Rivalry Week: Your Daily Reason To Hate Notre Dame

The Boiling Point: Every day this week TheBoilingPoints.com will be bringing you another reason to hate Notre Dame.

As if you needed more reasons to hate Notre Dame, this week TheBoilingPoints.com will be giving you a new reason every day. Click here for yesterday’s reason, here for Tuesday’s and here for Monday’s.

Today’s reason is simple: The “Play Like A Champion Today” sign. Personally, I can’t stand the stupid thing. That’s not the point though, the point is when is the last time anyone that touched that sign won a championship in anything?

Notre Dame isn’t in a conference, so it’s not like they’re playing like conference champions. The last time they were a “champion” was in 1988, and that was back when the polls determined the champions. For some perspective, only fifth-year seniors on Notre Dame’s team would have even been close to being ALIVE when Lou Holtz led the Fighting Irish to an undefeated season in 1988.

Apparently the sign isn’t talking about academic champions, either. Notre Dame, despite all its hype about being a prestigious academic institution, was ranked just #19 in the latest U.S. News And World Report college rankings. I’d hardly call that a champion of anything.

Basically Notre Dame’s famous sign is the sign-equivalent to giving out trophies to everyone that plays t-ball. It’s like the university saying, “Yeah, you didn’t win… but you played like a champion. That’s what counts!” and giving them a pat on the back.

And, if that doesn’t make you hate Notre Dame, here’s an ND fan’s “fire up” video preview for this season.