So ... It's been quite a wild few days for Notre Dame Nation. For those of you who don't notice any sports headlines on your My Yahoo! or CNN.com homepages, the school fired its football coach, Ty Willingham, on Tuesday. It's caused all kinds of discussion and outrage and speculation. Naturally, the columnists and pundits who dislike the university -- they have their reasons -- are jumping all over this and relishing in what they consider the end of Notre Dame's status as a special institution from all the others. I disagree, not because I think my beloved alma mater remains the best in the land, but because I think the points they're making about why Notre Dame is now Just Like Every Other School actually came to pass during the past 14 years or so. The bottom line is that college football has changed since 1990, and Notre Dame has too, beginning with its exculsive deal with NBC. And it will continue to do so, because it has to in order to adjust. But it's still Notre Dame, and nowhere else is.

What really has me steamed is these columnists -- some of whom I've read, loved and respected for a long time now -- who rarely, if ever, write about college football, let alone Notre Dame. Why would a columnist who predominantly writes about baseball (and has written about football once in the past year -- about Colorado's recruiting scandal) decide he now can criticize Notre Dame and bash the university without full knowledge of its situation or history? I'm always annoyed when an op-ed author decides to selectively omit key details from one of his points simply so that it will fit his misguided angle. But to say that the motto "God, Country, Notre Dame" is inscribed on "a campus building" is leaving out the important fact that it is inscribed over the door to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. The motto is meant to be a listing of the priorities, the loyalties of the "Notre Dame Man" (since the building was built long before 1972, when women came to campus) and not where the university sees itself in the grand scheme of things. But that's just his ignorance in saying that it should be changed to "Notre Dame: Just like everyone else."

And Caple, who turns out to be an alumnus of the University of Washington (which has already indirectly contacted Willingham about its coaching vacancy), follows the lead of many of the news outlets that have harped on the fact that, for the first time, Notre Dame "fired a coach while he still has years remaining on his contract." That is a sad point and the end of another era at Notre Dame, but it's not entirely accurate. True, ND had never fired a coach before his initial contract was up, but as recently as 2001 it fired Bob Davie before he had coached a day into the contract extension -- I think it was for three or five years -- he signed in December 2000.

As my friend Brad said, "Damn good point. These people are conveniently ignoring facts in order to be sanctimonious about the supposed sanctimonious-ness of N.D."

That's just lazy journalism.

I've had numerous discussions and e-mail debates with friends and family and I've adjusted my opinions as the hours and days have gone by. I'm kind of tired about thinking about the whole thing, let alone writing about it, so I'll just pull up an e-mail from Tuesday, if for no other reason to see how all this holds up in three years.

I'm not going to jump on the university just yet.

Yeah, it wasn't good to give Ty only three years. But please, people, let's wait to see how this plays out. If it's Urban Meyer, I think it will be a deft move, and I will fully support it. As I've read more and listened to more, I've started to come around to this decision more.

I've thoroughly supported and backed Ty throughout his tenure at ND, right up until today. I was never one of those who -- ahem -- reacted to one bad game by saying he had to go. I wasn't going to complain that we needed a new coach today, tomorrow, or next year. Give him four years, give him five to get the program back on track. If he can't do it in five, maybe it's time to look elsewhere. But as one GM or AD said recently at a press conference discussing a coach's departure (it may have been Kevin White, but there have been so much lately, I can't remember), "I give our coach my full support while he is here, unconditionally, right up until he is no longer with us." Or thereabouts.

But despite what Republicans will have us think, it is OK to change our minds, adjust our opinions, when new facts and figures come to light. If you had asked me yesterday if I thought Ty should be around for another season or two, I would've said, Yes, give him enough time to establish something. But I'm thoroughly convinced that this time -- unlike in 2001 with Bob Davie's departure -- the university has a plan, it knows what it's doing. Back then, I don't think they knew what they wanted in a coach. If they did, they didn't know who embodied that. I wasn't excited about George O'Leary, and I felt Ty was as much a smokescreen -- a feel-good choice to help overshadow the embarrassment of the Five-Day Coach. Urban Meyer would be the kind of hire that would have me checking the calendar to see how many days until I drive to Pittsburgh for the first game of the 2005 season. The big rally in the Joyce Center to announce O'Leary was contrived enthusiasm. If we hire Meyer, that enthusiasm would be a reaction, not a designated response.

