For Irish Eyes ONLY: We Need To Have An Honest Conversation About Notre Dame Joining A Conference

The clip above doesn't really matter. If you own a TV or if you've been on a phone the last couple of weeks you've heard the noise. Even though Notre Dame is clearly one of the best 10 teams in the playoff they're in real danger of being left out of the playoff because there's an agenda against them. They scream from the mountains about how Notre Dame should join a conference as if that is some magic proxy for strength of schedule. It's obviously not. Indiana had one hard game in the regular season the last two years. Texas A&M played the easiest conference schedule I have ever seen in the big, bad, SEC. That doesn't stop everyone from screaming about conference schedules. I fear that the noise is getting too loud and it doesn't matter than Notre Dame has won 10 straight. It doesn't matter than Notre Dame just beat two BigTen and an SEC team on their way to the National Championship game less than a year ago. It feels like there's growing collusion to keep ND out of the playoff simply because they have refuse to join some arbitrary group of teams and play a consistent schedule. 

I don't WANT to be in a conference. I LOVE that Notre Dame plays a national schedule and are a national program and brand. In recent years they've played Ohio State, Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, traditional ACC powers in Clemson, Florida State, Miami, and Viriginia Tech. It doesn't seem to matter than ND just signed a decade long series to play Clemson. It doesn't matter that they have future games on the schedule against Auburn, Alabama, Indiana, and Texas. People don't respect those games and the willingness to play them. People don't care that the schedules are made 7-10 years in advance and there's no way to predict that USC, Stanford, etc would become somewhere between doormat and slightly above average. If it doesn't have some stupid, arbitrary conference affiliation it's looked down upon. 

The landscape has changed. I love that Notre Dame remained independent. It's what allowed them to stand up and save college football during Covid. It's always helped in recruiting because they're playing games from sea to shining sea every year. Historically it helped financially, but that isn't the case anymore. No single conference was a fit in the past because Notre Dame wasn't a regional power. It was a national one. Now, because College Football has scrapped everything that made it great in pursuit of a few extras dollars, there is no more tradition. There is no more regionality. USC plays conference games in New Jersey. And USC is actively trying to cancel their game against Notre Dame that has been going on for over a century because, well, they can't beat Notre Dame, but they're saying it's because of their conference slate (as if they were never in a conference until they joined the BigTen). 

It's possible that the only way to preserve tradition of playing USC is to break tradition. In reality, conferences don't matter anymore. In the past, winning the BigTen or any other conference meant something because you played everyone or virtually everyone in your conference. It was settled on the field over the course of a long season. And when conferences got a little too big, you played everyone in your division and then could earn the opportunity to win the conference championship against the other division winner. Now it's just a randomized schedule where Texas A&M played SEC teams who finished 9th-16th in conference and then Texas to finish the season. Miami has two BRUTAL losses in conference. They finished tied for third behind Duke. Miami is a better team than Duke, but the conference standings say otherwise because Duke played a different conference schedule. The entire idea of conferences is fugazi now. Common opponents, rivalries, tradition, regionality...they're all out the window. 

So if the idea of conferences as we always understood is gone, then maybe Notre Dame should adapt and join the BigTen too. Just to force USC to play the Irish every year if nothing else. Play 12 games. 9 in conference where USC is locked in and then you'd consistently get traditional games like Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue mixed in there as well. Play non-conference games against Navy, Stanford, and someone on the future schedule like Miami, FSU, Clemson, or the random SEC opponent and tell everyone to shut the fuck up as Notre Dame continues to win 10+ games every year. It sucks, but it's adapt or die and since college football they way we grew up and the sport we loved has died, there's no sense to hold on to something that doesn't exist. I hate what the powers that be have done to Notre Dame, but it's not changing any time soon.