(05-16-2013 11:44 PM)domer1978 Wrote: (05-16-2013 10:58 PM)Kaplony Wrote: I don't know why you should be scared. History shows the ACC is more than willing to bend over and grab it's ankles for ND in regards to football, what would year early matter?
You may believe that we "bent the ACC over" but many ND fans would say it was the other way around. 125 years of our history we had freedom to schedule whoever we wanted and not have to be told who to play. That has changed, for the first time almost half of our schedule is being dictated by a conference. Now none of this may matter to you or fit the narrative your trying to push but that was/is a big thing to a school who built their identity as being Catholic and independent(Amongst other things) I think both parties made out pretty well and I don't think we took advantage of anyone.
The ACC deal is dreadful for Notre Dame. Any deal that gives a conference commissioner the power to fill FIVE slots in Notre Dame's schedule makes a mockery of the idea that the Irish are still an "independent".
Also, the deal means that Notre Dame will be a very rare participant in the BCS access bowls. First, ND can only ever play in the Orange Bowl, it can never play in any other access bowl, so that means that once out of every three years ND will surely not be playing in an access bowl (once in three years the OB will be in the playoff rotation). Second, ND can only play in the Orange Bowl, at most, once every three years that the OB is an access bowl, so that means ND can AT MOST be in an access bowl once every four years. And while it can play in an access bowl no MORE than once in four years, there is no minimum number of times it will be in the OB: If in a three year period when the OB is an access bowl ND is never higher-ranked than BOTH the highest-ranked available B1G AND SEC team (a very stringent requirement), ND does not get the OB access bid. I bet ND makes the OB as an access bowl team maybe once a decade.
Finally, ND's access to other bowls is via the ACC, which doesn't historically have very good bowl tie-ins, and their access to these bowls is subject to the same kinds of complications related to number of times ND can be chosen over an ACC team. Just as when ND was affiliated with the Big East, it is very likely that an ND team that is say 9-3 will end up playing in something like the Hawaii Bowl because of bad tie-ins.
Bigger picture: In the ACC deal ND is strictly on a "commission" basis: If ND doesn't make the playoffs (a very hard thing to do) it will not make much money or get much exposure from the ACC deal system. The ACC deal provides almost nothing, and yet that deal saved the ACC. Terrible negotiating by Notre Dame.