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Message: [QUOTE="TerryD, post: 3933857, member: 3399"] Here is a question for you: What will happen if ND joins the ACC, then ESPN approaches the latter and says "If you go to a ten game conference schedule, we will pay you millions more." Will the other ACC schools care that ND thinks that will hurt its recruiting? Will they turn down the offer because ND thinks it will damage its football program? Hell no, the response will be "Screw ND, we all want that extra cash". So, ND's goose will be cooked and it will be left with no other option. ND is a small Catholic school in Northern Indiana, with no local recruiting base. It is not Ohio State, Alabama, Florida or Texas, sitting on a rich recruiting area with a state full of kids who want to play for State U. It has to fight the "cold" issue, the "Catholic" issue, the "it makes its players study more" issue, the "its too far away" issue and other negative recruiting thrown its way. It believes that it has to travel all over and play games nationally in order to recruit nationally. Why does it think that? Because it was forced to do that and it worked. That is how Notre Dame became Notre Dame. ND strongly believes that football independence is the best model for its brand, for advertising the school and for building and maintaining its football program. But other people want ND to surrender independence and want it to revamp everything: how it schedules, how it recruits, who it has to play (versus who it wants to play) and how it builds and maintains its brand. They want ND to completely dump 132 years of something that served it very well. Why do people want this ? Is it because they think it will be better for ND? Hell no. They only want this to line the pockets of the school(s) they root for, no other reason. When ND counters that this may likely hurt its brand, its status and its recruiting, what guarantees are presented that this will not happen ?? Only "Aww, don't worry about it You will be just fine, trust us". That is all, nothing more. The ACC only wants to use ND to generate extra cash. There is nothing wrong with that, but it won't care if ND is right, that joining a conference will damage it, making it more like Nebraska or Northwestern. It will be "Gee, that is too damned bad. Thanks for that new TV deal, though". If you guys are right, and independence is doomed, why sell it now (it can only be sold once) and for a lower price ? What business thrives by selling things for less instead of more, for accepting the lowest possible price? It may be better for ND to ride out independence for as long as possible. At least ND fans can enjoy the ride for a while and the ND haters will have to wait longer to gloat. A conference is a conference. Surrendering independence to the ACC is not much different than surrendering independence to a Big Ten or SEC super conference. Surrender is surrender, the rest are just details. Either way, ND loses. [/QUOTE]

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