n, Notre Dame is the ultimate blue blood in college football. Knute Rockne. The Four Horsemen. Touchdown Jesus. The Gipper. The

Melanie Astles has found a relatively quiet spot in one of the worlds loudest venues, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Behind a black curtain separating the working press from the corporate communications staff, Astles has set up her grungy HP laptop on a table overlooking the front straightaway and the hallowed yard of bricks at the start-finish line. But on this Saturday, the first day of October, the engine roar comes not from the pavement below but from the overcast sky above -- from the 300-horsepower Lycoming Thunderbolts of planes darting and diving through qualifying for the Red Bull Air Race.Astles finished her time trial about an hour ago. She was the fastest among the four pilots competing in the Challenger Cup, the feeder series to Red Bulls marquee Master Class, but penalties cost her four seconds, knocking her back to third place. Now she has shed her flight suit and snuck up to the media center to review GoPro footage of her flight, analyze her mistakes and try to find a way to clean up her run without losing speed.She pops open a can of omnipresent Red Bull Red and pours a bit into a bottle of water, turning the mixture pink. In a black case are two cameras that were mounted inside the cockpit of Astles monoplane -- one facing forward, showing the slalom-like obstacle course as she encountered it, and another facing backward at the pilot, documenting both the rearview and her focus, where shes directing her gaze as she turns and lifts and loops through the three-dimensional maze.She inserts one of the disks from the latter and immediately sees a problem. I just cant stop smiling, she says. I just cant stop it. Im so happy to do this.Her coaches dont like it when she smiles in flight. They want her to have fun, but they would rather see a look of determination, an athlete in her zone. Astles is the first woman to participate in the Red Bull Air Race. Shes also a rookie. At 34, shes not the youngest pilot in Challenger Class, but she is probably the least experienced. Astles didnt start flying until she was 21. Renting planes for practice is prohibitively expensive for novice fliers, and flight time at each race is scarce, restricted to two, maybe three minute-long runs and a single qualifier before the race. She must maximize every second in that cockpit -- theres no time for joyriding.What Astles lacks in flight time, she tries to make up for in preparation. The computer bag beside her chair contains a tattered teal folder with a meticulous daily schedule (6:00: Wake up, 8:00-8:45: Drive to track, 10:17: In plane, 10:44 Takeoff); a hand-drawn map of the course plotted out on three taped-together sheets of graphing paper annotated with target angles and speeds for each gate and chicane; and her pre-flight routine, detailing both her behavioral activity (Update news of wind, drink plenty of water) and her mental activity (Enter my bubble). At home, in the hangar, and at the hotel, she steals minutes to close her eyes and visualize the course, even before she has flown it. Once she has, she spends hours poring over video.Outside, gray clouds have gathered. Rain starts to pelt the emptied grandstands. Qualifying is suspended; the pilots scurry back to their hangars. Astles leans in over her laptop, for two more hours watching and re-watching her qualifying run, pausing at Gate 2 and the Finish Gate, the sites of her two penalties, both of which she attributes to a 10-degree overcorrection. The smile disappears.***The joy of flying came over Astles long before she left the ground. She was 6 when her parents took her to an airshow in England, and she remembers climbing into the cockpit of a Harrier jet. From that moment, she knew she belonged in the sky.But becoming a pilot was a daydream, good only for sketching airplanes in the margins of her notebook to pass the hours at school in the south of France. Her father painted flats; her mother was a secretary. Neither of them thought much of their daughters flight of fancy. They never encouraged me to do this, Astles says. I was told that it was impossible, because we didnt have the money, I did not have a scientific background. And when youre young, youre told stuff, and you believe it.Gender, she says, was also a factor. With no models, you think these things are impossible. The adults, as well, were thinking that maybe it was not for a girl.School, as it turned out, was not for Astles, either. She tried studying economics, literature, even hotel and restaurant management, but nothing stuck. At 18, she left school before graduating and went to work at a gas station. She ran the cash register, pumped fuel, mopped floors and, over three years, worked her way up to manager of several petrol stations scattered across France.One of those pit stops, in