Since reality shows still infest the nation's airwaves, it's time for a reality check.
Especially for Notre Dame and Nebraska football.
First, Nebraska ran Frank Solich out after a 59-19 overall record, a 33-15 Big 12 record and a 3-3 bowl record in six seasons.
Not good enough, the Husker Nation cried. It wants to horde all the championships. A 3-5 conference record, not being ranked at season's end and a bowl loss to Mississippi in 2002 and a 5-3 conference record (9-3 overall) and bowl win in 2003 and a lopsided loss to Miami in the 2001 national championship game was too much to stomach.
An average of 9.83 wins and 3.17 losses a season will do in any coach. That's the way it should be. If a coach can't average 10 wins and two losses a season, no self-respecting university should keep the coach around.
First, more than 400 Notre Dame alumni sent a letter to the school's board of trustees complaining about the football team's lack of success and issued a proclamation: "Absent significant progress in 2004, a coaching change will become necessary."
The letter gets better, or worse, depending on your sense of humor.
"As alumni who understand football's irreplaceable contribution to Notre Dame's greatness, we could not remain idle as the University's vital third pillar crumbled."
Hah! Vital third pillar. That's rich. As if the school would just cease to be a fine institution with an average football team. What's wrong with people? That is just what college athletics doesn't need — misguided alums who aren't able to brag about their school's football success in the office on Monday. Are lives that empty that people take winning and losing this seriously?
It's understandable if Nebraska wanted change because administrators didn't like the direction of the program or the philosophy. Fine. But what happens when Nebraska coach Bill Callahan averages nearly 10 wins and three losses a season with no national titles? Or nine wins, four losses with no Big 12 titles? What then? Because that's what is going to happen. No team goes 12-0, 11-1 every year.
The facts are not easy to digest for fans used to life at college football's top. News flash: It's not a birthright for all Notre Dame and Nebraska teams to win every year.
You can win some of the games some of the time, but you can't win all the games all of the time. The unreasonable expectations set up disappointment.
It's great to have a sense of tradition and appreciate the accomplishments of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz at Notre Dame and Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne at Nebraska.
But in college football today, it is impossible to expect a school to compete for the national championship year in, year out. There are too many factors that make it impossible. Winning is more cyclical for some schools (Miami, Oklahoma, Southern California, Ohio State) than others (Wisconsin, Ole Miss, Texas Christian, Boston College).
Down years should be expected.
Scholarship reductions (from 95 to 85 between 1992 and 1994) have made it easier for more teams to compete. This puts a premium on recruiting. Having a few kids fail to turn out in a recruiting class has an impact. It also allows schools to give athletes significant playing time earlier in their career, rather than sitting them on the bench for a couple of seasons. Early entrants into the NFL Draft affect teams.
It's far more competitive in all facets, making it harder for one team to dominate every year. It is the evolution of college sports — football and men's and women's basketball in particular.
These are not new revelations if you've paid attention. Or if you're not blinded by a school's past success. Or if alums from certain schools don't believe some truths are applicable to their school.
There needs to be more tolerance for 7-5 seasons or even losing seasons. And less whiny letters from alumni.
Paul Hornung's comments notwithstanding, it's no doubt hard for Irish coach Ty Willingham to recruit elite athletes of any race based on Notre Dame's academic requirements. However, Willingham won at Stanford, no academic slouch. There's no reason yet to think Willingham can't win at Notre Dame. It takes more than two, three seasons to turn around a college football program.
It's not easy to win titles every year, no matter the school. That's reality.
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Jeff Zillgitt writes about sports for USATODAY.com. You can send him feedback at jzillgitt@usatoday.com.
