneyas Williams
  • DE Bryce Young


That's some serious talent that could be extended...


Buddy's Buddy


For an off-season blog, granted with the benefit of a couple months to collect nominees, there were still a surprising number of valid candidates to be The Bud this time around...

To wit:

1)  This being World Cup season -- like our presidential elections, a ritual that occurs every four years except with even greater corruption in leadership -- how do you not give props to Lionel Messi?  

39 years old and still doing GOAT-like things.  Even in a Finals loss, his performance was impressive.

2)  And off the pitch, can we talk about Our Man Sully (or perhaps more accurately, Mary Sullivan) for hosting two weddings in the span of ~6 weeks?

Yikes.   Tis madness!





And yet. each flawless.   Congrats, Tim and Mary.



3) But finally, lets give it up for Mr. 'Ready Golf' -- Ryan Fox, the Kiwi who'll never be accused of over-thinking any golf shot.  

Pop quiz:  how long did it take him to consider (and execute) his British Open winning putt?  :22.    

That's 22 seconds, not minutes.

For all the other associated R&A controversies of the week that grabbed headlines for far longer than was warranted, here's a guy -- ranked #56 in the world before last weekend -- who had at least two horribly bad breaks on balls struck in that final round -- and just got up there, hit the next shot and played on. 

Benissimo!
 


Speaking of world class / championship golf, shameless plug for Ryan Corrigan's company... 

Should anyone have any interest in the event at Adare Manor, let her (or me) know... 


RE-PETE (A shameless, illegal lift of Pete Sampson's weekly mail-bag)


As one should know by now, I'm a big fan of both Messrs. Sampson and Fortuna -- friends of both the Stayer tailgate and the periodic Chicago bacchanal dinner w a few of us.

Accordingly, I give both gentlemen their props for having the pariah known as Brian Kelly on a recent podcast.  Surely, they have had to have known that much of ND Nation -- the truly unhinged -- would flip out at the very notion of trying to have a civil (and possibly insightful) discourse with ND football's most polarizing figure.

Actually, there's probably only one 'pole' -- the 'loathe entirely' end of the spectrum. 

The Jerrence, however, lacks such courage and so you won't be seeing this section referencing any of the aforementioned reporting.   While I remain steadfast in my view that coach Kelly did exactly what he was hired to do -- turn around a moribund program -- and should be recognized for it, that acknowledgement does not make me a fan of his character.  

And so, we look elsewhere to steal from Mr. Sampson's insights...

-----------------------------

Are Notre Dame and the ACC good? Here’s why the football relationship is still working?

At best, the dynamic remains a little awkward. Football coaches have been grumbling that the Irish should “join a conference” since the scheduling deal was announced in 2012. Administrators will gush about everything Notre Dame adds while, in the same breath, acknowledging the sweetheart deal the ACC had to accept to make it happen.

At worst, the unique relationship seems like a forced marriage of convenience with an expiration date.

It’s hard to come back from a phrase like “permanent damage,” which is how Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua described the union after the ACC stumped for Miami to make the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame last December. Then the Irish skipped bowl season entirely, passing on one of the ACC’s bids. While the Big 12 fined Iowa State and Kansas State $250,000 for turning down bowl bids, Notre Dame faced no such financial penalty.

Whatever tension surrounds the Notre Dame-ACC dynamic, the partnership still feels more like a solution than a problem. The Athletic spoke with a dozen people in and around the ACC and Notre Dame; they were unanimous that the arrangement, while imperfect, continues to help both entities more than it hurts them.

Notre Dame helped the ACC launch its own network and serves as a ticket office and TV ratings cheat code. In exchange, the Irish have received a football scheduling inventory boost and a stable home for other championship-caliber programs like men’s lacrosse and women’s basketball. The deal has formed the backdrop for memorable football moments on both sides; Clemson’s “Bring Your Own Guts” win in a monsoon kickstarted Dabo Swinney’s dynasty in 2015, just as Marcus Freeman got his footing with the Irish by stomping Swinney’s Tigers seven years later.

