The Notre Dame football program is still playing Independent football but is it time for the Irish to finally join a conference.
The Notre Dame football program is one of the premier programs in all of college football, and they are one of the few who still play Independent football. Recently, things have been changing all across college football, bringing up the question of whether or not the Irish should play in a conference moving forward.
If you have not been living under a rock, you probably know where all this is going. If you have, let’s catch up. It has come out that Texas and Oklahoma have been working back channels to try and leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
Texas A&M is adamant that they don’t want it to happen, but it appears they don’t have the votes within the SEC to stop it. Most SEC schools look at the two as a major increase in TV revenue, while SEC commissioner quoting Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changing at SEC media days feels a little too on the nose now.
For their part, the Big 12 is ultimately powerless to keep them from leaving once their media deal expires.
This is obviously bad news for the Big 12, who relies on Texas and Oklahoma for most of their media value. In essence, an eight-team league where Oklahoma State, West Virginia, or TCU is your major media earner is not a power conference.
So, there are two options for those teams.
Find a new conference, or aggressively expand the Big 12 with invitations to new schools. This would likely mean the AAC and Mountain West get poached into relative non-existence…or their own scramble to poach teams. Rinse, wash, repeat.
For their part, the SEC would officially be a 16-team superconference. They’d be a media giant, almost untouchable in the sport. Other conferences would need to keep up. At this point, joining the B1G 10 or ACC will probably sound better to those remaining Big 12 teams than trying to rebuild from the ashes.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame football is still Independent. After COVID-19 forced Notre Dame football to join a conference for one season, they left as quickly as possible. The last major realignment, which saw the world of college football shift, didn’t force them into a conference.
Now, with College Football Playoff expansion on the horizon, new rules around player NIL, and a rapidly changing landscape, the question is going to come up again. Is it time for Notre Dame football to join a conference, or can they go on being Independent?
So, let’s dive into the arguments for and against Notre Dame football staying Independent going forward.
Is it Time For Notre Dame football to Join a Conference?
The Argument For Independence
Notre Dame football is not and never should be a full-time conference member in football. This is the tradition that has helped to build Notre Dame into the program they are today, and they will lose what makes them unique among college football without it. Beyond that, it will kill the traditions at Notre Dame outside of this idea of Independence, as they will be too obligated to a conference.
This means not being able to play Navy, USC, Stanford, and other rivals on an annual basis.
Furthermore, Notre Dame needs to be a national program in recruiting. This means going to California to play games and recruit. It means playing the Shamrock Series throughout the country, or trips to Florida, the Carolinas, and Texas.
By joining a conference, Notre Dame would lose that flexibility and become a much more regional program. At a school like Notre Dame, with its unique challenges in recruiting, this will make it much harder to find the right recruits for Notre Dame.
Leaving Independence for a conference would also mean the death of the NBC deal, which is one of the most unique arrangements in all of the sports. Always being able to find the Irish on a national network makes it easier to grow the fanbase, even if it’s not the recruiting tool for players that it used to be.
It should also be noted that the appeal here isn’t NBC’s money. The approximate $15 million that Notre Dame makes from the deal isn’t worth much compared to the SEC’s mega-contracts with ESPN. Even with that being less than their peers make from a media deal, they’re making plenty of money to succeed as a program in the modern era.
The newly proposed 12-team College Football Playoff was in large part designed by Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick to make life as an Independent possible for Notre Dame. Under that format, there would be six at-large spots available. Notre Dame could make the field with a loss now, maybe even two losses, and not have to go play in a conference championship game like they would in the four-team format. In this format, they can even host a Playoff game in South Bend.
Add to all that the new NIL rules, which Notre Dame is better suited to take advantage of than any team in the country, as they have access to a nationwide fanbase, NBC, and want to recruit nationally, and Notre Dame is better suited as an Independent than to be just another team in the ACC.
Is it Time For Notre Dame football to Join a Conference?
The Argument Against Independence
Independence is that last refuge for teams with nowhere to go. Look who else is an Independent. UMass, UConn, New Mexico State. These teams are here because no one will have them, and they can pretend they want to make it as an Independent, but anyone can see they’re desperate for any other FBS option.
So why has Notre Dame stayed? Why didn’t the Irish see the writing on the wall decades ago, and find a home that they could have adjusted to and started to rule by now?
I get holding onto tradition but don’t let holding onto tradition make the world pass you by. It’s time to get with the program. The sport has changed too much to stay Independent. This is Notre Dame. You’re not Ohio State, Alabama, or Clemson. They have a conference to rely on, one they can have a bend to their will, and prop them up when they need help.
With modern technology, being national is so much easier than ever before. Modern technology lets Alabama and Clemson recruit California without a yearly road trip there. It can be done. Besides, just because your home games aren’t on NBC doesn’t mean that they won’t be easily accessible on national TV. Small programs are going behind the paywall, not Notre Dame.
So, don’t worry about anything like that.
With changes on the horizon, like the College Football Playoff, it’s incredibly important to be a part of a conference. Think about it, the top six conference champions are all automatically in. You don’t have to be perfect, and with the at-large spots, you don’t even have to be the conference championship to get in. And, what if that proposed expansion doesn’t happen now that super conferences are forming?
Notre Dame still has to be perfect to get in, while Alabama gets at least one free loss every season because they’re in one of those conferences.
You just can’t be left behind. These conferences are going to be bringing in well over $50 million annually on a media deal, which NBC won’t be able to touch for just the Notre Dame game. Eventually, that financial gap is going to catch up to Notre Dame, and they won’t be able to compete on the highest level ever again.
Joining a conference won’t hurt the fanbase, because you watch to root for Notre Dame, not against a specific team. Without joining a conference, you’ll be left in the dust. An afterthought, or forgotten program from a different era.
So What Do You Think?
As Notre Dame fans, we want them to stay Independent and believe that they can do so out of confidence in the foundation of the program. Still, there is an argument to be heard for and against being an Independent going forward. The game is changing, and at some point, Notre Dame may need to be willing to adapt.
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So, what do you think? Should Notre Dame stay Independent or join a conference?