Should Notre Dame join the ACC?

[Tigertown_a_Rick]

Since the ACC and Notre Dame became partners a few years ago, several ACC teams have thwarted Notre Dame's chances of winning another National title....

The Clemson game on saturday just revealed that Notre Dame just ain't at the same level as they were 25 or so years ago when they last won a National title, and they were lucky to beat Pitt earlier this season at Notre Dame when the Panthers missed 2 FGs in a 5 point loss to the Irish...

It seems like every year an ACC team has ruined the Irish from making a run at a National title as Clemson also beat them a few years ago during the regular season....Miami ended their chances last year....NC State beat them a couple years ago....I haven't looked it up, but it seems that since the partnership with the ACC. Notre Dame has lost to an ACC team or two in each season, and that most definitely has hurt their chances to make a run because they are an Independent....

It has become apparent that Notre Dame should be looked at in a similar vein as the G-5 schools when it comes to selecting the 4 best teams for the NCAA Playoffs because they don't play in a conference championship game...

Does this latest loss to Clemson move Notre Dame closer to joining a conference, and would that conference be the ACC if Notre Dame were to make the move?....It only seems natural since all their other sports' teams are a part of the ACC...

I wonder about this because of some of the comments that Brian Kelly made after Notre Dame earned 1 of the 4 playoff spots this year by finishing undefeated during the regular season....He seemed sympathetic to the Conference Champions from the B1G and PAC-12 for being left out of this year's playoff, and said that he would support a movement to an 8-team playoff format which would give the Irish an opportunity to earn a Wildcard berth to the playoffs every year, and that would also allow Notre Dame to remain as an Independent....

The Irish were embarrassed by Alabama in the BCS title game a few years ago, and were never really a threat to beat Clemson on saturday in another humbling loss for the Irish, and both of those programs show NO signs of slowing down anytime soon, so how will the selection committee in the future view the Notre Dame football program after their last two uninspired showings on College Football's biggest stage?

It will be interesting moving forward to see if the playoffs expand and if they don't what will be Notre Dame's stance moving foward?...

Should they join the ACC, or stay Independent?

Comments welcomed!

 

[midline]

No. Unless some requirements are changed. ND has the best of both worlds. And with their drawing power, they can pretty much do what they want. They have their own national TV contract with NBC. Think they are giving that up for a share of the newly formed ACC Network? No. But yet they get to feed off of ACC basketball as a full fledged member. And they proved this year that they don't have to be a conference champion to get in the playoff. Just need a year where the two, or three, legitimate opponents on their schedule don't have the strongest of teams. As it turns out, ND beat Michigan for what many saw as their only decent win. And that was even made to look worse with Michigan's preformances against OSU and Florida. But ND isn't going to look at full conference membership unless NBC decides they are no longer worth that big TV deal.

 

[Tigertown_a_Rick]

No. Unless some requirements are changed. ND has the best of both worlds. And with their drawing power, they can pretty much do what they want. They have their own national TV contract with NBC. Think they are giving that up for a share of the newly formed ACC Network? No. But yet they get to feed off of ACC basketball as a full fledged member. And they proved this year that they don't have to be a conference champion to get in the playoff. Just need a year where the two, or three, legitimate opponents on their schedule don't have the strongest of teams. As it turns out, ND beat Michigan for what many saw as their only decent win. And that was even made to look worse with Michigan's preformances against OSU and Florida. But ND isn't going to look at full conference membership unless NBC decides they are no longer worth that big TV deal.

I agree with all of that, but does Notre Dame have to finish undefeated in order to qualify for the playoffs in the future, and how often can they do that without taking a hit on their strength of schedule which is said to be a big part of the selection committee's wish list....They played what they thought was a tough schedule at the beginning of the season, but it didn't turn out that way as USC, Stanford and the aforementioned Michigan didn't quite live up to all the hype this year....

We've all heard the old saying through the years that "If you can't beat em, then join them!", and right now Notre Dame is basically losing to an ACC team every year, so the ACC has really become a roadblock that makes Notre Dame's path to the National Championship, more difficult....Not to mention, they don't have the data point of playing one more game in a conference championship game which would certainly hurt their chances in the future to make a playoff if they lose 1 or more regular season games...

What is the last trophy that Notre Dame put in their trophy case?....Was it a Belk Bowl win over LSU a couple years ago?

They've never been in a conference, so they have NO conference championship or Regular season trophies in their trophy case....In fact, all they have is some National Championship trophies that are collecting dust with the last one 25 or more years ago....

I'm not a Clemson fan per say, but it put a big smile on my face when the Tigers smacked the Irish around last Saturday....

