Finally! The on-again, off-again relationship between the Big Ten and Notre Dame has reached its' conclusion. You can thank conference realignment for this. With the ever changing landscape of college football, Notre Dame was constantly on its' heels, but was relentless in their stance of maintaining their football independence. Due to the course of conference realignment and the events that have transpired since the end of the 2011 season, that stance has been rewarded. Notre Dame and the ACC have agreed to allow Notre Dame to join the ACC in all sports except football with Notre Dame required to play five ACC teams each football season. This was a brilliant move by both parties, and as I said in a post a few months ago, the ACC needed to do something to secure their position at the top of the list once Notre Dame decides to give up their independence.
So, how did conference realignment create this partnership? Well what has Notre Dame prided themselves on? An independent, national schedule that is always among the hardest in the nation. The Irish have three annual rivalries with USC, Navy and Stanford, with regular rivalry games against Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. In most years this almost guarantees 2-3 Top 25 teams. These 4-5 games leave the rest of the season open to scheduling anyone willing to play them. This has led to series with Texas, Oklahoma, Pitt, Arizona State, Washington, Syracuse, and the list goes on through the decades. All of these teams at one point or another was a nationally relevant team and in a lot of the cases during the Notre Dame matchups. Well, with conference realignment came the uncertainty of being able to schedule top notch opponents each week. Let me remind you, Notre Dame has never scheduled aI-AA FCS school and adamantly refuses to. With the expansion of conference schedules, due to what looks like will be 16-18 team conferences, the number of teams willing to give up their cake game with an I-AA FCS school to a Notre Dame team that continues to recruit well was simply dwindling. Conference realignment and the all-SEC national championship was also the impetus behind the newly formed playoff model. This model will ultimately reward teams that schedule harder non-conference games. One or two teams will gladly play Notre Dame at the beginning of the season to boost their non-conference strength of schedule, but how many teams will be willing to play Notre Dame in October or November when the conference schedule is in full swing? Very few, and with the announcement of the three annual matchups with USC, Navy, and Stanford continuing, but the uncertainty of Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue due to the Big Ten scheduling and still possible PAC-12 arrangement, that may leave up nine games the Irish need to fill. What better way than to let the ACC cave in and allow them five conference opponents without being a full-fledged member? Only way is if the Big Ten would have allowed it, but that's a separate issue...
This deal was was for Jack Swarbrick to make. He was able to fill five of those potential nine games with ACC opponents, and allow enough flexibility to keep their three biggest rivalries, as well as the opportunity to schedule three other tough opponents across the nation. The biggest thing to come out of this deal is the security of Notre Dame in the post-BCS era. Notre Dame had always been given special treatment in the BCS with a guaranteed spot if ranked in the Top 8. Outside of BCS games, the Irish relied on the Big East allowing bowl tie-ins to their bowl games. All of this was looking uncertain. No automatic entry into the playoff, no automatic entry into what we know as the BCS games, no guarantee a conference would allow them to tie-in to their bowls. It was looking a little gloomy in South Bend, especially if the performance on the field continued to be dismal. This deal now almost all but guarantees Notre Dame has the top selection to play the ACC champion in the new Orange Bowl deal, and they have announced Notre Dame will have access to the ACC bowl tie-ins. This is the jackpot. This almost goes without saying, but Notre Dame will maintain their NBC contract. There isn't a chance in hell this was a discussion point, but expect the ACC to see a revenue increase with their newly formed ESPN deal due to the addition of these games against Notre Dame.
Now these were only the football benefits. How about the good news for their other sports? The ACC just added Pitt and Syracuse to the conference to go along with their other basketball power houses. Notre Dame has been a fairly consistent Top 25 basketball program the past few years, so they should see the same level of success in recruiting and TV coverage. Soccer will benefit from joining the best conference top to bottom in the sport, as will lacrosse. Let's not forget academics. One of the more unspoken reasons why Notre Dame had zero interest in joining the Big East as a full member was due to the lower academic standing compared to the Big Ten and ACC, and the ACC is widely regarded as the top conference in maintaining the definition of student-athlete (North Carolina scandal looking pretty bad now isn't it...).
