NOT B1G 2012 // So There Once Was a School in South Bend...

Back on Good Friday, the OTE team was minding its own business when OTE Commenter GTom opened up a potential can of worms:

I think we should have a poll at the end... ... for the greatest Hate Week piece. First prize would be the honor to write the "School from South Bend" hate piece from all of us.

While we all thought it was a pretty funny idea at first, we also realized that it might not be as outrageous as one might think. After all, in the past two decades, pretty much everyone has wondered why Notre Dame has never joined the B1G and isn't that reason enough to openly berate them?

After a few hundred back and forth E-mails that day, it was decided that this needed to be carefully thought out. After all, it was Good Friday, and we all felt that openly mocking Touchdown Jesus on Easter might cause lightning to rain down from the heavens and none of us were all too pumped for that. What we came up with was a bit of a compromise. This week is officially Not B1G 2012 // TSISB Week. Graham has asked us writers to be nice enough because a) While we may hate TSISB, we definitely need to respect the fact that they are a Cultural Legend of football and disrespecting them too much would basically be like disrespecting Racist Postcards pre-Civil War and b) because one day there is a good chance that we will all have to pretend we don't hate them as much as we really do.

So what does this week's festivities actually consist of? Here is a quick rundown of what we have in store for B1G and TSISB fans of all shapes and sizes (Brian Kelly and Charles Weis models at additional cost):

Today: The Team at One Foot Down, SBNation's Notre Dame affiliate breaks down TSISB Football 2012
Tuesday: The ______ Guys in the Room - TSISB Coaching (You'll have to come back to fill in that blank)
Wednesday: An Official OTE Potluck - The One Where We Invite the Catholics (With Free Fireworks!)
Thursday: Jesse and Ted's Excellent E-mail Adventure
Friday: Keeping the Enemy Close - An OTE Finale!

So now that you know what is going on, I'd like to talk a little bit about why I am excited to be featuring TSISB this week. I mean, generally speaking, most all of us writers would be more contemptible in such a situation, right, and as a Nebraska fan, it's not exactly like I love the Irish. Between the unnatural lovefest of Rudy, which seems to be working out well for a lot of Irish fan investors, the annoying monopolization of NBC during Saturdays, and the general suckiness of the past decade with still overratedness in August, it's hard not to find reasons to hate Notre Dame. Still, they are a blue blood and it is easy to argue that without their selfishness and self-fellating attitude we may never get to major college football as it stands today.

Seriously, this might be the biggest reason we will contribute our collective writing power to TSISB this week. Without Notre Dame, I promise you that there is no way we would have as nearly a corrupt, self-serving, money and media driven conglomerate as we do today. Playoffs? Go ahead and thank the Irish. Why is that? Without Notre Dame's constant reach to do what is best for the pocketbooks of Notre Dame, there is no way such a lucrative deal comes about. Look, basically all I am trying to say is that Notre Dame's shortsightedness to do whatever it took to only help themselves out in media deals has created what we know today as modern college football. Shouldn't we at least repay them the favor by featuring them this week? That's what I thought.

So, sit back, relax, get a jab in or two and let's all enjoy TSISB week. Please remember to be nice to our visitors and don't forget to tune in each day. I promise every word written this week will be worth it. Happy NOT B1G 2012 Week everyone!