Brian Kelly: Independence Is A Part Of The Notre Dame DNA

Notre Dame and Clemson square off for the ACC Championship game this weekend. Yes, Notre Dame is playing for a conference championship, that is what the year 2020 has brought us.

When COVID-19 concerns shook up the college football season, which resulted in the Big 10 and Pac 12 canceling their seasons before changing course, and leagues like the SEC and Big 12 going to conference-only schedules, the ACC and Notre Dame took their part-time relationship to another level.

Notre Dame already had a deal where it played at least five ACC teams a year, but the schedule shakeup resulted in the two sides coming to a deal that allowed the Irish into the conference as a full-time member for the 2020 season, and the conference got a cut of the NBC television contract.

It has worked out incredibly well for Notre Dame, as the Irish got a full schedule, even more TV revenue than it would have received as an independent, and the Irish now get to play for a conference title.

This season has given the Notre Dame fan base, and the Fighting Irish program, a chance to experience football conference life for the first time.

"You can talk all you want about being in a conference, but if you're not in the ACC – and we weren't, we were dipping our toe into it – you really can't talk firsthand about it," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly explained. "We can now, so it's offered us a different perspective, there's no doubt about it. And sitting on this call right now, at this press conference, getting a chance to play for an ACC Championship is certainly the positive of being in a conference."

There was some give from Notre Dame, and not just it throwing its NBC money into the conference pot. Notre Dame and USC didn't play this season, the first time that has happened since 1945. Notre Dame also didn't play Navy for the first time since 1926.

Notre Dame experiencing this level of success has many wondering about the possibility of making this a permanent thing in the future.

"Losing out on playing some of the traditional rivalries is obviously the negative," Kelly said. "What's the pluses and minuses of this comes down to how we see us as a program moving forward over the foreseeable future.

"Those are the questions that really, quite frankly, Jack Swarbrick is entertaining at a higher level," continued Kelly. "And I'll give him my feedback, but we've enjoyed this, this relationship."

For Kelly, the relationship with the ACC is a valuable one, but if the Irish head coach had his way, the partnership would go back to the way it was once this season is complete.

"If they come and ask my opinion I would say that the ACC has been a great relationship for Notre Dame, but independence has been something that is part of who we are in our DNA."

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