This time, I feel ND sees a guy who's the hottest coaching prospect out there, a guy who took a program like Bowling Green and had it ranked, had it upsetting teams from the ACC and Big 10 and playing in bigger bowl games than it had ever imagined. Then he took Utah, developed an offense that can't be stopped (something I don't think Notre Dame has ever had, at least not in the 15 years I've been paying attention) and broke into the BCS Millionaire's Club. Face it: If things hold this weekend into Sunday, the fact will be that since the start of the BCS in 1998, Notre Dame and Utah will have the same number of appearances in a BCS bowl. If Notre Dame will not relax its admissions standards or join a conference or cut back on its killer schedule (the levels to which I am against such things start with admissions and decline thereafter), then it needs a coach who knows how to thrive in that system. That's what Urban Meyer can bring.

As for Ty, in the last 25 games, Notre Dame has lost by 21 points or more eight times. Gerry Faust and Bob Davie combined to do it seven times over 10 seasons. We went 3-3 at home this season, letting BC and Pitt run right over us on our own turf. We had two QBs in consecutive games do something that had never been done in 116 years of Notre Dame football: Throw 5 touchdown passes in a single game against us (nevermind the fact that 20 or 30 of those years barely had a forward pass, or that Pete Carroll is the son of Satan and runs it up on us and anyone else when he gets the chance). Not to mention that 97-yard TD pass thrown by Kyle Orton in the Purdue game -- the longest TD pass in the history of ND Stadium. I don't think Ty screwed up, but there were some pretty embarassing blemishes during his tenure, some new lows for the Irish.

I think Ty's too nice for Notre Dame. The same was said of John MacLeod, who couldn't get the basketball team to the next level either. But it seems to have done quite well since his departure. Ty had the toughest and most scrutinized college football job in the country. He may have done himself in by somehow getting the remains of a 5-6 team in 2001 to start 2002 8-0. He might've had a better chance by gradually building up to it. The bottom line is that Notre Dame can't be what it was without adjusting. The college game is different today. If it had to be done by breaking a contract, it's a shame, but it was going to happen someday. Who's to say Ty wouldn't have felt the lure of the NFL and left South Bend on his own before his contract was up? And if he does have pro aspirations, he's going to be better off for having been through this. In my mind, this isn't worse than the way Lou Holtz was treated. It may be equal, but not worse. I no longer believe for a minute that Lou resigned, and he did more for the university than anyone since Ara Parsegian. He had an 8-3 team, which then decided it didn't want to accept a bowl invitaion. If this team pulls the same crap, then that shows what kind of a team Ty built.

I don't think the media will treat Notre Dame any differently than it has been the past 10 years. They don't and won't care that we broke a contract, and they'll mention it minimally. The writers who have always disliked ND will continue to do so, and they will play that up. Those who understand what college football has become will see it differently. And when Urban Meyer is announced as coach, everyone will praise the move.

Everyone.

I want Notre Dame to be undefeated again, to be national champs again. I wanted Ty to do it, but I didn't really feel like it could happen, not after the 14-7 home loss to BC in 2002. And that had nothing to do with the green jerseys.

Remember all that talk about the magical third year at Notre Dame, when coaches like Devine and Holtz and maybe Parsegian won national championships? There was talk of that with Davie in 2000, but none of it this year with Willingham, except for a select few instances, some of which were in jest. But if Notre Dame's next coach comes from the short list -- Urban Meyer, Cal's Jeff Tedford, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Boise State's Dan Haskins -- that talk will be back by 2008.

Whew.