The Notre Dame football team dominated ACC play in 2020, but a return to their Independent ways will return for the 2021 season and beyond.
For Notre Dame football, it will be one season in a conference and one trip to a conference championship game. Not too bad. After all, there’s plenty of programs that have been in a conference for decades and never won, or even made a conference championship game.
Still, hopefully, this first season is the last one for Notre Dame in a conference. After all, it took a worldwide pandemic to force the Irish into a conference for the 2020 season.
Of course, it is out of a proud tradition that Notre Dame has remained Independent for so long. They’ve done so in the face of criticism from the majority, who feel that the Irish need to join a conference to fit the mold of most modern college football programs. This season has even proved that being in the ACC full-time would be the easier option.
The Irish wouldn’t have to go unbeaten to make the College Football Playoff, and even if they fell short of the Playoff, their conference would have a New Year’s Six Bowl tie-in for them. Just last season Notre Dame went 10-2 in the regular season, and it landed them in the Camping World Bowl, but a 9-4 Virginia team went to the Orange Bowl as an automatic bid.
Maybe it would have been easier for the Irish to take the ACC money long term, but for now, it’s just going to be a one-season foray. Most fans and the administration will choose their Independence instead of being in the ACC out of tradition and a sense of normalcy, but Notre Dame didn’t always want to exist as an Independent.
In fact, in their early days, the Notre Dame program wanted to join the Western Conference, which is now known as the B1G 10.
ACC was fun for Notre Dame football, but Independence returns in 2021
Looking Back
That never happened, though. Fielding Yost of Michigan blocked Notre Dame from joining the Western Conference, largely due to his anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment. He also didn’t like the fact that Notre Dame beat Michigan in 1909. Yost stopped Michigan and the Irish from playing until 1940 and influenced the rest of the Western Conference to blackball Notre Dame.
This meant the Irish wouldn’t be able to play many regional games, forcing them to travel to play.
Ultimately, Yost’s hatred for Notre Dame helped them rise as a program. By forcing them to become a national traveler, Yost helped Knute Rockne make Notre Dame a national brand. Traveling to play teams like Army, USC, and Nebraska the Irish gained fans from all over the country.
Mix in success, and the Irish quickly rose to prominence as an Independent, proving that they didn’t need a conference to succeed.
From that point, Notre Dame’s pride in and culture of Independence emerged, and through the Great Depression, World War II, the rise of media rights in college football being negotiated by conferences, and conference realignment Notre Dame never really looked at joining a conference once they were blocked by the Western Conference. That is until a worldwide pandemic in 2020 almost canceled the season and the Irish joined the ACC for a season to make sure they’d have a full schedule to play. By the 2021 season, the Irish will be Independent again.
We’ll see if anything makes Notre Dame change their stance on Independence. The higher payouts on media deals they can get from the ACC, or maybe the easier path to the Playoff, could make being a full-time ACC member look attractive. Perhaps, they go back to Independence but find it’s lost some of its luster after finally ripping the band-aid and joining a conference temporarily.
Probably not. After all, Independence is too culturally ingrained in the DNA of Notre Dame to give it up forever. So for this one season, let us enjoy the dominance, and hopefully see Ian Book and company lead the Irish to an ACC title and a national championship.