Notre Dame Won't Join ACC for Long Haul. But if it Ever Joins a Conference, That's Not the Right One.
While we’re waiting for the Big Ten to pull the plug on its college football season, a few thoughts on what Notre Dame’s ACC arrangement means for its future independent status. And by the way, I don’t expect any college football this fall—whether the Big Ten reaches that decision first or it all gets shut down at the same time.
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How do you feel about all the attention focused on Notre Dame-Clemson? That it’s the conference game of the year, if not the century?
And the new round of conversation about whether the Irish should join a conference permanently now that they have taken the unprecedented step of seeking shelter from the Coved-19 storm in the ACC?
Answer to first question: Um, bigger than Georgia-Alabama and LSU-Alabama this year? Auburn-Alabama, any year? Penn State-Ohio State this year? Ohio State-Michigan, any year? Oklahoma-Texas many years? I’ll hang up and listen.
Clemson-Notre Dame certainly would be the biggest conference game the ACC has seen in years. It took a pandemic. . .
By the way, this is where I put in the disclaimer that all of this ND-Clemson-ACC talk is extremely hypothetical. Because I don’t believe a college football season will happen. Or should happen.
Answer to second question: Talking about whether Notre Dame should join a conference is like pondering the Kardashians. If it interests you, fine. But trust me. Nothing is going to happen.
Here’s why: ND doesn’t need or want a conference. It is used to making its own decisions. It doesn’t know how to sit around a table with partners and make decisions. That is not solely my conclusion. I was given that line of reasoning in many conversations years ago with ND officials when the Big Ten was recruiting the Irish hard.
Which is fine. I’m not really a joiner, either. Many people aren’t.
If money once was a factor for Notre Dame, it no longer is. The Irish would make more in a conference. They like the freedom to have a rolling-stone schedule, a rolling-stone life. It’s their identity. Concerns that they would lose their unique status and become just another team if they joined the ACC are very real.
Because the ACC might have the least cachet in the Power Five. Take away Clemson, which is more of a Soviet satellite of the SEC, and what have you got? A really terrific basketball conference with very little football identity. Remnants of the Big East. Florida State and Miami trying to figure out what the heck happened. And. . . thank goodness for terrific basketball.
Even now, this steady diet of ND-Wake Forest, ND-Syracuse, ND-Virginia Tech. Even ND-contemporary Miami. . . these games fill up the schedule plate, but are hardly gourmet. Irish fans care because they’re a chance for a W—and a chance to see how that hotshot young linebacker does.
That’s why this Clemson matchup is so exciting. Because all of those other ACC matchups. . . are not. Exciting.
Notre Dame would be a much cooler deal in the SEC, where it would mean more. Or the Big 12, which has passion for football that extends beyond one team.
But honestly, the only conference where the Irish would have a week-in/week-out Wow Factor would be the Big Ten.
The Irish have geography and history in common with the Big Ten. The Michigan series is a gem. Penn State was, and would be again. Ohio State would be off the charts. ND used to have nice series with Purdue and Michigan State, which are bus trips. There’s a ton of history with Northwestern, which sent Ara Parseghian to South Bend, and a bit of it with Wisconsin, which hired one of the Four Horsemen. Illinois and Indiana, largely ignored by Notre Dame, would be filled with venom.
That said, that’s never going to happen.
A century ago, the Big Ten wouldn’t let the Irish in. And that was probably a good thing for them. Denied a seat at the Midwestern Big Boy table, Knute Rockne started ND on its national tour—USC! Army! Navy! All reasonable offers considered!—that created the singular legend that Notre Dame is today.
Notre Dame is a special place. I say this as someone who had no use for ND when I was a kid, but who came to appreciate and admire Notre Dame when I was on the ND beat during the tumultuous 1980s.
The angst of Gerry Faust, the rebirth under Lou Holtz. Then again, when is it not tumultuous at Notre Dame?
I defy anyone to sit with actor Pat (Knute Rockne) O’Brien, as I did, when Ronald (the Gipper) Reagan came to South Bend as President to deliver a commencement address, and not embrace the specialness of ND. Or to sit in Father Hesburgh’s office and not feel the Irish mystique.
I do not say this lightly. At this point, I see the way ND has capitulated on some of its noble tenets as it has adjusted to the shifting tides of top-tier college athletics. The Irish have made accommodations, just like everybody.
That said, I believe Notre Dame is always going to cling to its long-held beliefs and goals.
As much as I think it would be amazing to see ND in the Big Ten, I change that channel in my mind when it goes there.
That said, while a move to the ACC, which already bends over backward for the Irish in ways the Big Ten never would, is a much greater possibility, I would advise against it. Because it would be a cop out.
If the world ever comes down to four 16-team super conferences that left no room for independents—it could happen—I would want to see the Irish in the Big Ten. That’s where they belong.
Until then, let them stick to their quaint, outmoded declaration of independence.
Notre Dame is unique and special. It also is a strange place. It’s in the Midwest, but it has a decidedly Eastern feel. I always used to wonder how that 90-minute drive from Chicago could take you to a place that felt more like it was 90 minutes from New York.
Then I realized. That’s the magic and mystery of Notre Dame.
Giving up life as a sainted vagabond for a steady diet of Michigan and Ohio State would be risky. Giving that up for Clemson and Florida State would make no sense. It would diminish a mystical program.