From: TJFAN@WATSON.IBM.COM
Subject: Re: USC should drop the ND series
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 22:52:41 GMT
Distribution: usa
News-Software: IBM OS/2 PM RN (NR/2) v0.16 by O. Vishnepolsky and R. Rogers
Reply-To: TJFAN@WATSON.IBM.COM
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research

In <14896@cis.rand.org> bentow@cis.rand.org (Stan Bentow) writes:
>In article <1992Dec16.215348.14016@watson.ibm.com> TJFAN@WATSON.IBM.COM writes:
>
>>I would look this the other way. Say (maybe this is not a good example) for
>>example Japan in WWII. They surrendered because continuing the war would have just
>>completely destroyed them. Then they got a break to regroup themselves. Today
>>they became one of the economic power in the world. 
>
>Blah, Blah, Blah ...
>
>I can't decide whether to write a response to this.  Are you serious or
>is this just a major "Anti-Woof"????
>
 
I'm serious!! I think we should work for the best interest of the school.
Let's forget about tradition or face (shamed of dropping the series). If anything
is good to USC football team, we should proceed it; and if anything is bad we
should avoid it, right? Now, at this moment, I don't see the ND-USC series is doing
anything good to the USC team. It did a lot of damage to the USC reputation and
put too much pressure to the coaches and players. So why not trying to avoid it?
At least temporarily (get a break of 2 or 3 years before resuming the series, if
desired).
 
USC just cannot beat ND, period. Next year it will be 11 in a row (anyone want to
bet on this against me?) Year after year, this becomes bigger and bigger burden
on USC's shoulders. Penn State can beat ND and we can beat Penn State, but we just
cannot beat ND. Why? Everytime Larry Smith and his players go against ND, they
have tremendous pressure to end the series, therefore they are already mentally
handicapped before the game. When the streak becomes longer and longer, the
pressure becomes bigger and bigger. USC's image becomes worse and worse and
less players will choose USC over ND, or if they cannot go to ND, they rather go
to Washington. So USC will become weaker and weaker and ND stronger and stronger,
so it becomes harder and harder for USC to end the series.
 
Am I exagerating? Well, USC better end the streak (on field or not) quickly. 
Otherwise for 2 or 3 more years the Trojans will downgrade to a 2nd-class team
like California (sorry Bears) because they cannot get good recruit. And by that
time nobody will care about this streak anymore because USC is "supposed" to lose
like Army is suppose to lose to ND. 
 
Even if USC can beat ND next year or year after, but in the long run, ND is still
a much better team (against USC) and USC may only win 3 out of 10 matches on the
average. So, does this going to do anything good to USC? I really doubt it. So
why not drop it? Of course, we cannot just choose to meet those teams that we
can beat and avoid teams that we cannot, but why do we have to keep a better team
as a yearly rivalry? Playing them occasionally is good enough, playing them
every year just reduce a lot of your chances of staying undefeated. 
 
I know my voice is still very small and not many people will litsen to me (if 
there is any please speak out). But for a couple of more years if USC still cannot
beat ND, I believe my voice will become louder.
 
Believe me, I still hope USC beat ND next year at South Bend. But, that'll need a
miracle.
 
Hay, how about some ND fans' opinion about this? 


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  ??    ??       ??               T. J. FAN, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
  ??    ?? ????? ??
  ??    ????   ????    ??         - A Trojan Fan (Used to be)
   ?????? ????    ??????          - and the ND hater (Probably no more)
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           ?????
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