BCS Championship: Tale of the tape | Solid Principles

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Everything about the BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama seems larger than life.

Not only do these schools stand among the best ever in college football, they also lead the pack in celebrating that success and in investing for the future.

If ever college football presented a heavyweight event it?s the Fighting Irish against the Crimson Tide.

So here, then, is a tale of the tape for Monday?s marquee matchup in Miami.

- FOOTBALL BUILDING

ALABAMA: The Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility, named for the current athletic director, has a 20,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center ? which is soon to be replaced ? plus aquatic rehabilitation pools. The building also houses athletic administrators and the football offices.

NOTRE DAME: The Guglielmino Athletics Complex, named after the booster who funded it, has a 25,000-square-foot health and fitness center, meeting rooms and the football offices. Plus, the Morse Recruiting lounge with championship banners for Notre Dame?s ?11 consensus national championships.?

- TROPHIES

ALABAMA: The ?Hall of Champions? overlooks the lobby on the second floor of the athletic facility. It has trophy cases for the Crimson Tide?s 14 national champions ? including a spot where ?Bama is hoping 2012 can be added ? and a large case for the 23 Southeastern Conference title teams. Prominently perched on a marble pedestal is Mark Ingram?s 2009 Heisman Trophy, the program?s first.
?

NOTRE DAME: The lobby of the Gug, as the athletics complex is called, is basically one of college football?s largest trophy cases. The first thing visitors see is Notre Dame?s last national championship trophy, the coaches? trophy the Irish received after the 1988 season. To the left, across the wall are seven Heisman Trophies. No other school has won more.

- WEIGHT ROOM

ALABAMA: A new weight room is nearly completed. Trustees approved the $9.1 million, 34,495-square-foot, two-story strength and conditioning facility in August that will connect the athletic building and the indoor practice facility. It?s expected to be ready in early February.

NOTRE DAME: The football players work out at the Haggar Fitness Center in the Gug. It features more than 250 pieces of weight training equipment, six flat-screen TVs and a sound system, and it?s available to all Notre Dame athletes.

- STATUES

ALABAMA: Coach Nick Saban?s towering likeness stands next to Bryant-Denny Stadium, offering a good spot for fan pictures on game day. The 9-foot statue is one of five honoring Tide football coaches who have won national titles, joining Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul W. ?Bear? Bryant and Gene Stallings in the Walk of Champions plaza. It was unveiled in the spring of 2011, 15 months after ?Bama won the 2009 championship.

NOTRE DAME: Walk around Notre Dame Stadium and at each entrance you?ll find a statute of one of its championship-winning coaches. Knute Rockne?s guards the north tunnel, facing Touchdown Jesus. Dan Devine is at Gate A. Ara Parseghian is at Gate B. Frank Leahy is at Gate C. Lou Holtz is at Gate D.

?

- MASCOTS

ALABAMA: Tradition holds that the Tide?s elephant mascot dates to 1930 when Atlanta Journal sports writer Everett Strupper wrote that a fan called out: ?Hold your horses, the elephants are coming.? The ?Red Elephant? nickname for the linemen stuck. The Big Al mascot made his official debut in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, when Alabama claimed its second straight national title with a win over Penn State. A game-saving goal line stand stole some of Big Al?s thunder.

NOTRE DAME: The Leprechaun became the official mascot of the Fighting Irish in 1965, though four years earlier a student first donned the costume and roamed the sidelines. Leprechaun tryouts consist of a five-minute mock pep rally, an interview with a local media personality, responding to game situations, answering Notre Dame trivia, dancing an Irish jig, and doing 50 push-ups.

- KEEPING IN STEP

ALABAMA: The Crimsonettes, a group of energetic dancers, entertain crowds at various sporting events. They?re chosen based on dancing skills, physical fitness and the ability to learn the group routine, according to the school?s Web site.

NOTRE DAME: The Irish Guard. Formed in 1949 as a part of the University of Notre Dame Marching Band, the guards wear a uniform of traditional Scottish kilt and Notre Dame tartan. To the top of the shako, a guard stands 7-feet tall, and the game-day inspection of the Guard usually draws a crowd ? though not for the same reasons the Crimsonettes do.

?

- SLOGANS

ALABAMA: Roll Tide, Roll Tide. ?Yea Alabama? was written by the editor of the student newspaper, The Rammer-Jammer, in a contest that followed a win over Washington in the 1926 Rose Bowl. The lyrics include: ?You?re Dixie?s football pride, Crimson Tide! Yea, Alabama! Drown ?em Tide!? The ending call ?Roll Tide, Roll Tide? was added later.

NOTRE DAME: Wake Up the Echoes. The ?Victory March? was first performed at Notre Dame on Easter Sunday on 1909. Not until 10 years later did it start being played at athletic events. The second verse starts: ?Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, Wake up the echoes cheering her name.?

READ MORE AT YAHOO SPORTS??

Source: http://www.solidprinciples.com/blog/bcs-championship-tale-of-the-tape/

dodgeball 2012 pro bowl postsecret ufc on fox 2 supercross christina aguilera etta james funeral sundance film festival