Lyon, was near an airport. Hearing the engines and watching planes soar above jump-started her dream. On a snowy afternoon when the planes were grounded, Astles ventured over to the closed airport and started knocking on doors. They were all locked -- except one. Inside, Astles met a pilot who had nothing but time to talk about flying. Before she left, Astles had signed up for her first test flight.For years, Astles saved her wages, paying for flight school hour by hour, studying mechanics for hours at home and between customers at work. She obtained her private license. Then in 2006, she wrote an essay about rediscovering her love for flying and entered it in a contest for free admission to an aerobatics training camp. She won and quickly became addicted to the adrenaline rush of loops, barrel rolls and hammerheads, at dizzying heights (more than 4,000 feet) and intense gravitational forces (between +8 and -6 Gs). But practice hours in an aerobatic aircraft were even more expensive. She quickly learned that for professional competitive pilots, most of the flying was done on terra firma, studying the physics and imagining the sequence of maneuvers. Im a hard worker on the ground, she says. I spend a lot of time visualizing and doing the best I can with my brain simulator. Her best produced five French Aerobatic Championships, a slot on the French national team, and several top-10 European rankings. Last year, Astles was ranked fifth-best female aerobatic pilot in the world. Still, she longed for another challenge. In July 2015, she tried out for the Red Bull Air Race, the F1 of the sport, with planes that flew faster (200 knots/230 mph), lower (50 feet) and with higher intensity (pushing 10 Gs). She made it through a rigorous selection process to become a challenger class competitor -- and the first female pilot in the organizations 13-year history. Ive flown with and met a lot of lady pilots, says Steve Jones, a former British racer, who oversaw Astles tryout as head of training for Red Bull Air Race. I was trained by a lady pilot, my chief flying instructor was a lady, I did my commercial training with a lady, and invariably, theyre at least as good as the men.At first, Jones says, Astles was a bit cautious flying so close to the ground, but her work ethic and preparation set her apart. She was quite well practiced at the mental side of high-level competition, Jones says. Theres a lot of sitting around in both competitive aerobatics and racing and you have to concentrate on the job you have and put everything else out of your mind. Astles also had a competitive edge. Shes quite a punchy character, Jones says. She doesnt like being beaten by the guys.***Its Sunday, race day, 9:30 a.m. And Astles is missing.Reporters and photographers mill about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield for the daily media hangar walk, a chance to interview and grab footage and photographs of the pilots and crew before they fly into action. While the Red Bull Air Race has a foothold in Europe (home to a majority of their flyers), Japan and South America, the sport is still fighting for a place in the crowded U.S. market. For the past three years, Red Bull has staged its final race in Las Vegas. This inaugural event in Indianapolis, the self-proclaimed Racing Capital of the World, is expected to draw 60,000 spectators -- half of what they typically draw in Poland or Japan. A big part of Red Bulls push to win more American fans is showcasing the sports personalities.Two-time champion and Texas native Kirby Chambliss, one of two American pilots in the Master Class, is standing front and center. The lone Yankee Challenger Kevin Coleman is also on hand. But by far the most popular pilot, the one who gets the most interview requests, is Astles. And the media relations staff is now scurrying to find her.Her absence is not a sign of recklessness or disregard. Astles understands the value of publicity, both to the sport and to herself. She knows shell need sponsorships if she is to graduate from the Challengers Class to the Master. But none of that matters if she doesnt win. And through six races, she has yet to even make the podium. Its a case of distraction management, says Paul Bonhomme, newly retired three-time champion who has taken Astles under his wing this year. And believe me, it is nonstop for a middle-of-the-order male pilot; it is phenomenally nonstop for a female pilot in Challenger Class. I tell her forget about all that. Forget that shes a female -- women have been flying for a hundred years. Forget about everybody watching, forget about the large crowds, imagine youre out in a nice quiet field somewhere, and thats the way to fly well.Bonhomme also helped Astles develop her pre-race ritual, the one she carries in her teal folder. The first step, two hours before flight, is to set up a barrier to the outside -- phone off, no computer, no media. She enters what she calls her bubble. Today, the bubble is a wood-paneled office of a ramshackle construction trailer that she stumbled upon in a restricted area of the infield. While the Red Bull crew searches for her outside, Astles is in hiding, eyes closed, Pink Floyd on her headphones, visualizing herself in the sky.