Looking back at last year, it seems funny. Notre Dame was coming off a loss to Northern Illinois and everyone was in the dumps. Purdue had shutout Indiana State in their opener and were coming off a week 2 bye week. Only 53 weeks ago, Vegas had the Irish as just 9.5 point favorites while [...]

This is the wedding weekend. Notre Dame finally has an afternoon kickoff as a heavy favorite, the national lineup is quite weak, and you're free to go do other things with your life. If you must. However, if you're a true Sicko there's always something fun to find amongst the cupcakes and bye weeks. Actually, [...]

It was a dark week for Notre Dame who opens the season 0-2 and quickly tumbles out of the 18 Stripes Top 20. Spoiler alert! The great thing about college football is watching the misery of other teams as well, though. There's always plenty of that to go around. Heck, we already have two power [...]

The chips were on the table for Notre Dame to finish off a close and frustrating comeback win to reset their season. It wouldn't have been pretty but a victory would've been big in keeping the playoff hopes alive for the Irish. Now, after Texas A&M executes a game-winning touchdown drive the panic button is [...]

After a slow week 2 at the top of the rankings the season is moving along with what should be some better matchups this weekend. Showcased by a big ranked vs. ranked matchup in the SEC we also get to see the early 2025 season darlings USF travel to Miami and a few other games [...]

A season opening loss directly into a bye week--is it torture for Notre Dame fans or an opportunity to regroup and reset the season for the next 11+games? We'll try our best to keep a level head. Hopefully everyone spent the weekend grilling cheeseburgers and laughing at other teams who lost. In the first regular [...]

In the end, Week 2 was a little more fun than expected with chaos outside of the top of the rankings. The top teams nary had a struggle with our top 8 teams in action winning by a combined 384-29. That was almost as easy as Notre Dame's bye week. Elsewhere, across the country fans [...]

I haven't done the research but it feels like in recent years Week 3 and especially Week 2 are really dreadful for college football entertainment as some programs continue to pull back from out of conference matchups. This weekend is really only for the true college fans, I wouldn't blame someone for being more in [...]

My pre-season poll was so bad that the top 3 teams, and 4 out of the top 5, all lost in week 1. Phew! And, it could've been worse but the no. 4 team played the no. 1 team. How could these teams do this to me? Anyway, a big reshuffle is in order at [...]

The nightmares continue playing Miami on the road. Notre Dame opened up the 2025 season with high hopes as the road favorite but now fly back to South Bend after suffering a close but very frustrating loss to the Hurricanes. Some bright spots were able to shine through and credit to the team for fighting [...]

The month of August ends on Sunday with the Fighting Irish closing out the first weekend* of the college football season in primetime on ABC against the Miami Hurricanes. Only 192 days ago, Notre Dame lost the National Championship Game to Ohio State and now we get to start a new campaign in Marcus Freeman's [...]

Last October during the college football season we made the decision to open up our own 18 Stripes server on Discord. If you'd like to read the reasoning why check it out HERE. It's been almost 11 months and since opening the server we've added a few new channels. However, for most of our readers [...]

Look, no one expected what happened last year, not even the most Kool-Aid chugging optimist. While it didn't end well, it sure was a fun ride. For the first time in many years, the Irish are back coming in with a high rankings and lofty expectations while the rest of the country doesn't seem too [...]