(04-26-2022 07:54 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote: (04-26-2022 07:18 AM)esayem Wrote: The irony is, Notre Dame probably had the weight to convince Texas to join the ACC with them. It would have been Notre Dame’s ideal conference with academic minded schools up and down the east coast into Texas.
Let me start by saying Notre Dame owes nothing to the ACC. If ACC schools can't get out of their own way to fix the conference they themselves built, why would anyone want to tie his future to that mess?
That said, Notre Dame has been very short-sighted in my opinion, which has allowed the Big Ten to play them like a drum.
In the first year of my blog (2012!), I wrote an article about the difference between independence and self-determination called "Why Notre Dame should join a conference". In it, I tried to make the point that
"Until now the Fighting Irish have enjoyed their football independence, but that could end at any time. If they are pro-active they can choose which conference to join, but if they wait they may lose both their independence and their self-determination as well. "
Have the Irish waited too long already? Are they doomed to lose both their independence AND their freedom to choose which conference? If Terry is correct, it's starting to look that way.
While the ACC was focused on giving Notre Dame a nice home, the Big Ten planned to raise the rent until they could no longer afford to live there.
IF ND has to give up its independence, does it really doesn't matter what composition of schools is in that conference ?
ND has little affinity for "like minded schools", some, but not as much as people may think when it comes to conference membership.
The ACC felt, wrongly, that if it added Pitt, Syracuse, BC, et al, that the conference would be "more attractive" in order to get ND football to join.
That went nowhere. Not requiring football to join is the main reason ND is in the ACC. Take that away and pay about half the amount as others? That is like selling ice to Eskimos.
ND has never had any interest in building or leading a conference.
It wants to stay a football independent.
If that is no longer feasible, then cashing in on its only opportunity to do so in giving up that independent status is more important that conference composition.
If ND has to sell off its independence, then the main issues are the price and the tier/status, not what particular grouping of schools is available.
If we are looking at a P2 Tier One and the rest in Tier Two, then there are only two options available to ND, join a Tier One conference or relegate itself to Tier Two.
Joining the ACC or Pac 12 or Big 12 or creating its own "ideal conference" from scratch (BTW, there is no "ideal" football conference for ND) would have done little to alter that reality and would have further ensnared ND football with the ACC (for now, football is not tied up with the ACC GOR, for instance---see NBC deal).
It will be a hard sell indeed to tell ND fans that football independence has to go, and oh by the way, this is so that ND can join a conference in the second tier making tens of millions of dollars a year less than two other ones.
ND doesn't want to give up its independence, but it certainly doesn't want to do so by accepting the lowest bidder.
I think that Texas to the ACC was always a pipe dream, ND or no ND. Texas and Oklahoma were never going to join the ACC, just like ND football is not.
Will the ND administration favor academics over Tier One status and $$$?
It would likely lean that way, uncomfortable as it has been for decades about football success overshadowing academics.
If ND floated the Tier Two academic balloon and received no backlash, I think that it would be happy to join that tier.
I just don't see the donors, alumni and fans letting that happen. I foresee a huge backlash and donor/fan revolt, just like in 1999 when ND rejected the Big Ten.
So, really, if we are talking about staying in big time football, the only real choices over independence are the SEC and Big Ten.
ND football joining the ACC simply makes little sense unless ND is voluntarily relegating itself and abandoning the top tier of college football.