I could care less whether they join a conference or not, but the luster has worn off the Irish IMO, and I think that moving forward they will be hard pressed in the future to convince the selection committee that they deserve an invite to the playoffs without a conference championship as part of their resume....They should be viewed in the same light as an unbeaten UCF team, but should be one data point behind them, since they didn't win a conference championship game to finish the regular season 13-0 as the Knights did....

They finished 12-0 this year, got an extra week's rest before the playoffs started, and still got their head kicked in by a Clemson team that was missing one of their key players on defense in Dexter Lawrence...

Notre Dame was an embarrassment to the Selection Committee this year, and some folk have long memories....

Most young people nowadays have never seen a National Champion in South Bend, and I don't know if they ever will again....At least, I hope not!

 

[TarHeelMark]

If the playoffs expand to 6 or 8, then no. As Kelly states, that would open up the door wider for them. As it stands now, they pretty much have to be undefeated in order to get in, whereas a one loss conf champ still has a good shot (at least for one of the 3 remaining spots not pencilled in for Bama).

 

[midline]

But here is the trick. Think the same undefeated deal existed for Clemson also. Outside of Clemson, the ACC is horrific. Syracuse is OK, but with FSU, Miami, and Va Tech in the tank ( the schools targeted in expansion to elevate football), Pitt rolls into the league championship game. What a joke that is. Fedora even found a way to beat Pitt. But ND could play a junior college schedule, and because of their national popularity, they get in the playoff. It is big business, and ND brings that. No matter that just like UCF, they have no business being there. Pretty sure most all agree that UGA is the third best team, but they lost to Bama, and more importantly lost to LSU. Tougher road in the SEC so you can absord one loss. But not two. Would love to see what ND's record would have been against an SEC schedule as they would have probably been a middle of the pack team

 

[MWHeels]

I don't see a scenario where the playoff expands without automatic bids to conference champions. If that happens, I think ND would have no choice but to become a full ACC member in football even if the playoff also includes 1 or 2 "wildcard" spots.

 

[WoadBlue]

Notre Dame football is not independent now. ND is a 5/8ths member of ACC football. So the question is: should ND football go from 5/8ths ACC member to 8/8ths ACC member?

The answer is: Yes.

For its own good, ND football needs the mental toughening and sharpening that comes from conference races.

Most people have now forgotten that ND boycotted bowls for more than 40 years. Not playing in bowls was the original ND mark of rather perverse identity. I call it perverse because it hurt ND football. But once it became a thing, ND boosters tended to see it as a Dogma. It was broken only because Parseghian won the National Championship in 1966 and became a Legend. Parseghian then could be the coach who led the Irish into bowls.

The result was that the 1970s was perhaps the 2nd best decade for ND football. If ND had continued to boycott bowls, none of it could have happened.

The funny thing is that even though ND fans ranted against playing in bowls the whole of the 1970 season, they all watched the Cotton Bowl, an by the start of the '71 season, there was virtually no talk about opposing bowls.

Once ND decides to go full football member, the opposition will be dead before year 2 closes. And ND football may get another huge booster, just like the 1970s.

 

[WoadBlue]

memories....

Most young people nowadays have never seen a National Champion in South Bend, and I don't know if they ever will again....At least, I hope not!

If they are fully in the ACC, I will cheer for them to win it all against the SEC or Big Ten or Pac or Big 12, just I do now for Clemson.

However, that does not apply to Dook or Moo.

 

[MWHeels]

Becoming a full member will force ND to play a tougher schedule. They were undefeated going into the playoff because they didn't play anyone who proved to elite during the regular season. They beat Michigan with a QB who wasn't even their starter by the end of the year. Clemson was their first true elite opponent, and they got destroyed.

 

[WoadBlue]

Becoming a full member will force ND to play a tougher schedule. They were undefeated going into the playoff because they didn't play anyone who proved to elite during the regular season. They beat Michigan with a QB who wasn't even their starter by the end of the year. Clemson was their first true elite opponent, and they got destroyed.

All of which is reason they need all the toughening up that comes from being in a conference race.

The same would be true of UNC basketball. We need the tough fight through the ACC race - it makes us better, primarily from having to reach all the way down to get it done.

ND football is soft in ways that really can't be overcome unless they are in a conference race.

 

[Archer2]

I agree and I will never pull for them to win the National Title unless they fully commit to the ACC. To hell with them having their cake and eating it too.

Go Tigers!

 

[tarheels0015]

yes

 

[riverswe]

i think they would most likely be put in the coastal if they did. the way things stand I think they have a better chance at going undefeated than winning the ACC.

 

[midline]

Notre Dame is not interested in getting in a conference. And the truth is, unless they played Clemson, their schedule might have been even easier than it turned out to be by playing a full slate of ACC schools. But that has nothing to do with their viewpoint. They have a national TV contract with NBC. They aren't giving that up, or sharing it, by becoming a full fledged member of the conference. College football is a business. It's all about the money.