Rich Get Richer

Texas proved that you really do not have to play too difficult a schedule to gain access to the BCS title game. In an effort to make as much money as possible, Notre Dame seems to be running with that idea as they apply their 7-4-1 schedule model to a weak crop of teams in 2010.
For anyone unfamiliar with this model, Notre Dame wants to play as many home games as possible in an attempt to not only improve their gate but also add to their coffers with the money made from their NBC deal. So they booked seven home games just like all the major powers have done since the NCAA expanded the schedules to 12 (in an attempt to increase the money made by these powers). But they go one better than most programs by booking a neutral field game against a weak opponent and selling it to NBC as well. Last year they played Washington State in Texas and this year they play Army in Yankee Stadium. These are considered home games--yes that is eight homes games to four road ones--so NBC gets to televise the seven legitimate home games and the Army game, which they are moving to night because of the novelty of playing at the new stadium.
Wait it gets worse. One of the four road games is against Navy and the Irish refuse to play in Navy's small stadium. So that game is being played at the Meadowlands. So the Irish play seven games at home, one at Yankee Stadium, one at the new Giants Stadium and three at their opponents' home fields. And of those three, one is a difficult place for the Irish, at Southern Cal. One is at Michigan State, where the Irish won in 2002, 2004 and 2006, and the third is at Boston College, where Notre Dame has not been successful although that has nothing to do with the Eagles having some feared home advantage. The home games? Purdue, Michigan, Stanford, Pittsburgh, Western Michigan, Tulsa and Utah. Although not as easy a schedule as some folks would lead you to believe, it still does not vaguely resemble the rough schedule that Lou Holtz inherited when he began his tenure at Notre Dame, when the 1986 edition of the Irish went to battle against four teams that finished in the nation's Top 10 (Penn State, Michigan, Alabama, LSU). And you wonder why Brian Kelly ran up to South Bend as fast as he could? At Cincinnati last year he had to deal with six home games and six road games (the poor fellow).
Notre Dame used to pride itself on playing the nation's best. Now, the priorities have changed.