“To me, this is a mutually beneficial relationship,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. “I would say it has not felt any different from the day I walked into this job five and a half years ago. It just hasn’t.”

So was Notre Dame’s broadside of the ACC actually just another step in a functional partnership rather than the foundational crack it appeared to be?

When new athletic directors are hired, the ACC brings them to its conference offices in Charlotte for an onboarding presentation delivered by Phillips. Incoming athletic directors Steve Newmark (North Carolina) and Bryan Blair (Syracuse) visited this spring.

The PowerPoint includes a section on the Irish. Phillips, a Notre Dame external affairs administrator from 2000-04, explains why his former employer partners with his current one. When the deal was struck more than a decade earlier, conferences were still bound by geography, the Bowl Championship Series existed, bowl affiliations mattered and players weren’t getting paid above the table. Those have all changed, but other key factors haven’t.

“To me, it’s just part of, within any organization or profession, it is always important to educate where it’s been, where it is going, why decisions were made,” Phillips said. “I don’t assume anyone knows what that relationship is to the degree that maybe you do know once you’re here in the conference.”

Phillips doesn’t limit the reminders to PowerPoint. When the Notre Dame agreement became a gossipy talking point at ACC meetings in May, the commissioner rallied membership to fall in line with a direct address during a closed-door meeting.

Notre Dame and the ACC still mesh academically. The ACC boasts seven private schools (Notre Dame would be the eighth). The other power conferences have six total. Of the ACC’s 18 members (including the Irish outside of football), 16 are ranked among the nation’s 75 schools by U.S. News & World Report. Seven join Notre Dame in the top 40. Every school but Wake Forest is classified as a top-tier research institution.

The Irish benefit from access to Power 4 opponents in October and November while everyone else is in conference play. That point seems more critical now for two reasons: All major conferences have added a ninth league game, providing fewer openings for an independent opponent, and big-name programs are rethinking aggressive approaches to nonconference scheduling. Notre Dame lost its rivalry with USC when the Trojans backed out amid Big Ten scheduling concerns.

Notably, ACC coaches don’t get the same presentation, which is perhaps why Swinney is more likely to riff on Notre Dame’s “money machine in the backyard” than Clemson athletic director Graham Neff. Same goes for Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, whose boss, Allen Greene, is one of five Notre Dame alumni to lead ACC athletic departments last season, including Bevacqua. Virginia Tech just hired Notre Dame alumnus Brian White, who might be asked about Irish independence by new coach James Franklin (who said that “everybody should be in a conference” while sitting next to Freeman before the January 2025 Orange Bowl).

When the angst over Notre Dame’s new CFP selection criteria — the Irish will get an automatic bid with a top-12 ranking — spilled into the open in December, the rule change was a revelation for some coaches but old news for ADs. Notre Dame skipping bowl season irked coaches but didn’t move many athletic directors.

Bevacqua accusing the ACC of plotting against Notre Dame during the run-up to the Playoff only increased that temperature. The ACC had stumped for Miami on social media, touting the Hurricanes’ head-to-head win over the Irish. The ACC contends it didn’t advocate for Notre Dame to be out, just that Miami should get in first — and ahead of Alabama, too, according to internal league talking points, obtained through a public records request. Notre Dame barely campaigned for itself until the final week, perhaps learning the same lesson in the value of self-promotion the ACC got two years earlier when undefeated Florida State was dumped from the four-team field following Jordan Travis’ injury. 

The ACC wasn’t going to let a similar situation happen with Miami, although Notre Dame was in no position to hear the conference out on selection Sunday. Up to the trustee level, the university was irate with the ACC. Bevacqua simply made that sentiment public.

“We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest business partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports,” Bevacqua said in December, followed by the head-turning line: “They have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame.”

Weeks later, Phillips and Bevacqua met in New York to talk in private. To say all fences were mended to their original condition would be a stretch. But the idea that the conference and the school wouldn’t be able to work together again has also proven false. 

