(01-23-2018 10:56 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(01-08-2018 12:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(01-07-2018 11:33 AM)TerryD Wrote:  ND just went 10-3 and beat LSU in a New Year's Bowl game. That is two 10 win seasons in the last three years. Not bad.

ND is ranked #6 in recruiting. But, the internet is full of folks predicting its demise or its supposed cave in to the conference Borg. It must be the offseason.

If I could piggyback on something I put in another thread...

I wouldn't discount the statements of Brian Kelly on issues like this. He may not be the guy who makes the decisions, but he's spoken out on these topics a few times now. If he doesn't have permission from the administration to share these sentiments then I think someone would have taken him aside behind closed doors and told him to pipe down.

What I think is more likely is that he is being used to plant these ideas in the minds of the Irish faithful and thus to soften the blow.

People have been saying that for over 20 years now. I heard that in 2003, it was a "done deal" that ND was going to join the ACC in full, with a 7 year phase in to "soften the blow".

In 2012, when ND partially joined the ACC, many fans of that conference thought there was a "secret deal" between ND and the ACC, with a "breathing space" built in to soften up the Irish fan rubes to the "real deal" of phased in full conference membership.

Didn't happen and won't happen.

All of these types of comments assume that ND fans are a mindless bunch and that some sort of psychological "softening" or trick is somehow going to magically wipe away the total negativity that Irish football fans feel towards conference affiliation.

I guess we will see these types of posts in 2028, as well.

It's yet to be determined whether ND joining in 2012 produced an agreement that would lead to them eventually joining in full. They are, after all, obligated to join the ACC if they decide to join one at all before 2027. That's an odd feature to have in a contract and a completely worthless one if the powers that be had no intention of ever joining a league under any circumstances. It's entirely possible that the people crafting that contract know more than you or I do.

And nobody said Irish fans were rubes. What's being said is that perhaps their collective negativity is based in tradition and custom rather than an examination of the circumstances. The truth of the matter is that Notre Dame fans don't know what it's like to have their football team in a conference because it's never happened before. If people spend a few years contemplating the idea though and then it happens, well maybe they realize it wasn't an earth shattering tragedy for it to happen.