(01-26-2018 03:12 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(01-26-2018 02:56 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(01-26-2018 08:05 AM)XLance Wrote:  

(01-25-2018 10:13 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  You may be right about 2036, but I didn't see any article that updated the year based on the new ACC contract although it's entirely possible I just missed it. Doesn't really matter though as there will come a day where either the ACC is so strong that they will force ND's hand or they will be so weak that they simply collapse and ND will be out of options. The economics of the game will have to change radically for ND to maintain their current situation for another generation.

But anyway, if joining a conference was dumb then the only administrators that know what they're doing reside in South Bend. I don't buy that.

ND's desires are based in tradition and I can respect that, but that's really all it is. It's not rooted in tangible benefit that the school receives from their current modus operandi...unless one counts the freedom to schedule who you want for 7 games a tangible benefit. Perhaps it is on some level, but it's not without it's downside. One of these days ND will be in a league and you Irish fans will realize it was a lot of gnashing of teeth over nothing.

2036.
The ACC is not about "strong arming" any school.
At this point the ACC and Notre Dame have a good symbiotic relationship that is working for the benefit of both, there is no reason for either side to try to take advantage of the other.

At this place and time, they have a mutually beneficial relationship. I'm not saying otherwise.

What I'm saying though is the ACC allowed ND as a partial because it needed the Irish and was willing to fudge on standard requirements. There is likely to come a day though where these circumstances are no longer in play. Perhaps it will be that the ACC grows ever stronger and simply doesn't need ND as a partial. I think it's very reasonable to say at that point that ACC leadership would tell ND that we need you to go all in and if not, that's fine, but we need to move on from this arrangement. Even the MAC did essentially that with UMass and the economic potential was very different in that case.

The other side of my point was ND would still likely face a decision either way. It's entirely possible that the ACC will become so weak that it dissolves and ND will have to do something different at that point.

I think it's unlikely that the ACC will always be what it is right now...a 4th or 5th place league in a world that's trying to trim down to something more cohesive.

(01-26-2018 11:44 AM)TerryD Wrote:  Agreed. The idea of someone "forcing" ND to join a football conference is nothing more than message board fan chowder. It is not going to happen.

No one can force ND to anything they don't want to do, I understand. What I'm saying is that a league is only going to be willing to give ND a special arrangement as long as that arrangement is optimally beneficial. If the circumstances change then no league will give ND a special deal.

Just as no one can force ND to join a league, ND can't force the ACC or anyone else to offer a special arrangement if the economics dictate that every member needs to be equal.

The bottom line ATU is why Notre Dame can't afford to join a conference. In the ACC, SEC, or Big 10 all Notre Dame would be is a mid tier program capable of making a run about once a decade. And being locked into that would convince the networks relatively quickly that their brand wasn't worth paying for separately. They can hold onto to their public image with some mystique by not joining anywhere and proving to the world what everyone already knows, they just don't have it anymore, like they had it in the 30' and 40's and again in the 60's and 70's. In the ACC their peers would be Virginia Tech and Miami and they wouldn't touch Clemson or Florida State. In the SEC they would be South Carolina, Tennessee (on its good years), L.S.U. or Auburn. And that's not bad, but it is a far cry from being mythical.

In the Big 10 they would be below Penn State, Ohio State and probably Wisconsin. And they would be on par with Michigan, Michigan State, and Iowa.

There is only one conference where their magic might work again, but the PAC is simply too far away to be feasible.

Even Northeastern sportswriters are positing the position that you are here and they recognize that "if" the ACCN is just 70% as successful as the SECN that Notre Dame will be losing money vs the other ACC full members by maintaining their independence so that eventually the proverbial handwriting will be on the wall.

Terry D. is in the camp at of N.D. followers that want to defiantly say, "No" to affiliation to a conference and I totally get their reason for this. But the divide among Irish faithful takes on the same proportions as the divide in this nation between all generational issues. As Boomers start to die out, the Millennials will have them in a conference faster than you can say scat. As with all of our traditions the Millennials will take the path of least resistance to culture because they don't know our history or our traditions. They are children of the backassward culture of the tube and they haven't a clue as to who they are, let alone their rights and obligations. And they don't give a hoot, or a thought, to the sacrifices of those who went before them, or the integrity that went into them. They have been bred and educated to be corporate slaves.

Lol, ND just won ten games and beat LSU in a bowl game. ND schedules are always pretty tough. The Irish are not "afraid" of conference membership, it just doesn't fit the school's marketing goal of being the "national Catholic university".

Simple as that and largely non-football related.

You, and fans of other schools everywhere, underestimate the resolve of younger ND fans to stay out of a conference.

"Conventional wisdom" on message boards for twenty years has been "As soon as the old fans die out..."

That conventional wisdom is wrong, just like the old message board wisdom that "Once the playoffs system begins, ND will be put in its place, it will not be like the BCS."