That SP+ nonsense is exactly why the game has gone soft. Back in the day, you measured a schedule by the rivalries you had to survive every single year, not some computer printout. Notre Dame doesn't have to navigate a true conference gauntlet anymore, and they haven't for decades. I remember when we had to go through Lincoln and Norman and College Station every single season in the old Big 12, real road environments that would eat a team alive. Playing five teams from a list based on last year's formula? That doesn't mean a thing. Where's the week-in, week-out brutality? Where's the history? They get to hand-pick their "tough" games while avoiding the grind the rest of us endured. It's a glorified independent schedule built for TV, not for testing a team's soul. Give me the 1998 Red Raiders schedule, having to face Ricky Williams at Texas and then Michael Bishop at K-State back-to-back, any day over this modern, sterilized slate. That was football. This is just scheduling for the playoff committee.