Notre Dame football may soon request the Atlantic Coast Conference throw it another lifeline.
The Irish treasure their independence in football, and to preserve it they have been previously forced to survive ramifications of conference expansion and post-season College Football Playoff contraction. Now it faces new threat, the COVID-19 pandemic that threatens to shrink its schedule.
Already, the Irish have lost three games after the Big Ten (Wisconsin) and Pac-12 (USC and Stanford) announced it has limited its football season to only conference opponents. The limitations have a health purpose; it allows members to know their opponent has followed the same safety protocols.
If more Power 5 conferences fall in line with the practical health concern, Notre Dame could would lose six games against ACC schools – Wake Forest, Pitt, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville – and one SEC opponent, Arkansas.
But recent statements from ACC commissioner John Swofford suggest the ACC is winding up to toss its lifeline. The league will consider Notre Dame as a “conference” opponent. It’s an easy step from the “partial” ACC membership Notre Dame football has featured on its schedule since the 2014 season.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe, whose team is scheduled to travel to Notre Dame for an Oct. 31 game, said in a Zoom conference call on Friday he’d like to see Notre Dame included on the ACC schedule.
“If they’re willing to share their money, sure,” Cutcliffe said. “You don’t get something for nothing. I would welcome them as a coach to be part of ACC football.
“It’s a great program, a great storied program, a great program now. (Head coach) Brian (Kelly) has done a great job there. They’re a member of the ACC in everything but football. I’m sure that’s part of conversation. I’m not privy to who knows.”
Notre Dame’s schedule could be otherwise reduced to two opponents, American Athletic Conference member Navy on Sept. 5 or 6 in Annapolis and Western Michigan of the Mid-American on Sept. 19 at home. The American and Mid-American, both lacking the financial stability of Power 5 conferences, aren’t likely to deny a member financial and exposure paydays against the Irish.
A decade ago, Notre Dame’s independent status appeared threatened when the Pac-10 expanded to 12 with Colorado and Utah, the Big Ten to 14 with Maryland and Rutgers and the SEC to 14 with Texas A&M and Missouri.
But the ACC-Notre Dame agreement solved that problem, although it was more about a home for the remainder of Notre Dame’s athletic programs. Football, though, was the carrot for ACC to agree to partial football membership. The Irish have played a rotating schedule of at least five ACC opponents a year since 2015.
The agreement has allowed Notre Dame to maintain its treasured independent status in football and have full ACC membership for its other athletic programs. The deal was reached in 2012, but it took until 2014 for Notre Dame to adjust its schedule to accommodate at least four ACC games.
Notre Dame’s next threat was the four-team CFP formula that began with the 2014 season.
After the first two years, Notre Dame’s independent status appeared to be a disadvantage. Teams in a conference that lost games early could rebound to win their division and then the conference championship game. In the 2015, Notre Dame was 10-1 and ranked No. 4 entering its regular-season finale at Stanford, but the Irish lost. They dropped to No. 6.
The four teams picked for the 2015 CFP were Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State and Oklahoma. All but top-seeded Clemson had lost a regular season game before they rebounded to win their division and their conference championship game.
— No. 2 seed Alabama lost in the third week of the season, but won the SEC West and beat No. 18 Florida in the SEC championship. The Crimson Tide beat Michigan State and Clemson in the playoffs to claim the national title.
— No. 3 seed Michigan State lost in the seventh week, but upset Ohio State in the ninth to win the Big Ten East and defeated No. 4 Iowa in the conference championship.
— — No. 4 seed Oklahoma lost in the fifth week of the season but won the Big 12. The 10-team conference didn’t have a conference championship game then, but it realized the potential harm and added a conference championship game in 2017. The Big 12 was left out of the 2016 playoffs.
Swofford was asked at the 2017 ACC media days if Notre Dame might be tempted to join the ACC in football to benefit from a conference championship game.
“If we reach a point where (full football membership is) to be discussed, we would be ready to discuss that,” Swofford said. “We’re very close to Notre Dame. We treat them as a full member. I they feel like a full member by and large. But the one difference is football and the football post-season.”
Notre Dame, though, resisted that line of thinking. The Irish earned their first CFP berth in 2018.
That put off speculation Notre Dame might need to join the ACC full time until the latest changes in the landscape, but don’t expect the ACC to pressuring the Irish.
As Swofford said in 2017 and since then, both the ACC and Notre Dame benefit from the current arrangement. The original 2012 agreement was extended in 2014 to run through 2037.
The ACC seems willing to throw Notre Dame lifelines until the Irish feel there are none left to grasp.
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
https://www.augustpublications.com/
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