In June, Phillips put forward Bevacqua as the ACC’s rep on the NCAA’s men’s basketball selection committee — a significant appointment in the world of college sports administration. In May, Bevacqua advocated for a 24-team CFP field during ACC meetings in Amelia Island, Fla., talking about offering “hope” to the entire sport as investments in football continue to swell. A day later, Phillips appeared to use Bevacqua’s same language in explaining the league’s overall position. Bevacqua told ESPN at the time the relationship is “very good and healthy.”

Ultimately, for all the personal connections, the Notre Dame-ACC relationship is still a business partnership. Any attorney would tell you the sign of a good negotiation is that neither party gets everything it wants in the final agreement. That’s where the league and the school have been from the start.

When Clemson, Florida State and Miami get sent to South Bend, it’s usually in early November (not ideal weather for Southern teams). Notre Dame might want its Clemson and Stanford series to count as part of its five-game rotation of league opponents, but the ACC insists that’s not happening. When Miami and Virginia wanted to move dates with Notre Dame to accommodate other opponents, all parties worked through it. When the ACC wanted Notre Dame to open on the road on Labor Day weekend — at Florida State and at Louisville — the Irish didn’t complain.

“That’s about not having to get it your way all the time and in every element of it,” Phillips said.

Maybe none of this works perfectly — what does in college football these days? — but it works when it comes to the revenue needed to make college football go.

ESPN’s “College GameDay” is a regular at Cameron Indoor Stadium during basketball season but was a stranger to Duke football until the show rolled into town on Sept. 30, 2023. With Notre Dame visiting and Duke undefeated, Blue Devils athletic director Nina King played party host at sold-out Wallace Wade Stadium, working the sideline and shaking hands with trustees, donors and other notaries.

In front of Duke’s largest home crowd in 29 years, Notre Dame escaped via a walk-off Audric Estime touchdown run. It was the ACC’s highest-rated game of the weekend and the Blue Devils’ most-viewed regular-season game since at least 2011. 

Scan across the league, and you’ll find similar stories about the power of a visit from the Irish. Louisville’s 2023 triumph remains one of the high-water marks of Jeff Brohm’s coaching tenure. Two of Florida State’s best home environments in the last 15 years were heart-stopping games against Notre Dame (2014 and 2021). Miami’s 2017 beatdown at Hard Rock Stadium was the Hurricanes’ buzziest crowd and biggest win in years … until last season’s thriller powered them into the Playoff.

“Every game against Notre Dame is a marquee game that attracts lots of attention for the ACC school that’s playing them and the ACC in general,” said Lindsay Conner, a consultant who has advised schools on finances and conference realignment.

Two important metrics — viewership and attendance — back that up.

Of the ACC’s 50 most-viewed regular-season games since their football scheduling agreement took the field in 2014, only Florida State played in more than Notre Dame (12), according to viewership data compiled by Sports Media Watch.

Scroll past the marquee matchups, and the Irish keep inflating ratings. Last year, Notre Dame was the most-watched regular-season matchup for Boston College, Stanford and Pitt. The Panthers’ three-score loss to the Irish drew twice as many viewers (3.96 million) as their overtime contest with Backyard Brawl rival West Virginia (1.89 million).

ACC schools see similar boosts in the stands.

Since 2014, ACC teams average 8,500 more fans (+22%) in visits from Notre Dame compared to the rest of the season. The trend plays out almost everywhere:
  • Notre Dame represented two of the five largest crowds in stadium history at Pitt (2015 and ’25) and Louisville (2019 and ’23).  
  • Duke’s attendance has topped 40,000 in four games since 1989; two were against rival North Carolina, and the other two were against the Irish (2019 and ’23).
  • Last year’s blockbuster drew Miami’s largest home crowd (66,793) since Hard Rock Stadium was renovated a decade ago. 
  • Notre Dame’s visits to Virginia outdrew games against the Cavaliers’ rival Virginia Tech by more than 4,000 in 2015 and 2,000 in ’21.
Football coaches can complain about the Irish skipping their bowl or enjoying the perks of a scheduling arrangement without full membership but those same coaches aren’t griping about the money Notre Dame brings to their budgets.

