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Notre Dame Football: Midweek Musings

Thoughts on Notre Dame football, its recruiting efforts and college football.

Thoughts on Notre Dame football, its recruiting efforts and college football.

IS IT TIME FOR NOTRE DAME TO JOIN THE ACC

When Notre Dame takes the field against Duke on Saturday it will mark the school’s first ever conference game. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the scheduling issues that arose from it, resulted in Notre Dame and the ACC joining forces for one season.

But will this truly be a one-time only deal, or is this the beginning to the end of Notre Dame’s independence? Even more, is it time for Notre Dame to finally join a conference, or should the Irish remain steadfast in their desire to remain independent.

There are some pros to Notre Dame joining the ACC.

1. MORE MONEY … SORT OF: I’m not going to get into the discussion about how being independent makes more money for Notre Dame the institution from a big-picture standpoint by being independent. That’s the case Notre Dame has made and I buy it, but from a pure athletics standpoint there’s no doubt that joining the ACC would be good for the athletics budget.

Notre Dame makes a reported $15 million from its NBC contract and it made another $7.9 million in 2019 from the ACC for being a partial member. ACC teams made $29.5 million in 2019 as part of their TV contract with ESPN. I’m not great at math, but that’s a $6.6 million dollar difference.

That doesn’t even take into consideration how much that deal would increase the next go-round if the ACC has Notre Dame as part of its bargaining power. If Notre Dame joined the league I’d be willing to bet their next contract would give programs closer to $40 million than their current contract that gets them just under $30 million.

2. GIVES TEAM SOMETHING EXTRA TO PLAY FOR: Notre Dame needs to always be a program that views a national championship as its primary goal each season. If you don’t want that as the standard, don’t coach or play at Notre Dame.

Having said that, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have an ACC championship to play for each season. It gives the program just one more tangible objective to focus on in its quest for a national title, and a non-conference loss or an early season conference loss doesn’t have the same devastating impact on the goals of the season as it does now.

3. SECURES MID-ATLANTIC RECRUITING BASE: Notre Dame has been working hard to get into the Mid-Atlantic areas (Maryland/Virginia down to Georgia) from a recruiting standpoint. A case could be made that the current relationship with the ACC has helped with that, but joining on a full-time basis could allow the Irish to get another boost, especially if the Irish are competing for the league title.

4. SCHEDULE SOFTENS UP: I’ve always found it hilarious when non-Notre Dame fans whined about Notre Dame’s schedule, and how it was “easier” for Notre Dame because they don’t play in a conference. Notre Dame fans always knew it was a silly and uninformed argument, but now everyone else can see it.

Notre Dame is in the ACC this year and the result is a much more manageable schedule. Gone from the schedule is a road contest against USC and a neutral site game against Wisconsin. They are replaced by a road game against North Carolina and a home game against Florida State.

Notre Dame’s original 2020 opponents had a combined win percentage of .568 last season, while the new-look schedule had just a .524 win percentage last season. Six of Notre Dame’s 11 opponents had a losing record last season, but just four of the 12 original opponents had a losing record.

5. IT WOULD CHANGE THE “PERCEPTION”: One thing we know about ESPN is they will pump whatever leagues or programs they believe will make them the most money. I think its safe to assume that Notre Dame joining the ACC would result in the world wide leader becoming far more “pro-Notre Dame” in their coverage. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that ESPN was about as pro-ND as I’ve ever seen during their first College GameDay of the season.

This would help Notre Dame become an even more “popular” program and would get rid of the “ESPN hates Notre Dame” talk. It would never truly go away, but it would be greatly diminished.

If Florida State gets back to its former glory, if Miami gets close to their former glory, and if programs like North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Boston College and Virginia Tech can rise the ACC has the makings of being a dominant conference if Notre Dame were to join and Clemson were to remain really good. It’s a ways away from happening, but it’s certainly possible, and if that happened it would help Notre Dame’s schedule and it could ultimately help the bottom line.

There are also some reasons to not join a conference, and I’ll discuss those in next week’s Midweek Musings.

CONFERENCE PREDICTIONS

Here are my predictions for the 2020 season:

ACC

I've made a couple minor changes to my All-ACC vote:

1. Clemson
2. Notre Dame
3. Louisville
4. North Carolina
5. Pittsburgh
6. Florida State
7. Boston College
8. Virginia
9. Miami (Fla.)
10. Virginia Tech
11. Duke
12. Wake Forest
13. NC State
14. Georgia Tech
15. Syracuse

ACC Title Game: Clemson vs. Notre Dame

SEC EAST

1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. South Carolina
4. Tennessee
5. Kentucky
6. Missouri
7. Vanderbilt

SEC WEST

1. Alabama
2. Texas A&M
3. Auburn
4. LSU
5. Mississippi State
6. Ole Miss
7. Arkansas

SEC Title Game: Alabama vs. Georgia (assuming JT Daniels is healthy, otherwise I'm going with Florida)

BIG 12 

1. Oklahoma
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma State
4. Iowa State
5. Kansas State
6. Texas Tech
7. West Virginia
8. Baylor
9. TCU
10. Kansas

Big 12 Title Game: Oklahoma vs. Texas

TWEET OF THE WEEK

This is a pretty basic tweet, but I just couldn't help it. After the wild offseason that we all had, it's just good to finally say, "It's game week!"

FILM TO WATCH

One of my favorite 2022 defensive recruits is Evanston (Ill.) Township linebacker Sebastian Cheeks. He's a top target for Notre Dame, and the Irish have put themselves in great position with the talented defender early in the process. Check out his film:

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