Re-writing the record books | by Pat

UND.com recently updated all of the online documents that list out all of historical records and awards for the Notre Dame football program. Now names like Stovall, Samardzija, Walker, and Quinn are scattered throughout alongside the great names from the past. In fact, Quinn's name now appears probably more times than any other in the book.

However, Lou Somogyi of BGI makes a great point in a recent article about the NCAA's decision to include bowl games in season and career statistical records.

In 2002, the NCAA suddenly decided to include bowl games as part of a player’s statistics. Inflating the stats of today’s players isn’t the problem. What’s at issue is not making the stats from the past retroactive.

Until 1974, Notre Dame played only 10 regular season games. Now, 12 regular season games will be the norm – with bowl game stats added into the data base as well. Those extra two or three games make a dramatic difference.

Somogyi goes on to point out that if bowl games stats had counted for pre-2002 players, that players like Darius Walker and Jeff Samardzija wouldn't have broken some of the records that they did.

Obviously, extra games mean more chances to break records, but Somogyi does a good job digging up situations that were affected by the recent rule change. Check it out.