You're not putting enough importance on how impactful those 2 games would be for all the things it takes to run a program off the field...it doesn't seem like.
These two games are just regular season potential top-10 opponents (maybe top-20 who knows) way out in the future. IU plays top-10 teams all the time. These games were very interesting and I wish we kept them, but we've been quite successful without ND home/homes.
I'm also still okay giving Cig the benefit of the doubt here. He's earned it.
I agree on the rest -- we need to be building up facilities and securing sponsors and other sources of revenue while we are hot. Those are key for our long-term future. Frankly I'm a little disappointed in how little happened this summer. But, we'll see what happens next.
It feels like a missed opportunity to build the brand, for sure. As several noted. Seems like up that way is becoming one of Cig's recruiting areas. But I guess, why play a powerhouse, just
If we drop exactly two this year and are on the bubble? Might not get any favors. Although probably this year as defending champs, but it hurts us a little in the smoke filled rooms.
I guess it's OK, but be nice if we reward the fans a little for their out of conference 'preseason' support.
I don't see our schedule ranked all that high?
So many people such as the idiot DiNardo blathering about how we have it made schedule-wise this year. It's a lot tougher than that, we could win em all or easily drop four games. But the perception being pushed is we got lucky with the schedule.
So, not sure your point. Dropping ND just adds to the narrative even though it's years out. Ranking us 6th (2nd most 1st place votes though, solidly) in the coaches poll sort of shows we wont get any benefits with weak schedules. The SEC coach or their friends won't vote for Cig. 
This weak schedule nonsense is the same bs we heard last year and the year prior…
Explain to me how either of those scenarios harmed our chances of reaching the playoffs or the final results of the past two seasons…
All this stuff about rewarding the fans for their “loyalty” is nonsense too… What loyalty? They were rarely there in-mass before we were Winning and would rapidly desert in-mass if we started losing again… Since that’s the obvious case, why would you want to go out of your way to schedule anyone who had serious shot at beating you early when your trying to build a championship team…
The scheduling model of early opponents who test us without beating us has been solidly Proven as the correct approach by a 27-2 record and two consecutive Playoff appearances over the past two years (I don’t need to recount the entire 2025 season do I[?])…
We needed every one of those “easy” non-conference games last fall to get our eventual #1 draft pick on track… Few remember that he didn’t look anywhere near a top draft pick after watching him in the first couple of games…
In my opinion, scheduling any team that has a 50% or better chance of beating us early as a Non-Conference opponent is pure lunacy and hopefully neither our Coach or our AD will ever be swayed by the arguments for this “an extra tough game for the fans” type of scheduling…
Concerns about missing ND early is much ado about nothing… We’ll see them in the Playoffs… You can be certain they’ll be there because they have been basically already penciled in…
Almost forgot: F Notre Dame
We had to play at Notre Dame at Notre Dame, instead of getting the game we deserved?.... Explain to me how either of those scenarios harmed our chances of reaching the playoffs or the final results of the past two seasons ...
We're yet again in the 'cannot reply' or 'cannot edit a post' level of the thread. My fault I need to cut down to one post a day or at least per thread so threads quit crashing. Probably stopping quoting except with the red highlight method is all I need to do.
Anyway, all i was going to add in my comment about 'easy schedule' possibly costing us a home game Cig's first year - since nobody believed the turnaround, and made the soft schedule an easy explanation - was also going to add that I don't think we had much bashing last season about an easy schedule. Other than the quip preseason at media days about 'the SEC philosophy'. Mainstream media saw 'at Oregon' , 'at Iowa', 'at Penn State' (before Penn State had collapsed) and saw a real schedule.
So I don't think the argument that 'we've always been bashed for our schedule and it didn't hurt us' holds water. Were were bashed in 2024, and it may have hurt us. We were not bashed much last year, and especially not after the Big season started. But in the future when the preseason is soft, and then the Big ends up soft by luck of the draw, well, it can hurt us.
I expect us to be consistently good, so we likely have a number of bubble team comparisons in our future. We won't always go 0 losses or 1 loss. When 2 or 3, SoS matters.
But, TLDR, I guess I like the scheduling. I just was really looking forward to that fun ND game. Figured win, and our recruiting draw gets even better. But, that's Cig's call. He knows.
Can reply on another page. Also trying to push this to a page seven
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