With the 2020 pandemic, the Fighting Irish aligned themselves with the ACC to reduce travel that most schools have done for this season. Schools are only playing conference games, including conference championships.
In fact, the only non-conference games Notre Dame will play this season is when they find out who their opponent will be in the College Football Playoff, once they claim the ACC title in December.
The Fighting Irish currently sit at 9-0, including a double-overtime win against defending National Champion Clemson. Granted, the Tigers were without their Heisman Trophy favorite, quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who contracted the virus in the days leading up to the game.
The Irish have remained healthy this season, which should finish with them remaining undefeated through their final two games. Notre Dame gets Syracuse on Saturday, who lost this weekend when their quarterback spiked the ball to kill the clock...on fourth down, and a middle-of-the-road Wake Forest.
Normally, the Irish would play ACC schools Florida State, Duke, Louisville, Boston College in the annual “Holy War,” all three Service Academy schools (Army, Navy and Air Force), before rounding out with a few non-conference fillers such as Michigan and USC.
The schedule never really changes. However, with 2018 being the first year a non-Power Five school cracked the CFP, the Irish have opened the door for a school like BYU or Liberty to join the New Year’s Day “Group of Six” marquee bowl games. BYU is also undefeated, while Liberty has one loss on their record. Yet, neither have the resume that Notre Dame has to make the Final Four, due to not having quality wins that would typically come from conference play.
No one likes the chaos the pandemic has caused, likely none more than Ohio State. If the Buckeyes do not have either of their cancelled game against Maryland or Illinois rescheduled, they will not have enough games to qualify for the Big Ten Championship game. Then Indiana, the team that nearly erased a 28-point lead last week, would leave Ohio State home.
Notre Dame makes far more money on their own than they ever would joining the ACC for football on a permanent basis. Their current contract with NBC pays the school $15 million annually until 2025. The ACC has a $1.86 billion contract with ESPN, which breaks down to $155 million for the conference annually. However, the ACC deal is for both football and basketball, to be divided amongst the 14 schools. That equates to just over $11 million per school. If you split the difference, it’s $5.5 million for football and basketball, equally.
So why would Notre Dame not sit off to the side earning an extra $3 million from their football deal, as well as take the $5.5 million they earn by being a member of the ACC in all other sports?!
Pundits, fans and college football voters alike have been clamoring for the Irish to join a conference for football since as far back as any of us can recall. Now that they have for one season, it is causing more chaos than clarity.
What happens if Florida upsets Alabama in the SEC title game? What happens if Ohio State cannot make the Big 10 title game, leaving Indiana as the only team in the conference worthy of any marquee bowl matchup? The Pac 12 has been out of the equation for weeks. Can Iowa State finish the job to win the Big 12?
There is still controversy, but isn’t it better when we have one fewer variable coming into the equation?
-JC24