Notre Dame's appearance in the playoffs says the same thing that its appearance in the BCS Championship said: the Irish need whatever mental toughening comes from playing in conference races. And I have no doubt that it takes a lot of mental toughening to win Major conferences, as well as to be competitive in them year after year.
I said from the start of this deal that it was a Rubicon, that once ND crossed the barrier and began playing 5 ACC games per year, facing all league members over every 3 year period, ND could never again go back to being a true football independent. I also said for at least a decade before this deal was arranged that ND could not afford to join the Big Ten, ever. The reason is that in a conference in which all (now 13) state schools are considerably larger than UNC, ND would be swallowed, absorbed in all things save football history. And eventually even that would happen, as ND football would be reshuffled by the people who run things for the gigantic midwestern state schools to be seen as meaning less than both Ohio St and Michigan and much less than the Ohio St-Michigan game.
ND has many fans who are stupid enough to think that could never happen to ND football in any conference, and, as strange as it sounds, they are always allied with the fans who assert that being in any conference will ruin ND football.
Here is the bottom line: the sooner that ND football goes full member in the ACC, the better for the long term full health of ND football. And now that the stupid midwestern ND fan biases (Big Ten football is much better in every way than ACC football, which means being part of the ACC would weaken ND football) are blown away from all but the most invincibly ignorant, the movement for ND leaving its self-imposed limbo should gain momentum.
Now that Big Ten has been forced to realize that in thwarting the ACC desire to end the arbitrary NCAA rule requiring equal divisions for a Championship Game it cut off its own nose trying to spite ND's face and the ACC's entire body, the BT knows that it needs to end the NCAA divisional requirement in order to make its Championship Game more likely to produce a champ heading into the playoffs. That change will mean that ACC football can add ND without having to add a 16th team.
Obviously, if Texas is ready to blow up the Big 12 and wants into the ACC, we'd be more than happy. If Penn State were to get wise and want out of the Big Ten, we'd be thrilled to have 16. But if we do not have to go to 16 to have ND play a full football schedule, then why would we add, say, a Cincinnati?
Well, I would be very interested in the Bearcats just to poke hard at the Big Ten. UC in the ACC finally would be able to grow, almost all of that growth at the expense of the BT. But if the BT does agree to alter the NCAA rule about divisions so we can play without them, there would be no need to hit at the BT in the state it most needs to control virtually 100%.
So, I think that if the BT ends its opposition to changing the NCAA rule, and ND is finally able to accept that not only are the 1970s not coming back, but neither are the 1990s, and therefore ND football needs full conference membership as much as it needed to play in bowls by the 1970s, then we will stop at 15 - unless a walk off home run school like Texas or Penn St wants to join when ND takes the full plunge.
So that means we can waste some time thinking about scheduling for 15 members. We could have 2+ 6 (6) scheduling, which works like 3+5 (5) with 14 members. Each team would have 2 annual rivals, and then face each of the remaining 12 members twice over a 4 year period, 6 per season.
I said from the start of this deal that it was a Rubicon, that once ND crossed the barrier and began playing 5 ACC games per year, facing all league members over every 3 year period, ND could never again go back to being a true football independent. I also said for at least a decade before this deal was arranged that ND could not afford to join the Big Ten, ever. The reason is that in a conference in which all (now 13) state schools are considerably larger than UNC, ND would be swallowed, absorbed in all things save football history. And eventually even that would happen, as ND football would be reshuffled by the people who run things for the gigantic midwestern state schools to be seen as meaning less than both Ohio St and Michigan and much less than the Ohio St-Michigan game.
ND has many fans who are stupid enough to think that could never happen to ND football in any conference, and, as strange as it sounds, they are always allied with the fans who assert that being in any conference will ruin ND football.
Here is the bottom line: the sooner that ND football goes full member in the ACC, the better for the long term full health of ND football. And now that the stupid midwestern ND fan biases (Big Ten football is much better in every way than ACC football, which means being part of the ACC would weaken ND football) are blown away from all but the most invincibly ignorant, the movement for ND leaving its self-imposed limbo should gain momentum.
Now that Big Ten has been forced to realize that in thwarting the ACC desire to end the arbitrary NCAA rule requiring equal divisions for a Championship Game it cut off its own nose trying to spite ND's face and the ACC's entire body, the BT knows that it needs to end the NCAA divisional requirement in order to make its Championship Game more likely to produce a champ heading into the playoffs. That change will mean that ACC football can add ND without having to add a 16th team.
Obviously, if Texas is ready to blow up the Big 12 and wants into the ACC, we'd be more than happy. If Penn State were to get wise and want out of the Big Ten, we'd be thrilled to have 16. But if we do not have to go to 16 to have ND play a full football schedule, then why would we add, say, a Cincinnati?
Well, I would be very interested in the Bearcats just to poke hard at the Big Ten. UC in the ACC finally would be able to grow, almost all of that growth at the expense of the BT. But if the BT does agree to alter the NCAA rule about divisions so we can play without them, there would be no need to hit at the BT in the state it most needs to control virtually 100%.
So, I think that if the BT ends its opposition to changing the NCAA rule, and ND is finally able to accept that not only are the 1970s not coming back, but neither are the 1990s, and therefore ND football needs full conference membership as much as it needed to play in bowls by the 1970s, then we will stop at 15 - unless a walk off home run school like Texas or Penn St wants to join when ND takes the full plunge.
So that means we can waste some time thinking about scheduling for 15 members. We could have 2+ 6 (6) scheduling, which works like 3+5 (5) with 14 members. Each team would have 2 annual rivals, and then face each of the remaining 12 members twice over a 4 year period, 6 per season.