***After a delay due to low cloud cover, the Challenger Class takes off at about 1:15 p.m. The four pilots share two planes, so while Ben Murphy hits the runway with one craft, and Luke Czepiela stands by in the second, Astles has no cockpit to occupy.And yet, in her mind, Astles is already careening through the course. She stands on a patch of grass behind a fuel tanker truck and an ambulance, her flight suit peeled down to her waist, sleeves knotted in front. Sunglasses on, Pink Floyd still blaring through her headphones, she holds her right hand up in front of her as if gripping a joystick, her left elbow out at a 90-degree angle, simulating a wing. Walking forward, she pulls up, leans back, takes off. She levels off, then leans hard left to make the first turn through Gates 1 and 2, weaves right to left to right through the chicane and then pulls up hard for the vertical turn, a loop, into Lap 2 of 3 -- all within a few square feet of trampled grass. To onlookers, it might appear that shes the robot at her own silent disco. She calls it her race dance.Minutes later, its Astles turn. She zips up the flight suit, dons her blue helmet, bearing the Union Jack, flag of her fathers native country. Her lips are pursed as she rolls onto the runway. The time to beat is Czepielas 1 minute, 16.484 seconds. Through her headset, she gets the go-ahead from race control, and shes off.The plane lifts at 120 knots and she levels off at around 60 feet as she turns through Gate 1 and into Gate 2, site of her qualifying penalty for incorrect level flying. Planes must pass between the 82-foot tall inflatable pylons level before turning, or have 2 seconds added to their time. Astles clears Gate 2 cleanly, but after winding through the chicane, she finishes the first lap .4 seconds off the pace. As she pulls up into the vertical turn, the plane sputters and starts to stall. Astles pulls out of it and heads into Lap 2, but now a full second behind Czepiela. One more vertical loop at just over 650 feet. She labors to breathe as the Gs push against her body, increasing her weight by five, six, seven times. The release as she twists the plane out of the turn, back for the third and final lap. She pulls through the finish gate and veers out of the speedway and over the urban landscape as she waits for race control to report her time. Seconds later, a voice crackles over her radio. No. 33, Melanie Astles, 1:17.053 ... no penalties.Finishing less than a second off the top time, Astles sits in second place, and since there is only one more competitor today, she is assured of her first podium finish.She doesnt celebrate. Back on the ground, out of the cockpit, she stops to grant a television interview. She unzips the flight suit as she walks briskly to her construction-trailer office to review the video. This time, she notices, she doesnt smile until after the race is over.***Ninety minutes later, after the Master Class has finished competition, its time for the trophy presentation. At one end of the Red Bull stage stand three flag poles. The second-highest is the blue, white and red of Astles France. The fourth Challenger, Coleman, struck two of the pylons. It cost him 6 seconds in penalties and left Astles in second place.Astles emerges from her trailer, but her route to the podium is blocked by a tall, lanky man with a gray mustache. John Astles leans in to embrace his daughter. When Astles started aerobatics, her parents were, at best, lukewarm about the prospect. But earlier this year, when her father attended her first air race in Abu Dhabi, something clicked. She had never seen him so excited. Almost as giddy as he is right now. We are so happy that shes found something that makes her happy, he says. I regret that we didnt take her seriously before. In school, teachers and parents put kids down and they get discouraged.Now, Astles gets emails and letters from young girls and boys thanking her for motivating them to pursue their passions. I dont think about it directly, but Im now realizing that Im inspiring girls, she says. When they see me, they realize it is possible to live your dream. Its not just about being a girl in a mans sport, but also about becoming a pilot when you dont have money and you start from zero.After this weekends season finale in Las Vegas, Astles will return to her full-time job as a commercial flight instructor and prepare for her second year in the Challenger Cup. She knows she still has a long way to go. But earlier this season a wealthy philanthropist, who had heard her story, helped her buy her own racing plane. Along with a new BMW sponsorship, Astles will be able to spend more time in the cockpit.The pilots climb the stairs onto the stage, and fans, including dozens of kids, crowd the barricades to get a look at their new favorite pilot. Astles receives her second-place trophy and picks up a bottle of champagne, shakes it, and sprays her fellow challengers, getting soaked by their bottles in the process.Good job, Melanie, shouts a girl from the crowd.Astles makes her way down to sign programs and T-shirts, to shake hands and stand for selfies even as Red Bull staff tries to pull her away. She is out of her cockpit, out of her bubble. Here, its OK to smile. Myydään Vapormax . