I'm surprised you didn't mention college basketball, where Catholic schools are - and have been since the invention of the sport - been far more dominant. College basketball is also far more diffuse than college football, allowing smaller schools to compete at the highest level alongside large state universities - think Gonzaga and other Catholic colleges in the West Coast Conference. And one can make the case that Catholic values imbue the way basketball is taught at these schools, contributing directly to their success in a way that Catholic values seem less likely to penetrate or be meaningful for college football success. Finally, Catholic college basketball players are far more likely to stay in college for 4 years.
That would be a different post, but it’s absolutely true, and fascinating. At base, it’s easier to run and cheaper to run a good collegiate basketball program than football, and Catholic schools have historically been poor. Catholic schools were also historically more urban (in distinction from Notre Dame), and often recruited locally. This remained true well into John Thompson’s tenure at Georgetown. The first inclusion of black players was at a Catholic college, Loyola at Chicago (which won a Natty, and then was quickly imitated). I recommend this book, though it doesn’t delve into the deeper reasons why Catholic schools and basketball have made for such a happy couple. https://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Hardwood-Hope-Prayer-Basketball/dp/1538717107/
Love your prospective prof. While I no longer get depressed by an ND loss as I did up to 10 years after '78 graduation, I am glad to see ND moving on from my classmate John Jenkins who de-Catholified more than his predecessors. Hoping Fr. Dowd and the Sycamore Trust will bring us back to our roots so that people no longer say "Any resemblance between Notre Dame and the Catholic Church is purely coincidental."
You might appreciate this spreadsheet, which details the years played, games played, wins, losses, W%, SRS, and SOS for 41 Catholic college basketball teams. The table to the right of the main table rolls up these numbers to compare all Catholic teams against all non-Catholic teams. This data only goes through 2019, but one could easily update it.
Some interesting observations. Catholic teams have, in the aggregate, played more years and more games, with a higher win percentage, SRS and SOS than their non-Catholic counterparts. Not surprisingly, the teams with overall win percentages over 64% are Gonzaga, Notre Dame, St. John's, and Villanova.
I'm surprised you didn't mention college basketball, where Catholic schools are - and have been since the invention of the sport - been far more dominant. College basketball is also far more diffuse than college football, allowing smaller schools to compete at the highest level alongside large state universities - think Gonzaga and other Catholic colleges in the West Coast Conference. And one can make the case that Catholic values imbue the way basketball is taught at these schools, contributing directly to their success in a way that Catholic values seem less likely to penetrate or be meaningful for college football success. Finally, Catholic college basketball players are far more likely to stay in college for 4 years.
That would be a different post, but it’s absolutely true, and fascinating. At base, it’s easier to run and cheaper to run a good collegiate basketball program than football, and Catholic schools have historically been poor. Catholic schools were also historically more urban (in distinction from Notre Dame), and often recruited locally. This remained true well into John Thompson’s tenure at Georgetown. The first inclusion of black players was at a Catholic college, Loyola at Chicago (which won a Natty, and then was quickly imitated). I recommend this book, though it doesn’t delve into the deeper reasons why Catholic schools and basketball have made for such a happy couple. https://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Hardwood-Hope-Prayer-Basketball/dp/1538717107/
Love your prospective prof. While I no longer get depressed by an ND loss as I did up to 10 years after '78 graduation, I am glad to see ND moving on from my classmate John Jenkins who de-Catholified more than his predecessors. Hoping Fr. Dowd and the Sycamore Trust will bring us back to our roots so that people no longer say "Any resemblance between Notre Dame and the Catholic Church is purely coincidental."
https://tinyurl.com/Catholic-College-Basketball
You might appreciate this spreadsheet, which details the years played, games played, wins, losses, W%, SRS, and SOS for 41 Catholic college basketball teams. The table to the right of the main table rolls up these numbers to compare all Catholic teams against all non-Catholic teams. This data only goes through 2019, but one could easily update it.
Some interesting observations. Catholic teams have, in the aggregate, played more years and more games, with a higher win percentage, SRS and SOS than their non-Catholic counterparts. Not surprisingly, the teams with overall win percentages over 64% are Gonzaga, Notre Dame, St. John's, and Villanova.