A Look At Notre Dame's Place In Pat Forde's Brave New World Of College Football
COVID-19 has certainly shaken up college sports, forcing the cancelation of the NCAA basketball tournament, spring sports, spring football and it has dramatically altered the offseason for college football.
With all the turmoil, why not blow everything up and start over? That’s the proposal by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde, who created a brand-new, 120-team, 10-league, remade college landscape.
To begin, Forde has 10 current FBS teams dropping to FCS. Those programs would be UTEP, Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, Bowling Green, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Coastal Carolina, Troy and Liberty. He promoted the most dominant FCS program, North Dakota State, to the FBS level.
Part of the premise is to create a group of league’s that makes more sense from a geographical standpoint, thus reducing “travel demands and costs.” Forde also looks to create a system that “spreads the wealth” around to all programs. For football, programs would play every team in their league plus one non conference game, and teams cannot play FCS opponents.
For Notre Dame, this would mean joining a conference. Forde has Notre Dame in the new Mid-American Conference. This league would look like this:
Notre Dame
Northwestern
Tennessee
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Louisville
Illinois
West Virginia
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee
Marshall
Northern Illinois
Notre Dame would also maintain its rivalry with USC, which means in Forde’s world the Irish would no longer play Navy and would stop playing Stanford. Stanford I can live with, but dropping Navy and replacing it with a program like Northern Illinois, Marshall or Middle Tennessee wouldn’t be overly enticing to anyone affiliated with Notre Dame.
So Fighting Irish fans, how would you feel about a Notre Dame schedule that looked like this?
Marshall
At Northern Illinois
Tennessee
At Middle Tennessee
Vanderbilt
At Louisville
USC
Western Kentucky
At Kentucky
At Northwestern
Illinois
At West Virginia
That’s not an overly sexy schedule.
When you look at the rest of his league breakdowns, the proposal might spread out the wealth, but in my view it would also make for a lot of football that would simply not be fun to watch. Let’s look at the rest of his conferences, with each team’s non-conference opponent in parenthesis.
PAC-12 CONFERENCE
Stanford (Northwestern)
USC (Notre Dame)
Washington (Utah)
California (BYU)
UCLA (Arizona)
Oregon (Boise State)
Washington State (Wyoming)
San Diego State (New Mexico)
Oregon State (Arizona State)
Hawaii (Army)
Fresno State (Utah State)
Nevada (UNLV)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE
Arizona State (Oregon State)
BYU (California)
Utah (Washington)
Air Force (Navy)
Colorado (Kansas)
Arizona (UCLA)
Boise State (Oregon)
Colorado State (North Dakota State)
New Mexico (San Diego State)
Utah State (Fresno State)
Wyoming (Washington State)
UNLV (Nevada)
In Forde’s new world of college football, the winner of each conference would make the College Football Playoff. That means one team from the league above would make the playoff. That would be, well, interesting. Let’s look at the rest of the conferences.
GREAT MIDWEST CONFERENCE
Wisconsin (Michigan State)
Minnesota (Michigan)
Iowa (Purdue)
Iowa State (Oklahoma State)
Nebraska (Oklahoma)
Missouri (Illinois)
Kansas State (TCU)
North Dakota State (Colorado State)
Kansas (Colorado)
Western Michigan (Toledo)
Central Michigan (Northern Illinois)
Eastern Michigan (Ball State)
GREAT MIDEAST CONFERENCE
Michigan (Minnesota)
Ohio State (Penn State)
Michigan State (Wisconsin)
Indiana (Kentucky)
Purdue (Iowa)
Cincinnati (Louisville)
Miami, Ohio (Western Kentucky)
Ohio (Marshall)
Toledo (Western Michigan)
Akron (Middle Tennessee)
Kent State (Buffalo)
Ball State (Eastern Michigan)
SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE
Texas (Arkansas)
Texas A&M (Mississippi State)
Oklahoma (Nebraska)
TCU (Kansas State)
Oklahoma State (Iowa State)
Baylor (Louisiana Tech)
Texas Tech (Louisiana-Lafayette)
Houston (East Carolina)
SMU (Temple)
Rice (Tulane)
Tulsa (Arkansas State)
North Texas (Southern Miss)
MID-ATLANTIC CONFERENCE
North Carolina (Georgia Tech)
Duke (Rutgers)
Virginia (Maryland)
Wake Forest (Boston College)
Clemson (Florida State)
NC State (Syracuse)
Virginia Tech (Miami, Fla.)
South Carolina (South Florida)
Appalachian State (Georgia Southern)
East Carolina (Houston)
Old Dominion (FIU)
Charlotte (UAB)
DEEP SOUTH CONFERENCE
Florida (LSU)
Georgia (Auburn)
Florida State (Clemson)
Miami, Fla. (Virginia Tech)
Georgia Tech (North Carolina)
UCF (Memphis)
South Florida (South Carolina)
Georgia Southern (Appalachian State)
UAB (Charlotte)
Florida International (Old Dominion)
Georgia State (UConn)
Florida Atlantic (UMass)
SUN BELT CONFERENCE
LSU (Florida)
Auburn (Georgia)
Alabama (Tennessee)
Mississippi State (Texas A&M)
Arkansas (Texas)
Mississippi (Vanderbilt)
Tulane (Rice)
Memphis (UCF)
Arkansas State (Tulsa)
Louisiana Tech (Baylor)
Southern Miss (North Texas)
Louisiana-Lafayette (Texas Tech)
YANKEE CONFERENCE
Penn State (Ohio State)
Navy (Air Force)
Syracuse (NC State)
Boston College (Wake Forest)
Maryland (Virginia)
Pittsburgh (West Virginia)
Army (Hawaii)
Temple (SMU)
Rutgers (Duke)
Buffalo (Kent State)
UConn (Georgia State)
UMass (FAU)
Let’s take a look at what the College Football Playoff would look like based on the best team in each conference based on 2019 results. The top four teams would get a bye and seeds 5-8 would host first round games. Here’s what the seeding would look like based on the CFP committee rankings at the end of the season.
First Round Bye:
#1 LSU
#2 Ohio State
#3 Clemson
#4 Oklahoma
First Round Games:
#12 Notre Dame at #5 Georgia
#11 Utah at #6 Oregon
#10 Penn State at #7 Baylor
#9 Florida at #8 Wisconsin
That is how the college football world would look according to Pat Forde. So, Notre Dame fans, let me know in the comments section below what you think of this from both a Notre Dame and overall college football standpoint.
Check in tomorrow to see my own proposal for remaking college sports (especially football) and the College Football Playoff.
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