Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.

3 News Stories

#1 The power struggle between the SEC and Big Ten to determine the future of the college football postseason rages on. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey made comments this week and appears ready for his league to dig their heels in, remain at 8 conference games per season, prefer a 5+11 playoff model, and if the Big Ten won’t agree with it be prepared for the post-season to remain at 12 teams for the foreseeable future. They have a December 1st deadline to figure things out. Or not!

I think the stalemate is probably a good idea if you’re hoping for the playoff to remain at 12 teams. I’m okay with it staying that way for 2 or 3 more years. It’ll change eventually of course. The Big Ten has been feeling itself over the past couple years but long-term the smart play is to predict the SEC ultimately winning the majority of these arguments. I should note, Sankey mentioned at SEC media days that he backs a 9-game league schedule so it’ll probably happen in due time, but not without the SEC getting its way in other areas.

#2 Three conferences can’t agree on all the realignment issues that they brought upon themselves. No settlement has happened so the Pac-12, Mountain West, and schools leaving the Mountain West look to be headed to court, largely over exit fees. It’s not a small amount of money that they are haggling over, roughly $150 million!

#3 Texas Tech bolted and now Louisiana Tech is headed back to the Sun Belt, as early as 2027. The school and conference announced the news this week with Tech reportedly set to pay a $5 million exit fee to the Conference USA. The school had been a part of the Sun Belt from 1991-2001, then joined the WAC for 12 years, before spending the last dozen season with the C-USA.

Although this is bound to change many times in the coming years, the Sun Belt is set to have the following programs in 2027:

Appalachian State
Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
James Madison
Marshall
Old Dominion
Arkansas State
Louisiana
Louisiana-Monroe
South Alabama
Southern Miss
Troy

Recruiting

Notre Dame’s 2026 class added safety Nick Reddish (0.8769) out of Charlotte, North Carolina. The Irish class is now up to 26 commits. In not super great news, defensive lineman target Elijah Golden is pushing back his commitment 2 weeks to August 9th at 3:30 PM ET.

Five-star tight end Kaiden Prothro (0.9863) is headed to Georgia. The Dawgs also added athlete Tyriq Green (0.9344).

Another tight end came off the board as Heze Kent (0.9354) committed to Florida. The Gators also added edge rusher KJ Ford (0.9483) from Duncanville, Texas.

The Longhorns picked up the commitment of cornerback Samari Matthews (0.9702). With more verbals, Texas added defensive lineman James Johnson (0.9657) on a flip from Georgia, as well as the nation’s top linebacker Tyler Atkinson (0.9934) out of the state of Georgia.

Wide receiver Jayden Warren (0.9399) adds to Houston’s recruiting class.

Miami kept wide receiver Somourian Wingo (0.9324) in state with a commitment this week.

Ohio safety Jakob Weatherspoon (0.9278) committed to North Carolina.

Uniform of the Week

After some brief teasing, the Arizona Sun Devils have released “new” uniforms. The home set is a throwback in nearly every respect. The program had a similar color scheme in the rotation in recent years, although bringing back Sparky on the yellow helmets is a nice return–if it’s used more than just sporadically. The jersey moves the TV numbers on top of the shoulders and brings back the school name script across the chest, although the real throwback option here would’ve been the name in solid white.

The white uniform again is a template in spirit that Arizona State has been using for at least a decade so it’s a curious choice to make a big deal out of it. The jersey is very simple although the all-white helmet with maroon trident logo in combination with all-white pants makes this whole set too washed out. I think it’s hard to mess up all-white and the Sun Devils pull it off. This one needs quite a bit more color.

TV & Movies

This week I’ve been throwing it back to 1982 and the release of the mega super hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial that once held the title of highest grossing film of all-time. My last and only time seeing the movie goes way, way back. I was born in ’82 and probably watched this on VHS somewhere in 1987 or 1988. A million years ago now. I tried to get the Murt kids into this week and at first they were scared and now they are into it (we haven’t finished it yet) just like I told them they would be. For nostalgia sake, I zeroed in on the kitchen from the movie.

Many people know the location of the ET house (7121 Lonzo Street, Tujunga, California) and if you check out Google street view you’ll see the current owners have trees covering the vast majority of the structure which kind of sucks for tourists. The home was built in 1980 and some shade is probably the right thing to do but alas. The kitchen in the movie is so incredibly 1980’s and I love it. Wooden bowls, glass ketchup bottles, the overhead light that looks like it’s from Pizza Hut, and the weirdly shaped table with the padded “L” shape seating bench area. I love it so much.

Tunes

This more than 3-year old Tweet below was shared by someone on my Instagram stories and I had a good hearty chuckle. It is impossible to read that and not hear Ad-Rock, Mike D, and DMC say a word together in your head. In my case, all I think of is “Intergalactic” from their 1998 album Hello Nasty where roughly 70% of the song is shout by all 3 of them simultaneously.

At this phase of the Beastie Boys career I thought they were decidedly uncool against their late 1990’s contemporaries, and I think the group might firmly admit the same! Which is odd because back in 1994 for their release of Ill Communication (great title for a rap album) 12 year old me thought the Beastie Boys were super cool. A lot changed in music and hip-hop over the next 4 years, though. INTERGALACTIC PLANETARY. You read that with them all shouting it, didn’t you?