As Notre Dame's schedule once again becomes a topic of conversation with the release of the College Football Playoff Top 25, it's time, once and for all, to bury the argument that the Fighting Irish need to join a conference, and then seal it under concrete.
Speaking about how Marcus Freeman's squad had a less-than-impressive record, CFP Chair Hunter Yurachek gave the game away again. When asked why Indiana was No. 4 and Notre Dame was No. 11, his explanation didn't sound very convincing:
"Yeah, I think comparatively Indiana has five, six games against teams that are .500 and above, and they're 5-1 in those games. Notre Dame has two games against teams that are .500 and above," Yurachek claimed when asked about the disparity.
"They've won one of those games and lost the other one of those games. I think Notre Dame's overall body of work is against a strength of schedule that's not as strong as Indiana's. Again, Notre Dame has a great opportunity in front of them at home against the No. 1 team in our CFP ranking this weekend to get that signature win."
Notre Dame football joining the ACC would likely weaken its non-conference schedule
That argument would be easier to take if they weren't so far apart in the rankings, considering how close the two teams' other metrics are. But when Notre Dame tries to complain about these kinds of weak arguments, the refrain is always the same. "Join a conference."
The problem with that argument is that the conference the Irish would almost certainly join is the same one they're aligned with in most other sports. The assumption is that the Irish would join the Big Ten, but almost every other athletic program is in the ACC.
If the Notre Dame football program joined the ACC, the chances of a stronger schedule aren't zero, but they're pretty slim. The Irish, of course, have a scheduling agreement with the ACC that accounts for half their schedule.
This season, that schedule includes North Carolina, Stanford, Miami, Boston College, SMU, and Syracuse. If Notre Dame adds three more conference games, does anyone really think those games would replace Navy, Rice, or Purdue?
Why would the Irish take a harder road when Indiana's non-conference schedule consists of North Texas, Howard, and Western Kentucky? If Notre Dame joined the ACC, it would boot Michigan State, Wisconsin, and BYU from its non-conference schedule.
Sure, at that point, people would complain about how weak the Irish schedule was, but they'd be hypocrites if they were doing that while ranking Indiana or Alabama, whose non-conference schedule is East Carolina, Florida State, and Chattanooga.
Rail about Notre Dame not joining a conference all you want. Be jealous that the Irish can compete with the big boys of the college football world on the field and off - they currently have the No. 3 recruiting class in the 2027 cycle - but don't pretend like critics would suddenly stop complaining about the program if they joined a conference.
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