Notre Dame didn't abandon principle. It abandoned the pretense: "It ultimately means they have a chance to do what they haven't done in a long time: win consistently, compete regularly for a BCS bowl and, perhaps, sniff a national championship every so often. Did they sell their souls? No, they decided to play the game. Is Notre Dame reduced a bit as an institution of higher learning? It is if you hold to the idea the school is supposed to be above this sort of thing. But if you think the Irish have been living in a fog of nostalgia for years, you ask: What took them so long? The good fathers at Notre Dame finally have come to their senses. They've decided to play ball." [Chicago Sun-Times]

Merch: Managing editor Tom Scocca and contributing editor Drew Magary have both written books. You can buy Scocca's Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future here, and Magary's The Postmortal here. Now do it.

A visit to the Canadian rodeo: "From a distance, the sight of a man on a bucking bull or bronc is dramatic. Up close, it is a spasm of violence. When a bareback rider named Ryan Gray came flailing past atop Dirty Shame, they were a blur of limbs and wet-hoof planting noises and the sharp scent of leather. Whether it was his chaps flapping or his vest pounding the horse's back, it smelled like Gray was being tanned. When your business is subjecting yourself to controlled disaster, you can't help but take on a bit of fatalism. Four-time Stampede saddle bronc champ Rod Hay watched from the sidelines this year - a casualty of a broken leg suffered earlier in the season. "I shattered my femur," he said, as casually as that sort of thing can be said. "I actually won the rodeo, and the horse bucked me off at the whistle, and it kind of twisted and that femur just popped. But they've got 'er back together and straightened back out." [Grantland]

Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to tips@deadspin.com.