…no not the theology department or campus ministry…athletics. Get Religion has a post on a series in the South Bend paper that has a lot of people talking…and some not.

I’m talking about a religion ghost in the ongoing saga between the Notre Dame traditionalists who believe the school is losing its soul as it attempts to compete against modern-day collegiate athletic programs and those who believe it’s a competitive athletic program that is essential to maintaining the traditional Catholic school’s soul.

South Bend Tribune staff writers Jeff Carroll and Bob Wieneke, in a four-part series, laid out the issues so forcefully that the school’s football coach Charlie Weis refused to talk to them for a couple of days. Carroll and Wieneke raised tough questions dealing with the ethics of the school’s new recruiting practices. They gave a voice to those questioning the school’s drive to return to the success it lost over the last decade.

The series focused on the recruitment of Jimmy Clausen, who irked more than a few people by showing up at South Bend’s College Football Hall of Fame in a white stretch Hummer limo and saying he would try to win the school four national championships. Something was not right about this scene for Notre Dame traditionalists:

I’ll just say that I have passing inside information on the venerable Clausens (brothers Casey and Rick went ot UT, of course), and let’s just say that what I heard indicated that at UT, even though the school naturally tried to recruit Jimmy (who will just be a senior in high school, by the way, although he’s also a year older than everyone else, being held back in middle school), there were some relieved (not the coaching staff, I’m sure, though) that the boy went elsewhere – for various reasons,  including the jerk factor. Jimmy may be the best of the lot (is that saying much?) but the Clausen entourage – a mixed blessing for the institution that gets it by this point.

The reaction to the series was not positive among fans, of course…