(07-29-2015 11:41 AM)TerryD Wrote: (07-29-2015 10:47 AM)Lou_C Wrote: (07-28-2015 01:04 PM)Wilkie01 Wrote: This is very intriguing if it were to happen.
For Notre Dame, 0% next four years, 60% next ten years.
Texas 5% ever. There's just too much that has to happen.
Other than a "conference champs only" playoff (which is extremely unlikely), I see nothing on a ten year horizon that will force ND at gunpoint (the only way it will ever happen) to join a football conference.
Obviously. You already said zero percent. Your position is clear.
This is my opinion, obviously, and even at that I've allowed a large likelihood that it doesn't happen.
But I think the path to the playoffs for an independent Notre Dame will get more difficult over the next decade, and at some point the playing field will become too uneven to continue to countenance, when combined with having nothing short of a national championship to play for.
We'll know more after we see more playoff selections. We'll see what happens if a 11-2 PAC champion Southern Cal team and a 10-2 Notre Dame team that beat Southern Cal are vying for a fourth playoff spot.
I believe I've seen quite a change over the last 30 years over the kind of sway Notre Dame holds over college football, and while I believe they will continue to be accommodated to an extent, I believe the days of all of college football kneeling at the throne of the Irish is over.
We'll see what future coaches Notre Dame is able to hire given the inability to pin division and conference championships on their resume.
I have a hard time looking at the eroding of Notre Dame's independence over the last 30 years, and saying, "and it stops...NOW. Phew, glad we were able to stop the car on the edge of this cliff with two wheels hanging off."
It's moved in one direction and one direction only for decades, and I think there is a good likelihood that those trends continue rather than reverse themselves.