It’s possible that the Irish follow FSU, Clemson and other big brands out the door to the Big Ten, SEC or a super league as the ACC’s exit fees drop steadily to $75 million by 2030-31. It’s also possible that federal legislation or market forces freeze future rounds of realignment. It’s hard enough to know what’s coming next week, let alone next decade.

Still, Phillips believes the future for Notre Dame and the ACC will look a lot like the past.

“The relationship continues to be important for both of us, and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Phillips said. “So I really believe it’s in a good place. I really appreciate working with them. And I believe they feel the same way with myself and the ACC.”

Phillips said he’d welcome Notre Dame signing an over-the-top scheduling agreement with Miami, similar to the 12-year Clemson deal that essentially creates “non-conference” games for Notre Dame beyond the five-game rotation.

“There’s an opportunity to lean into embracing those types of creative areas, competition between Notre Dame and the ACC in ways that can be monetized,” Phillips said. “Fundamentally, we’re gonna continue to be fair about the rotation of our teams playing the five annual games, but I’ve encouraged all of our teams to create scheduling opportunities outside of those.”

The league boasted record revenues last year, outpacing the Big 12, even as the SEC and Big Ten continue to dominate the sport. Notre Dame will enter this season as a potential preseason #1 with its best chance to win a national championship in a generation. 

Source: The Athletic
July 6, 2026

Cocktail of the Week


While spending time recently in Colorado, on my annual long weekend with several Dillonites -- my personal equivalent of Dian Fossey's communing with primates in Africa, or, Timothy Treadwell's hanging with the grizzlies in Alaska (and we all know how THAT ended) -- a potential new blog section was kicked around, entitled...

"Things You Didn't Know About Jerrence (And Were Reluctant to Pursue Inquiry)." 

Here's a start:  maybe my favorite course, ever, was actually my junior year of high school's Honor's English class -- where Mr. Miller wrote on my very first paper, "Has all the organization of a garbage can, with gaps in logic one could drive a Mack truck through..."

So what I hear you saying, Mr. M, is that my prose represents real world urban grit, a gutteral 'man of the street' if you will, non-linear in it's speaking truth to power...

No?

At any rate, beyond reading a ton of great English literature we spent the entire year preparing a final research paper and my topic was on the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats -- whose most famous effort entitled The Second Coming may or may not be hugely relevant to ND Football 2026 --  I recently stumbled* on the following:


William Butler Yeat's
THE CLOVER CLUB


The Clover Club cocktail, named for a group of lawyers, bankers and powerful men who gathered at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in the late 1880's, originated in Philadelphia but found its way onto ritzy menus all over the East Coast in the early 20th Century.

Irish poet Yeats was said to be so enamored with this slightly sweet, slightly sour pink cocktail that he drank three in a row during a visit to New York.

"Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth
I look at you and I sigh."
-- A Drinking Song, 1915

*Coincidence?  I think not. 

Serves 1

--  1 1/2 oz. gin

--  1/2 oz. dry vermouth

--  ½ oz. lemon juice, freshly squeezed

--  1/2 oz. raspberry syrup

--  1/4 oz. egg white

-- 2-to-3 raspberries, for garnish

-----------------------------

1. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake until chilled nad strain.
2. Return mix to the cocktail shaker, this time without ice and shake until frothy.
3. Pour into a chilled coupe glass.
4. Skewer raspberries and lay across the top of the drink to garnish.

SourceHow To Drink Like A Writer
By Margaret Kaplan

BTW, if esteemed academic Dr. Tím Tím had opted for film review instead of academia, one would imagine his criticism to look something like this...




Schedule 2026


September 
                                                  
6                Wisconsin                                   @Lambeau Field                      
12               Rice                                     
19               Michigan State     
26              @Purdue

October  
                                                                                                     
3                 @North Carolina   
10                Stanford                                  Alumni Hall reunion weekend      
17               @BYU                                        Martini's a-flowin' in Lakeville, CT
24               BYE       
31               @Navy                                    

November 

 7                 Miami                                     There Will Be Blood
14                Boston College                             
21                SMU                       
28              @Syracuse                              
                                                       
December

TBD    (after 2025, making no great assumptions)


Wager 2025

With the lights out, it's less dangerous 
Here we are now, entertain us 
I feel stupid and contagious...



