Bret Bielema, EDSBS Man of the Year 2006, takes on the most controversial assumptions of the 20th century in an AP interview earlier this week. Say what you will about him-he’s a man of range and intellectual depth.
“I understand why certain teams get exemptions.
I understand the theory of relativity, too, and think it’s got serious holes that even superstring theory doesn’t explain adequately. I’ve published several impressive peer-reviewed papers on this, too.*
But on getting football 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.
It’s like the Laffer curve. Everyone just assumes it works. Not this coach. Show me the empirical data, and I’ll show you a believer. ‘Till then it’s dogma on a cocktail napkin. **
But yeah, Notre Dame. They don’t take, maybe, into consideration past bowl history. Notre Dame hasn’t won in the last nine bowl appearances, or whatever it is. And to me, we’ve proven over time that we deserve the opportunity.
Oh, and Fermat’s Last Theorem? Someone’s solving that bitch someday, and that someone is gonna be me.”***
And…INCOMING!!!
Most anyone paying attention to college football tends to get postmodernish about Notre Dame. They’re football Russia: once great, hit by a long, long, long slide, and now building for a comeback using their single natural resource (the brand) with a skilled despot at the helm. (Unfamiliar with Russian petrochemical diplomacy? Good on ya for having a life.)
Bashing them for easy ins to the BCS, though…that’s so 1999, no? (more…)