Still doesn't explain why people give a crap now?
I think people who don't know much about college football automatically call themselves Florida, USC or Notre Dame fans... Just to say it.. Notre Dame is popular for Rudy.. Has to be the reason.. =)
Well CF is a business. The networks who put CF on tv are businesses. The newspapers who run stories on ND are all businesses too. What do businesses make? money. At the mention of ND on a Tennessee message board the site got 13 new replies to a thread that would have probably died along with at least 200 more views.
Alright so now your a major sports network, if a 3 line post has so much power on message board catered to a specific fan base, imagine what an entire article can do on a website that all fans go to. Make it about anything you want, positive or negative, people will be hotlinking to it, emailing it, and commenting on it till the next one comes out. ND will always be relevant because other fans just can't let it go, can't not comment, can't just ignore it.