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. Nike Vapormax Naiset . Rinne played two periods in his first game since left hip surgery in early May. Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. http://www.vapormaxsuomi.com/ . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. Nike Vapormax Halvalla .ca NHL Power Rankings for the second straight week, ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche. Nike Vapormax Plus Suomi . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. It sounds like a simple proposition: On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is (fill in the blank with a school) to the history of college football?Sure, in our blue bloods project, programs such as Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC all grabbed unanimous 10s across the board.But thats when things got interesting. Here are the most difficult assessments that each of our 12 writers had to hand out.Andrea Adelson: Nebraska CornhuskersIt has been nearly 20 years since Nebraska won a national championship, 17 years since it won a conference title. Despite the recent slide in fortunes, there is no question the Huskers deserve the highest possible rating as a tried-and-true blue blood. The program has been around for 126 years -- its won 46 league titles, five national championships and produced three Heisman Trophy winners. Its teams in the mid-90s go down among the best in college football history. Has the program slid in recent years? Yes. Incoming freshmen have never known true Nebraska football dominance. But its storied history puts the Huskers in rarefied air, worthy of a perfect 10 rating.Edward Aschoff: Ole Miss RebelsYes, the Rebels are nationally relevant now, but its not like this has been a common theme for the program. Growing up in Oxford, the football program wallowed in mediocrity and constantly made real national contenders look good. Before that, you had to go all the way back to the 1960s to find real national success for this football program. So a 6 kind of felt high, but recent success and the wins from long ago made it hard to put the Rebels below the halfway point. And while its been impressive, its taken head coach Hugh Freeze four years to get the Rebels into the national spotlight, and even then, many are still wondering if this is a flash-in-the-pan situation or if Freeze can sustain long-term success. His win totals keep rising, so all signs point to this program sticking around the relevancy category.Brian Bennett: Georgia BulldogsNo wonder the Bulldogs finished just outside our Top 10, and I rated them a 9. They perfectly skate the line between true royalty and simple nobility. Georgia boasts a huge fan base, a tremendous stadium and a grand tradition of great players. Yet it rarely hovers in the national title discussion, has won just two SEC titles in the division era and perpetually seems just a notch below the sports best programs.Heather Dinich: Penn State Nittany LionsFull disclosure: This one was personal. Growing up about three hours east of Penn State, it was impossible to ignore the shadow that Joe Paterno cast over the entire state. Experiences often shape opinions. The Blue-White game. Beaver Stadium. Two-time national champs. Seven undefeated seasons. LaVar Arrington. Courtney Brown. Those traditional white uniforms, those cuffed pants, those glasses ... there was a time when Penn State was the very definition of a blue blood -- winning and tradition. Has recent history, though, changed that picture and perception? Its not the same place. Not the same program. You dont think James Franklin and blue blood. You hear Penn State, you hear Sandusky. Its hard to classify Penn States program anymore, and for better or worse, you cant erase its history. Thats why I gave PSU a 9.Travis Haney: NebraskaFor me, it was Nebraska (my score for the Huskers: 9). It was challenging to balance the programs rich history and tradition with the fact that, really, it has been mostly irrelevant since the turn of the century. Even a move to the Big Ten has not returned the Cornhuskers to national prominence. Coaches see a program that, largely due to location, has struggled to keep up with the recruiting boom. It makes you wonder whether