(06-03-2019 06:59 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (06-03-2019 10:08 AM)TerryD Wrote: That would be irrelevant. ND doesn't really care all that much about BC, Pitt or Syracuse.
They have a long history with Pitt, not much with Syracuse and some recent history with BC.
But, they have already agreed to not play Pitt or BC annually any longer.
Those annual games had to go to get the ACC partial deal that keeps football independent.
So...they went. They were not that important as opposed to remaining independent.
(In your scenario, if ND wanted to keep some games with Pitt or BC, it could schedule them with the 7 games per year it controls)
ND has already kicked the annual Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue games to the curb.
Do you know why?
Because those games had to go to keep football independent.
So, you know what? They went. They were not so important to ND as opposed to independence.
(Notice a trend?)
So what if those teams (Pitt, BC, Syracuse) were not in the ACC?
So what if the Big Ten had "Catholic markets"?
If the Big Ten wanted football included, the answer would still be no and ND would embrace Tobacco Road or the Big 12 to keep football out of a conference.
As I said, failing all of that, it would be the Big East, not full membership in any conference.
I do notice a trend: Notre Dame having to sacrifice more and more of their tradition and independence simply to remain formally independent in a world where it's increasingly difficult to get by without a full football conference affiliation. You follow this trend, and there may come a point where they decide there are things they can't sacrifice for the sake of scheduling flexibility for 3 more of their football games beyond the first 5.
No, what it means is that annual games against long time opponents are not and never were as important to ND as is independence.
Southern Cal, Stanford and Navy have been deemed the important games to remain on ND's schedule, for different reasons.
Other than the five ACC games, the rest of the opponents on the schedule are pretty much fungible.
Unlike most schools, regional rivalries are not that big of a deal to ND, so many of the other four games per year can be used to create home/home games against Power 5 opponents in other regions of the country (as in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Arizona State, Arkansas, etc...on recent past or upcoming schedules).
That is part of the "national schedule" and "markers against the Power 5 conferences" goals for ND scheduling.
The thing that you and others miss is that football independence is the identity, culture and tradition of Notre Dame, both for the institution and the football program.
It goes beyond "scheduling flexibility for 3 more of their football games beyond the first 5."
The main tradition at ND is football independence, not games against Pitt, BC or Purdue.
Scheduling flexibility is a byproduct of independence, not the reason for it.
The reason for it is that, to many at ND, surrendering independence is a criminal act, a betrayal of its history and status of over 130 years. An easy way out that would jettison all that came before, one that would have serious negative consequences for ND, particularly from its big donors. It would be deemed a cowardly surrender by ND to the conferences.
ND sees itself as private, Catholic and independent, to paraphrase Father Monk Malloy in 1999.
It also sees itself as a national university, a goal or status that is not advanced, in their minds, by football joining a conference.
Various schemes on message boards to "force" or "entice" ND football into a conference all seem to neglect or ignore these things. ND just doesn't want to do it, period.