quo vadis
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RE: Florida Gators agree to play in South Bend in November......
(02-10-2021 11:17 AM)TerryD Wrote: (02-10-2021 11:11 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (02-10-2021 11:02 AM)TerryD Wrote: (02-10-2021 10:05 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (02-09-2021 08:38 PM)Arch Stanton Wrote: How about three less ACC games. I just don't get excited about playing many of the ACC teams. I think knowing ND has to play the ACC games makes it that much harder to get excited about playing them. No disrespect to any ACC team it just doesn't feel natural to me and I miss the old September Big 10 lineup with the annual regulars.
I would not be upset if Stanford was no longer an annual game but it would depend on who the replacement(s) is/are
I've always felt Notre Dame committed to too many ACC games for the Olympic Sports join. The ACC got the better end of the bargain, IMO.
Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
BC
Pitt
What are those? Those are the five games a year that ND often played before 2012.
"Giving up" five games a year to the ACC merely replaced those (mostly) annual Big Ten and Big East games.
In return, ND got minor bowl access, access to a pool of bowl money, 5 late season football games on its schedule, access to Southeastern football recruits and a great home for basketball, baseball, soccer and lacrosse.
It still maintained its indy status, kept the NBC deal and ability to schedule 7 other games a year.
Not a bad deal for ND, at all.
The key goal for ND was achieved: Stay out of full conference membership, especially the Big Ten.
Five ACC games is too many, I miss the games versus B1G teams. Also, the 20-year commitment to not join any conference but the ACC is a real straightjacket.
I am not impressed at all with the ACC bowl pool. In 2019, a very good, top-15, probably top-10 quality Notre Dame team was relegated to the Camping World Bowl against a 7-5 Iowa State team or something. That was bad.
I guess Notre Dame was spooked at the time (September 2012) by the Big East collapsing around it, and did not know that a strong Catholic-7 version of the Big East would emerge that would likely have been happy to continue to host Notre Dame hoops and other sports and at no cost to football independence. ND panicked and signed a bad deal, IMO.
If you will recall, a big problem for ND in the late 2000's was trouble in scheduling quality November games.
The Big Ten (bastiges that they are) demanded that their games be front loaded in September.
ND had access to Big East minor bowls, but that was going away. No more Big East.
So, ND had a November scheduling problem and a minor bowl tie in problem (since the bowls were being gobbled up in conference tie-ins).
Merely staying independent plus joining the C7 would have solved neither of these issues.
The ACC deal solved both problems. The five games a year also partially solved the negative recruiting being used against them in the South that "ND is too far away, your parents will never see you play live".
I don't miss the Big Ten annual games, at all.
Switching 5 Big Ten/Big East games as the "price" to solve the above problems and give basketball, etc...a great home.... and keep ND independent???
Ok, deal. Where do I sign?
I (and I think many ND fans) like this deal and want to keep the status quo until 2037.
Hmm, about scheduling in November, IIRC, in the late 2000s, as now, every other year we would get Southern Cal in late November, when the game is in LA, and when the game was at ND and played earlier, then Stanford would fill that late November slot. And we typically played Navy around November 1st or so every year, so that took care of the start and end of that month.
After that, I admit my memory is fuzzy but IIRC, in the late 2000s ND would typically sandwich in games vs Big East (now turned ACC) teams like Pitt and BC and Syracuse and UConn, with also another service academy like Air Force or Army thrown in. Now, it's North Carolina or NC State or Duke or Wake Forest or one of those teams that used to be in the Big East. I'm just not sure that's much of an upgrade in terms of schedule quality, and as a fan I find it boring. I think a fully independent ND could find teams of similar quality in today's environment.
As for the minor bowls, maybe I am wrong, but I think ND could have signed a deal with ESPN like BYU has, to be fit in to minor bowls owned by ESPN when ND has a 7-5 season. Yes, maybe ESPN would have been a stickler about that given that ND has a contract with NBC, but I doubt they would let that stand in the way of getting ND in their bowl games. True, that would mean that it would be "NY6 or a minor bowl" for ND's bowl prospects, but let's face it, we found out that the ACC lineup is not that great - a #15 ranked 10-2 Irish team was relegated to the Camping World Bowl.
Yes, in 2017 ND did go to the Citrus Bowl, a cut-above bowl, and that likely would have not happened without the ACC tie-in. But IMO, playing in the Citrus Bowl or Gator Bowl once every three years as opposed to playing in the Armed Forces Bowl or the Camelia Bowl is just not that big a deal, not worth the concessions made to the ACC.
If the coaches say the ACC tie helps recruiting in the south, well I won't argue with them, point conceded. But overall, that's not enough to sway me.
I understand that many, maybe most, Irish supporters support the ACC deal. And I understand why ND administrators like it, it provides a security blanket, reduces uncertainty on some issues. I just do not.
(This post was last modified: 02-10-2021 03:54 PM by quo vadis.)
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Florida Gators agree to play in South Bend in November......