Nebraska will eventually be a museum relic, a storied program we look back on fondly, or if it can find a way back to elite status in modern college football. Count me among the doubters.Chris Low: Alabama Crimson TideMy real dilemma wasnt the score for Bama -- I had the Tide as a 10 -- but more, where to put the program in the top three all time? The Tide were easily in the top three on my list when you think about two of the greatest coaches in history (Bear Bryant and Nick Saban) combining for all of the national titles they have and just the iconic standing Alabama football has in football circles. The fact that Alabama sort of lost its way after Bryant retired in 1982 and spun its wheels for a large chunk of the next two decades hurts the Tides cause some, but few fan bases are as passionate about college football as Alabama.dddddddddddd And where else does football matter more than Alabama? The Tide have it all -- coaches, players, tradition, championships and pageantry. They should be at the top of this list.Ivan Maisel: Penn StateWhat to do with Penn State? Joe Paterno made the Nittany Lions a national power in the early 60s, and they remained so for more than 30 years. Dominance over that length of time turns a programs blood blue in most cases. But thats because in most cases, more than one coach sustained it. In the end, I decided that I wanted to see Penn State return to the top under a different coach, so I gave the Lions a 9.Ryan McGee: Florida State SeminolesAs a would-be college football historian, the most difficult task for me was balancing what a program has done vs. what it is doing. How much more or less weight do you give, say, Penn State, Nebraska or Tennessee? Their lengthy histories are easily among the greatest. So how do you factor in their recent dips, for whatever reason? Or how about an Oregon, Florida or even an FSU? The Seminoles have had ridiculous success during this modern era of the game, but prior to that they had decades that contained an awful lot of so-so football. It makes you appreciate the likes of Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, etc. They might lose their way for a year or two, but they never really go away.Ted Miller: GeorgiaWhile it was tough to rate Nebraska a 9, my most painful realization was that I rated my home state Georgia Bulldogs lower than anyone. I gave the Bulldogs a 7. No one else had them lower than 9 or 10. As an Atlanta native, my immediate reaction was thinking my buddies at home are going to crush me. Then I realized Im just like a Georgia fan -- hard to please. While Wally Butts run in the 1940s might say differently, the Bulldogs own only one real national title: 1980. Thats 36 years ago. Heck, Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton werent even born yet. While Georgia is almost always at least good, it not only lacks national titles, its mostly been an afterthought in the national title hunt by November over the past few decades. Georgia hasnt won an SEC title in a decade and owns just two since 1983. Ergo, its no blue blood. Still, 7 might be a bit low.Adam Rittenberg: Texas LonghornsMaybe its recency bias but the Longhorns have won only one national title during my lifetime (Im 35) and endured two prolonged stretches of stunning mediocrity (1986 to 1993 and 2010 to present). I realize the long-term history, the great tradition, immense resources and all the star players who have worn burnt orange, but Texas hasnt been consistently elite during a period when the sport is most competitive. It was very close for me, but I had to give the Longhorns a 9.Mark Schlabach: Which is more important -- Notre Dame or Ohio State?Notre Dame or Ohio State? Its like picking between Urban Meyer and Nick Saban to coach your team. Its nearly impossible. In my opinion, Notre Dame is the ultimate blue blood in college football. Knute Rockne. The Four Horsemen. Touchdown Jesus. The Gipper. The Fighting Irish have won 11 national championships, but only three since 1967 and none since 1988. Notre Dames 899 all-time victories are the most in FBS and it has produced seven Heisman Trophy winners. But Ohio States tradition and history are equally impressive. The Buckeyes have won 875 games and have just as many Heisman Trophy winners, including Archie Griffin, the only two-time winner. The Buckeyes claim eight national titles (only six are widely recognized), including two since 2002. Across the board, it was a toss-up between Notre Dame and Ohio State, but I had both as 10s.Mitch Sherman: The Florida schoolsI had trouble finding a way to differentiate the three power programs from the state of Florida. An argument can be made for each that it deserves distinction over the others. Their histories are intertwined. All three have sat atop the entire sport. Ultimately, I considered Florida State over Miami, then Florida. But the gap was so small that I scored each as a 9. ' ' '