College football enthusiasts are befuddled by the sudden downfall of the storied University of Notre Dame football program. Notre Dame football is based on tradition, and the aura of the program is starting to fade away into the past. Notre Dame football is in a state of mediocrity because of its extremely high academic standards that do not permit high quality athletes who are sub par students academically from entering the Fighting Irish's storied football program.
Notre Dame is a school that has always carried high academic standards along side with its stellar athletic programs. In the past, high quality athletes have not been available in mass numbers like today. Notre Dame's academic standards have kept high quality athletes from coming to Notre Dame. Instead of coming to the storied tradition, the highly touted football recruits have begun to choose public schools with academic standards that are less challenging such as Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State, and the University of Southern California. All of these schools have had recruits consider Notre Dame, but were unable to achieve the high academic standards for admission.
College football analysts such as Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreet of ESPN believe the reason for the Notre Dame decline is the lack of a major conference membership. Corso and Herbstreet think the quality of opponents that Notre Dame is playing is not of a high enough quality, and that becoming a member of a power conference such as the Big Ten or the Atlantic Coast Conference would be a huge uplift for the program. .
Corso and Herbstreet have no business in believing that Notre Dame should join a conference. Notre Dame has always been a school to play quality opponents every year. Notre Dame believes that playing a tough schedule solidifies their place on top of the college football platform. Notre Dame has always had a tradition of playing powerhouse football schools such as Michigan, USC, Purdue, Florida State, and Miami.
