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

Top News

Former Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne is transferring to Missouri where he’ll have 3 years of eligibility remaining.

Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford is headed to the same job at Michigan.

Trev Alberts is leaving Nebraska to take the same athletic director job at Texas A&M.

Former Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett is joining the Ole Miss coaching staff as an analyst.

According to Ross Dellenger from Yahoo Sports the new playoff format and revenue sharing model is coming into focus with an agreement coming soon. The CliffsNotes version:

  • The presidents of the ACC and Big 12 were most resistant to a new deal (and the framework circulated in recent weeks).
  • Finality should come in the following days with the ACC, Big 12, and Notre Dame on board.
  • All 10 conferences will commit to a new revenue-distribution model, parameters around a playoff format and new governance structure.
  • The new deal with ESPN is expected to be for $1.3 billion per year with 58% going to the Big Ten/SEC, 32% to the Big 12/ACC, and the remaining 10% split between the Group of 5 and Notre Dame.
  • The split between the Group of 5 and Notre Dame is expected to be around $115 million.
  • There is not expected to be a participation distribution concept with the new deal.
  • The contract is expected to include a “look-in” provision for 2028 to reassess distribution and this can be triggered earlier due to further conference realignment.
  • A 5+9 model is gaining traction for 2026 with automatic berths going to the 5 highest ranked conference champions.
  • The SEC and Big Ten gaining exclusive rights to both first round byes received too much push back. Leagues are more focused on a revenue model in anticipation of a future athlete compensation model and/or retroactive NIL payments coming from antitrust cases in the courts.

UConn offensive coordinator Nick Charlton is leaving for the Cleveland Browns to become an offensive assistant.

After rumors to the contrary, all bowl games will be in the College Football 25 video game.

Uniform of the Week

I have to apologize to the Oakland Athletics baseball team. They’ve always been my adopted west coast baseball team (I don’t really follow baseball anymore so this isn’t saying much) and I grew up thinking the Bash Brothers were pretty freaking cool. Of course, the A’s have always brought some of the best uniforms in MLB. I debated bringing them into the continuing Top 50 iconic sports uniforms countdown but ultimately voted against the idea.

I didn’t think either of their primary uniforms quite got them to that level. I like their standard home white uniform a lot, though. If we could include alternate uniforms and throwbacks, the A’s then bring some of the best in the world of sports. I was also unsure about including them as they are set to move to Las Vegas eventually. I’m guessing new uniforms are coming someday?

Recruiting

Wide receiver Derick Smith (0.9716) committed to Alabama. The Tide also picked up a verbal from cornerback Zymear Smith (0.9085) recently.

Linebacker Charles Ross (0.8941) committed to LSU.

Running back Carlton Smith (0.8980) committed to Maryland.

YouTube Channel

Back to the baseball talk with the A’s again. They are set to play their final season in Oakland this year which is sad but also from a neutral perspective their stadium and franchise has been more struggle than success and they could really use a fresh new start somewhere. That new start is apparently coming to Las Vegas. At least, eventually.

For the 2025-27 seasons, the A’s are going to be splitting their time between the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park and Oakland’s current AAA-affiliate stadium in the western suburbs of Sin City. The team recently released some renders for their new stadium and it’s pretty wild. For the price of $1.5 billion, there are overlapping shells for a roof, 33,000 seats, and an 18,000 square foot video board in right field. The stadium will be on the soon-t0-be demolished Tropicana casino site next to the MGM Grand.

Tunes

I submit that Bruce Hornsby’s no. 1 hit “The Way It Is” from 1986 is one of the most bizarre great songs in music history. First of all, Hornsby’s name is right out of the 1912 American League (we’re baseball heavy today, folks). In watching the video below, I definitely thought he was British. He is not, Hornsby grew up in Virginia. He was 32 when this song hit big, so he was a little older than your average star.

It’s a genius song. The electronic drumbeat and synthesizer anchor the song firmly in the mid 1980’s music scene. The bass does, too. However, Hornby’s piano playing really drives the song and will always be timeless. His voice is really unique, too. He’s half singing but it fits the social conscious nature of the lyrics. Check out the drummer at 0:24 a bit late to miming the song!

Trivia

JD Bertrand led Notre Dame in total tackles in each of the last 3 seasons. Which player led the team in tackles for the 2020 season?

The Other Football

An extra time header in the 1st half by Lindsey Horan gave the United States a 1-0 win over Brazil in the Gold Cup Final.

This past weekend, Liverpool and Manchester City finished a thrilling 1-1 draw at Anfield. With 10 games to play in the league, Arsenal sits atop the EPL with 64 points on goal differential over City with the same points and Liverpool just 1 point back.

