Is the ACC Deal Beneficial to Notre Dame football?

How is the ACC deal impacting Notre Dame?

Being half in, half out of the ACC hurt Notre Dame this season. By not being in the conference, they couldn’t be the second best team, which kept them from getting an Orange Bowl bid. That bid went to a 4-loss Virginia team that the Irish beat.

Even if Notre Dame went 11-1 with a win over Michigan they wouldn’t be the 4th seed. Oklahoma would still hold the number 4 spot in the College Football Playoff. Why? Because they played a conference championship game, which Notre Dame did not. They played and won an extra game, while Notre Dame maintained its Independence.

The ACC gets 5 games a season, which become showcase games. They’ll be on NBC as the mid-afternoon game, or else they’ll be in prime time on ABC or ESPN. That’s really awesome exposure for a conference that has a frankly terrible reputation.

That reputation for being a weak conference only hurts Notre Dame. Winning on the road against Duke isn’t worth anything. You were supposed to do that. At least Miami, Pitt, and Boston College bring in some excitement as a minor rival.

For football, all Notre Dame gets are the negatives of being in the ACC with none of the perks of being in a conference. Sure, a little money ($5.8 million) comes in from the agreement, but in the grand scheme of college athletics, that’s chump change.

You’d think Notre Dame would at least have an easier path to the Orange Bowl, but they don’t. Virginia will be there. They’ll play Florida, the highest ranked, and available, team between the SEC, BIG 10, and Notre Dame.

Through their affiliation with the ACC, Notre Dame should be able to take the ACC spot when they are have a better record and are ranked higher than the ACC runner-up. Unfortunately, that’s what should be, and not what reality holds.

So, why does Notre Dame do the ACC deal?

To put it simply, when the Big East saw a mass exodus, the ACC became the conference to be in for basketball. It’s littered with blue chip programs and classic brands. It kept Notre Dame in the best basketball conference.

That’s the biggest benefit to the ACC deal.

For football, there really is no benefit. You can play minor rivals some seasons, while still keeping the Independent tradition of Notre Dame. You can still play USC, Navy, and Stanford on an annual basis. You get a little bit of money.

Is that worth tanking your strength of schedule? Notre Dame can schedule anyone. They could have had teams like Penn State and Wisconsin instead of Duke and Louisville.

Furthermore, there’s nothing wrong with going back to the Big East for basketball. They just took back UConn, as the Huskies head towards football independence. They did so to add an exciting brand that people want to watch and rekindle old match-ups.

Notre Dame could absolutely do the same. The Big East has no trouble making the tournament. Villanova, Seton Hall, Marquette, and Georgetown are huge brands. The conference makes a little over $30 million in an annual media deal. Divided up and that almost makes up the difference in ACC money lost.

So, what’s the benefit of being in the ACC?

Is it a little bit of money? Is it going from a really good basketball conference to a great one?

And is it worth the cost of always having a worse schedule (at least by perception, which is what matters most) than Notre Dame possibly could? There are certainly no benefits for the football program. They could schedule any ACC team they want with or without the agreement.

It’s time Notre Dame thinks about aligning with a different conference or going back to being a pure independent.