Moving the Chains: Dominance before Submission

[email protected]

Based on countless personal observations albeit any actual research on my part, it’s been proven that ever since the turn of the century, Notre Dame football team can always be counted on to fall flat on their Fighting Irish faces in the postseason. 

The same can be said for whichever team comes out on top in the Big 12, as well as any flavor-of-the-month team from out west, which, more often than not, is Oregon.  And as much as I hate to say it, based on what’s occurred recently, the SEC champion is about to join them, now that the Big Ten has produced the last three National Champions (in order: Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana).  

In basketball, Purdue has a reputation for the postseason face plant.  However, now that Coach K is no longer at Duke, the Blue Devils are giving the Boilermakers a run for their money.  Then, after Purdue and Duke, you may as well pencil in any team that starts with a vowel: Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, Auburn – and go ahead and throw in Ohio State.  

In college football and college basketball, these are the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ teams:  they’re dominant during the regular season, and submissive after that.   

Granted, all of this is just speculation on my part.  So I know what you’re thinking: ‘put up or shut up.’

I’ll be glad to. 

First, football.  

It’s been nearly 40 years since Notre Dame won a National Championship on the gridiron, which means they haven’t won one in the 21^st century.  Since 2000, the Fighting Irish have played in 17 bowls (excluding playoff games), and in those games their record a disappointing 8 – 9.  

In Notre Dame’s playoff appearances, they were beaten by Clemson 30 – 3 in 2018 and Alabama 31 – 14 in 2021.  They finally won a pair of playoff games in 2025 (beating Georgia and Penn State), before losing the title game to sixth-seeded Ohio State, 34 – 23. 

Notre Dame’s last national championship was in 1988, when Lou Holtz was their coach.  They’ve had five coaches since then, seven if you count George O’Leary, who was fired five days after being fired for falsifying his academic credentials, and Kent Baer, who was the interim coach for one game after Ty Willingham was sent packing.  For the time being, South Bend is putting its faith in Marcus Freeman to turn things around.  

There have been 26 Big-12 champions in the 21^st century, and 17 of them were won by a pair of teams that are no longer even in the conference: Oklahoma (with 14 of the 17) and Texas (with the other 3) bolted for the SEC.  

There have been seven appearances by four different Big-12 champions in the college football playoffs, and thus far they have yet to win a single game.  Oklahoma leads with three losses (2017, 2018, 2019), followed by Texas with two (2020, 2023), and Arizona State (2024) and Texas Tech (2025) with one each. 

TCU of the Big-12 was invited to play in the 2022 playoffs despite losing the conference championship game to Kansas State.  The Horned Frogs beat Michigan in the first round, only to lose the National Championship game to Georgia – by a whopping 58 points (65 – 7).  Meanwhile, conference champion Kansas State was blown out by Alabama, 45 – 20, in the Sugar Bowl.  

As for those teams from the West Coast:

• In 2014 (four-team playoff) Oregon won its first playoff game before losing to Ohio State in the National Championship.  
• In 2023 (four-team playoff) Washington won their first playoff game before losing to Michigan in the National Championship.
• In 2024 (12-team playoff) #1 Oregon lost its opening/quarterfinal game to #8 Ohio State.
• In 2025 (12-team playoff) #5 Oregon won its first two games before losing to #1 Indiana in the semifinals.  

In summary, between Notre Dame, the Big-12, and teams from the West Coast, they collectively have a grand total of ZERO National Championships in this century.  

Next, basketball.

Let’s put the Purdue matter to bed first.  The Boilermakers have the most wins in NCAA tournament games, 44, without ever winning a title.  (Incidentally, one of those ‘vowel’ teams, Oklahoma, is next with 43.)  Since 2000, Purdue has played in the tournament 18 times, and made it to the Final Four just once: in 2024, the Boilermakers lost to Connecticut in the title game.   

Since Jon Scheyer took over for Coach K at Duke in 2022, the Blue Devils have won 83% of their games and participated in the NCAA tournament in all four of his seasons with the team.  In chronological order, Duke was eliminated in the second round, the regional final, the national semifinal (their only Final Four thus far), and the regional final.  This year, 2026, Duke was the overall #1 seed in the tournament.  The manner in which Duke snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in their second round game against Connecticut was so out of character for the Blue Devils that things might need to be shaken up in Durham before long.  

In the 25 NCAA tournaments since 2000 (there was no tourney in 2020 due to COVID), the number of basketball champions that begin with a vowel is the same as the number of championships Notre Dame has won in football during that time: absolutely zero.  

Although there have been 18 ‘vowel teams’ in the Final Four in this century, they have yet to cut down the nets.  That list includes UCLA (4 times), Auburn, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio State, Oklahoma (twice each), Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma State, and Oregon (once each).

And with that, the defense rests.