For those interested, here are some of the known details of this deal:
How about the future chances of Notre Dame joining the ACC as a full-time member? No one knows what the expanded playoff model will look like (yes, the playoff will undoubtedly expand beyond four teams), but if the next step is conference champions only, Notre Dame will be forced to part from their independent status. The ACC is clearly in the driver seat if that takes place.
For now though, this has been the biggest news since the announcement of the four team playoff system, and the booting of the "Honey Badger". I fully expect to see a domino effect of sorts with conferences following this model, as the Big Ten and Pac-12 discussed earlier this year. Luckily though, those details won't be released until midway to late in the season until the offseason. Until then, enjoy the games and watch as Notre Dame suddenly plummets like Pitt did once announcing the joining of the ACC...
So, how did conference realignment create this partnership? Well what has Notre Dame prided themselves on? An independent, national schedule that is always among the hardest in the nation. The Irish have three annual rivalries with USC, Navy and Stanford, with regular rivalry games against Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. In most years this almost guarantees 2-3 Top 25 teams. These 4-5 games leave the rest of the season open to scheduling anyone willing to play them. This has led to series with Texas, Oklahoma, Pitt, Arizona State, Washington, Syracuse, and the list goes on through the decades. All of these teams at one point or another was a nationally relevant team and in a lot of the cases during the Notre Dame matchups. Well, with conference realignment came the uncertainty of being able to schedule top notch opponents each week. Let me remind you, Notre Dame has never scheduled a
This deal was was for Jack Swarbrick to make. He was able to fill five of those potential nine games with ACC opponents, and allow enough flexibility to keep their three biggest rivalries, as well as the opportunity to schedule three other tough opponents across the nation. The biggest thing to come out of this deal is the security of Notre Dame in the post-BCS era. Notre Dame had always been given special treatment in the BCS with a guaranteed spot if ranked in the Top 8. Outside of BCS games, the Irish relied on the Big East allowing bowl tie-ins to their bowl games. All of this was looking uncertain. No automatic entry into the playoff, no automatic entry into what we know as the BCS games, no guarantee a conference would allow them to tie-in to their bowls. It was looking a little gloomy in South Bend, especially if the performance on the field continued to be dismal. This deal now almost all but guarantees Notre Dame has the top selection to play the ACC champion in the new Orange Bowl deal, and they have announced Notre Dame will have access to the ACC bowl tie-ins. This is the jackpot. This almost goes without saying, but Notre Dame will maintain their NBC contract. There isn't a chance in hell this was a discussion point, but expect the ACC to see a revenue increase with their newly formed ESPN deal due to the addition of these games against Notre Dame.
Now these were only the football benefits. How about the good news for their other sports? The ACC just added Pitt and Syracuse to the conference to go along with their other basketball power houses. Notre Dame has been a fairly consistent Top 25 basketball program the past few years, so they should see the same level of success in recruiting and TV coverage. Soccer will benefit from joining the best conference top to bottom in the sport, as will lacrosse. Let's not forget academics. One of the more unspoken reasons why Notre Dame had zero interest in joining the Big East as a full member was due to the lower academic standing compared to the Big Ten and ACC, and the ACC is widely regarded as the top conference in maintaining the definition of student-athlete (North Carolina scandal looking pretty bad now isn't it...).
For those interested, here are some of the known details of this deal:
- ND will join in 2014 - the start of the new football playoff
- ND and ACC will rotate 3 and 2 for number of home games
- ACC teams will rotate scheduling ND with a guarantee of at least once every 3 years
- If ND is within one game of an ACC team for bowl selection, ND will get the bowl
How about the future chances of Notre Dame joining the ACC as a full-time member? No one knows what the expanded playoff model will look like (yes, the playoff will undoubtedly expand beyond four teams), but if the next step is conference champions only, Notre Dame will be forced to part from their independent status. The ACC is clearly in the driver seat if that takes place.
For now though, this has been the biggest news since the announcement of the four team playoff system, and the booting of the "Honey Badger". I fully expect to see a domino effect of sorts with conferences following this model, as the Big Ten and Pac-12 discussed earlier this year. Luckily though, those details won't be released until midway to late in the season until the offseason. Until then, enjoy the games and watch as Notre Dame suddenly plummets like Pitt did once announcing the joining of the ACC...
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