Sign of the Apocalypse:  Albert is contemplating going 12-0 on this year's wager.  Which begs several different questions:
  • Was he the victim of an alien abduction?
  • When they treated his heart in February, did they also 'fix' his brain?
  • How do we change his mind and prevent the world from imploding?

Finally, 2026 -- The Year of Cillian and the year of THE IRISH.  

Wins

ND Equivalence

Domer

12

Peaky Blinders



Tommy fookin' Shelby.


The biggest badass in all of England -- a "take no fookin' prisoners" kind of guy.


And what I aspire for my 15-0 Notre Dame team this year. 


JERRENCE

Kevin C.

The Dim One



11

Oppenheimer

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Not exactly 'Play Like  A Champion' but I'd embrace it as a 2026 mantra.

Perhaps not a perfect movie but damn good - and Cillian was the ultimate winner.

Just how I'd see an 11-1 team (that still wins the natty) turning out. 

Matt L.
10

The Wind That 
Shakes The Barley


 An underrated, great film about The Troubles in Ireland -- unique in it's family-oriented frame of reference.


Hardly anyone (I know) has seen it, which is a small tragedy.  


Has some of the most realistic British torture-of-the-Irish-rebels scenes... which would probably approximate how ND Nation would view a 10 win season. 

 




9

28 Days Later


 

Danny Boyle redefines the zombie movie genre. 


Clever and stomach turning -- and probably something you only want to see once.


Just like a 9 win ND team.


 





Sports Imitating Art


Old Man on a Swing, by Goya (Bordeaux Album II), 1824-28



Schadenfreude of the Week


It remains a sad day in Mudville when The Jerrence can't find anyone to celebrate their athletic disappointment.

Not that there aren't viable candidates even in mid-summer.

The World Cup, after all, provides a global catchment of possibilities -- surely he can dredge up some stereotypic  animosity, Iran being an obvious choice.  But he's lived 'in country' during WC years and has witnessed there being nothing like it, from a mass collective country-wide engagement in their team's participation.  It's just too cool to watch an entire country live and die by their team's chances.  

Plus, Spain winning for only the second time in 96 years -- much like the Knicks winning the NBA for the first time in 53 years -- augurs well for this being Notre Dame's year to break their national championship drought. 

Then there's also The British Open, with all those... foreigners.  What's that all about?  Surely one can find someone to cheer against -- and I'm not talking about The Royal & Ancient rule makers. 

Ryan Fox. Is New Zealand even a real place?  

I'm pretty sure that's where Aragon defeated The Dark Lord Sauron's army, allowing Frodo to throw The One Ring into Mount Doom and basically save us from a lifetime of indenture to Evil. 

No one was playing golf during that.

I've seen Peter Jackson's 9-hour documentary.  In fact, Defarge has watched it several times, muttering "King of Gondor or not, Aragon can conscript me any time..."

But I digress.  

So... we're going to keep our powder dry on the schadenfreude front and save it for future SEC  / Michigan / USC failures... and the inevitable eventuality of the Dodgers in the World Series.  

-----------------------------------------------

Terry's Tools




You got to know when to hold 'em, 
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away 
And know when to run...








Which leads us to... 

1a)  Brendan Sorsby.  Perhaps I'm scarred by one of my earliest childhood pro football memories, that of The Golden Boy, Paul Hornung, (and Alex Karras) being suspended for a year for gambling...

So when one hears of a college football player copping to a gambling addiction involving 9,000+ bets (and $90k in money), that would seem to be a "Say goodbye to your college career" no brainer, yes?

And yet, today one can successfully play the victim card -- it's a disease that requires nuance and sympathy -- reminding me of Will Ferrell's character in the hugely underrated, "Blades of Glory"... where he played the bad boy of competitive figure skating, Chaz Michael Michaels, an admitted sex addict who declares, "It's a real disease with doctors and medicine and everything..."

