[Goose]

As to administration antipathy towards him it's hard to imagine that being an issue as long as he kept winning 10-11 games each year.

Really? Trust me, even at Stanford there is significant (though not overwhelming) antipathy to sports in general and to football in particular. Lots of people just don't believe athletics belongs at a University. Add to that the cost of sports and the (perceived at least) inordinate power of the Athletic Department its is a big issue to many people. It is in the mix at many schools, Kal being an example where it has significant effect. Probably it is a very, very small minority at LSU. Notre Dame has always existed in tension between what the administration wants to be true and what it takes to win. To what degree that bothered Kelly is anybody's guess, but it for sure exists.

I get your point in the abstract, but don't you think Kelly has won an awful lot at ND?  All that's missing from his resume is a Natty, but only 1 of those go out/year.  I think his level of winning was easily "sufficient" for the ND Faithful.  So I'm not sure where the tension would be in the real here and now between Kelly and ND.  Have you heard that Kelly asked that a player or 2 or 3 be admitted and was told "no" by the ND higher-ups?  

Could be true, I suppose . . .

Actually, I heard it going in the opposite direction, that he was told to stop recruiting certain players that were not acceptable to the admin for conduct reasons. I don't know it is true however. It is certainly true that there are players that he wanted that did not get admitted, and a whole lot more that he didn't recruit because he knew they couldn't get admitted.

He has won enough at Notre Dame to be "popular" there, and it is probable he could continue doing so. This year, I am sure he is very frustrated that despite his team's good record  they most probably won't get in. In two years that issue will go away with 12 teams going every year, but I am sure this year rankles, as probably would next. More importantly, I believe that Kelly believes the teams he has created at Notre Dame have been very good, but, lets face it, not good enough to win a National Championship (like say Oregon wasn't). He has been there long enough to understand the constraints and simply doesn't believe it is possible. There will always be an SEC school that doesn't have essentially any restrictions on recruiting that will always be better than his ND team. At least if he is in the SEC, it is a level playing field. Ogeron did it, so it can be done.

Granted, a busload of money is a great incentive, but there are other good reasons. It was probably a bit of "Now or probably never".

[Goose]

As to administration antipathy towards him it's hard to imagine that being an issue as long as he kept winning 10-11 games each year.

Really? Trust me, even at Stanford there is significant (though not overwhelming) antipathy to sports in general and to football in particular. Lots of people just don't believe athletics belongs at a University. Add to that the cost of sports and the (perceived at least) inordinate power of the Athletic Department its is a big issue to many people. It is in the mix at many schools, Kal being an example where it has significant effect. Probably it is a very, very small minority at LSU. Notre Dame has always existed in tension between what the administration wants to be true and what it takes to win. To what degree that bothered Kelly is anybody's guess, but it for sure exists.

I get your point in the abstract, but don't you think Kelly has won an awful lot at ND?  All that's missing from his resume is a Natty, but only 1 of those go out/year.  I think his level of winning was easily "sufficient" for the ND Faithful.  So I'm not sure where the tension would be in the real here and now between Kelly and ND.  Have you heard that Kelly asked that a player or 2 or 3 be admitted and was told "no" by the ND higher-ups?  

Could be true, I suppose . . .

Actually, I heard it going in the opposite direction, that he was told to stop recruiting certain players that were not acceptable to the admin for conduct reasons. I don't know it is true however. It is certainly true that there are players that he wanted that did not get admitted, and a whole lot more that he didn't recruit because he knew they couldn't get admitted.

He has won enough at Notre Dame to be "popular" there, and it is probable he could continue doing so. This year, I am sure he is very frustrated that despite his team's good record  they most probably won't get in. In two years that issue will go away with 12 teams going every year, but I am sure this year rankles, as probably would next. More importantly, I believe that Kelly believes the teams he has created at Notre Dame have been very good, but, lets face it, not good enough to win a National Championship (like say Oregon wasn't). He has been there long enough to understand the constraints and simply doesn't believe it is possible. There will always be an SEC school that doesn't have essentially any restrictions on recruiting that will always be better than his ND team. At least if he is in the SEC, it is a level playing field. Ogeron did it, so it can be done.

Granted, a busload of money is a great incentive, but there are other good reasons. It was probably a bit of "Now or probably never".