Spurs thrashed 4th place Aston Villa 4-0 on the road and move within 2 points for the last Champions League spot, with 1 game in hand on Villa.

Arsenal got through on penalties against Porto in the Champions League. The Gunners are in the quarterfinals along with Barcelona (4-2 on aggregate over Napoli), Atletico Madrid (5-4 over Inter in a thriller), and Dortmund (2-0 over PSV).

Maurizio Sarri has resigned as manager at Lazio.

TV & Movies

Chuck Klosterman was on a recent Bill Simmons podcast episode and they discussed college players getting paid out in the open now and how ahead of its time Blue Chips was when the movie tackled a lot of issues in college hoops 30 years ago. I’ve always loved this movie so much. Like many, I grew up in an era where paying college kids was a sin…but it also felt normal and part of the game at the bigger schools.

Klosterman was wondering if we now retroactively forgive all the “sins” from the past with paying players. Think about the Pony Express days at SMU. They got the death penalty! If the same thing came down from the NCAA today there would be riots across the country and possibly far worse at their offices. It’s truly one of the wildest 180 degree turns from the public in modern American history.

A Look Back

No one talks about the team that had to follow up the American “Miracle on Ice” hockey team in the 1984 Olympics. I was looking back at this squad that traveled to Sarajevo and picked out some fun names that were amateurs at the time. There was 19 year old Eddy Olczyk, 20 year old Pat Lafontaine, 19 year old Al Iafrate, and 23 year old Chris Chelios among the bunch. I also noticed David Jensen–then finishing up his senior year at prep school Lawrence Academy–before heading to the Hartford Whalers as a 1st round pick.

The US team opened the tournament with a 4-2 loss to Canada and then a 4-1 loss to Czechoslovakia. Not a great rebound effort after the Miracle on Ice! They ended up tying both Norway and Finland while Austria was served up a 7-3 defeat. By the way, not a great tourney for Austria and Norway who combined for a -52 goal differential in their 10 games. The American team finished 4th in group B and won the 7th place game 7-4 over Poland. The Soviet Union won it all after beating Canada 4-0 and Czechoslovakia 2-0.

18S Paddock Club

It was a memorable weekend in Saudi Arabia but not because of the race winner. Of course, Max Verstappen won again and makes it 2 for 2 so far in the 2024 season. Is there hope for the rest of the grid? Maybe not, although Ferrari may be the only team capable of mounting a challenge at some point this season.

Notes from Round 2 of 24:

  • Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was sidelined after Thursday with appendicitis and 18 year old Ollie Bearman (who had recently taken pole in F2) was called up to race from their academy. With just 1 practice session, Bearman qualified 11th and finished an impressive P7 to pick up 6 points and move him into 10th place in the driver’s standings. Bearman now becomes the hottest young future star, more on him below.
  • Charles Leclerc finished “only” 18.6 seconds behind Verstappen and just 5 seconds behind Sergio Perez for P2. Ferrari feel like their car was a lot faster in the second round and are preaching the importance of upcoming upgrades.
  • When Red Bull entered the sport, the Williams team had 112 wins. Red Bull won their first race in 2009 and just surpassed Williams with their 114th win. Williams has won only 1 race over that time span. Who would’ve thought at the beginning of the century that Williams would lose so much and an energy drink team would come to dominate the sport?
  • Things don’t look great at Mercedes where they pick up only 10 points total on the weekend and leave Lewis Hamilton sulking in P9 and voicing his frustrations with a car that is not improving. We’re getting close to the point where Mercedes can write off this entire regulation set (2022-25) as a massive mistake.
  • Lance Stroll was dominated in qualifying again by teammate Fernando Alonso. Then, Stroll proceeded to clip a wall in practice and then hit the same wall during the race to DNF.
  • Alpine qualified 17th and 18th so not the absolute worst. But, Pierre Gasly retired his car on the first lap and Esteban Ocon only finished P13 after others struggled with strategy.
  • Haas picked up a point! Largely thanks to Kevin Magnussen antics that allowed penalties and slow driving to back up the grid so teammate Niko Hulkenberg could finish P10. The media seems pretty sure that the aforementioned Bearman is slated to drive for Haas next season, which likely means Magnuessen (who has been underwhelming for quite some time) might be out of a seat.
  • So far, the Kick Sauber team looks completely out of sorts. Last weekend was okay, but Zhou crashed during practice and both him and Bottas were last among the cars that finished the race. Bottas again had a super slow pit stop after a tire couldn’t be removed quickly enough.
  • A week after looking solid, both Visa RB cars were lapped and didn’t look strong at all in Saudi Arabia.

F1 is off this weekend and will pick things up in Australia next Sunday for the 3rd race of the season.

Trivia Answer:

Kyle Hamilton, 63 tackles