Sure, Brendan.

Fortunately cooler heads seem to have, ultimately, somehow prevailed, if not in a wholly linear sequence.

And with the advent of gambling invading every sport, this was only a matter of time.  And surely not the last example we'll see.  

Just remember, it's a real disease.  

With doctors and everything... 


1b)  Without further commentary... 




 

2) USC  Okay, I wasn't a History major -- an avocation I still leave to savants like Messrs.  Ungashick and Castellini -- although Homer's The Odyssey does cross the line into my particular area of academic study... 

But perhaps someone in the USC Social Media dept.* needs to be told that The Odyssey begins immediately after the Trojan War.

Strike 1.

Which, um, the Greeks won. 

Strike 2.


*Perhaps they majored from the Cardale Jones School of "We came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL"


3)  Warde Manuel. 
Michigan's AD to leave at the end of the calendar year as a result of a damning -- shocker! -- independent investigation of the fraught Sherrone Moore legacy.  

Note to future Michigan head football coaches:  banging your assistant is, um, bad. So don't do that.  Got it?

Per The Athletic, "Michigan always seemed to have someone to blame for its issues: the NCAA, the Big Ten, anonymous sources leaking to the media, rogue actors in the department. The issues were bigger than Manuel, but as AD, he had more power than most to do something about it.

Manuel defended his record to the end, responding to several media outlets last week to throw cold water on reports that his exit was imminent. He repeatedly cited the “99.9%” of people at Michigan who do things the right way and argued that an athletic department with a bad culture couldn’t have accomplished the things Michigan accomplished in recent years.

Those comments, though not completely off-base, revealed a disconnect between the public perception of Michigan and the internal perception. Reports issued by the NCAA in two major infractions cases painted a damning picture of the football program’s attitude toward compliance. Instead of getting its house in order, Michigan allowed that culture to continue under Moore, who repeatedly ran afoul of NCAA rules and university policies before he was fired."


4)  And finally... 

Name of the Week


I don't want to toot my own horn -- actually I totally do -- but this section has become something of an "Oracle of Valpo" kind of place.

Let us not forget the last two nominees of this section, Wonderful and Olu, are both now ND commitments, each being 4-and-5 star high schoolers. 

Coincidence?  I think not. 

Accordingly, never let it be said that Notre Dame shies away from recruiting kids (and their families) with healthy self images and / or senses of destiny.  (Witness the aforementioned Wonderful family.)

This month's nominee takes it up a notch:

Lord Malik Heru

The Class of '29 (!) QB out of Chesapeake, VA who's already got an offer from Alabama.  

Lord.  A name way loftier than, say, Wonderful or Champ.  

And for a QB... seems appropriate if not a bit of a potential overreach.

Perhaps I've watched too much House of The Dragon lately but... I wonder if he makes his teammates call him, "Your Grace..."

Still, apparently he's very good -- as a freshman, who knows -- and we'll see if ND goes after him.

But with that name, he better be good great. 

Trivia

Harry Chapin recently came up in a group text conversation.  I think it had something to do with that he died exactly 45 years ago this past week. 

Q.  His biggest hit, "Cat's In The Cradle," was actually adapted from a poem written by whom?

A)    Cat Stevens
B)    Allen Ginsberg
C)    Sue Chapin
D)    Adrienne Rich
E)    Ungie

---------------------

(Last blog's answer:  Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner  was, according to Warren Zevon, Norway's bravest son. 

So the CIA decided
They wanted Roland dead
That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen
Blew off Roland's head...



Final Thought

I have finally found the appropriate epitaph for when I shuffle of this mortal coil:



Before that, however, setting expectations for Year 19 of The Musings From 'A' Lot posts...

Blog timing 

August
  • 8/24
September   
  • 9/24
October
  • 10/1
  • 10/8
  • 10/30
November
  • 11/5
  • 11/12
  • 11/19
  • 11/26
December
  • 12/3