Notre Dame Moving All Sports But Football and Hockey to ACC

According to headline on Sportsline. No article yet.

 

From ESPN

Notre Dame Moving To ACC Except For Football

 

Boy this is right out of left field. First I did not think the ACC would take ND without football, and secondly I thought that we would stay with the Big East as long as we stayed independent in football, but that when and if the super conferences came about and we had to join then ACC makes sense.

Irish have much more in common academically and sizewise with schools like Duke, UNC, Ga.Tech, UVA, Wake Forrest, than we would have with the B12 schools which seemed to be the other option people were talking about.

They are saying we'll play 5 ACC games in football per year. That's a good thing for our schedule. Not to mention it will help our recruiting not only on the East Coast but probably all over the south. Doubt if it has any impact on our recruiting one way or the other in the Midwest or other sections of the country.

 

Since we already play BC and Pitt every year, this is not too big a change. We often play other ACC schools like Wake, Md., Ga. Tech. and this year we also play Miami.
Obviously, it's a plus in many ways.
Most important is our football independence. Second, is conference stability. Third, the competition is sports such as basketball, lacross, and soccer is a big step up.
If and when a college football champion will only come from super conferences, we can seamlessly move into the ACC.
I like it.

 

Hey Terry and gipper, do you think that when Notre Dame's contract with NBC expires they might become a full football member?

 

Bill
I don't think that is when the decision to join a conference will be made. BTW, many conference schools today get more from their conference TV contracts than ND does. I don't think in this case its about the money.

 

I wasn't thinking about money gipper but could the timing of that contract be why the Irish are not joining the ACC now?

Do you think that ND may become full conference members in the future?

This is quite a big deal for the ACC.

 

Bill, our biggest concern the past few years is our non football teams. It seem as though the Big East was teetering on the brink of collapse. The BE today doesn't look anything like it did just 3 years ago.
We still feel our football can remain independent and have a good schedule but our non football teams would be lost without conference affiliation. I think that ND went for the move because the ACC is allowing them to remain independent in football.
I think that the vast majority of ND alums, fans and administration want to keep the football team independent as long as possible.

 

I like this move because the Big East with the addition of all those CUSA schools just isn't that attractive now. Also I love it that we give UConn the big finger!!

As far as joining full time, I don't believe that will happen unless the Super Conferences happen with a full scale playoff. I don't think existence of the NBC contract prevented us from joining full time right now, we just didn't want to do that. And when the time comes TV contracts will be renegotiated, how it all comes out I have no idea but it won't be the determining factor as to when we join.

 

Thanks guys, I was just curious.

5 games a year is pretty significant but you were playing two of them anyway.

Think Miami might be one of the five?

Well I'm off to our Wed afternoon Bridge game.

 

Actually Bill we've been playing BC and Pitt almost yearly. This year we also play Wake and Miami. It really doesn't change our schedule that dramaticly. We've played ACC teams on a regular basis with the exception of Clemson and Va. Tech.
I suspect that we'll keep USC, Stanford and Navy. We might have to drop a Big 10 team. By far our closest friends there are MSU and Purdue. That would leave us 2 openings a year which should be easy to fill.
One of the biggest advantages is that we'll get to use ACC refs and I believe that we are part of the ACC bowl tie ins now.

 

Bill we will rotate through the ACC and play all of them over a 3 year period.

 

Actually, Purdue is the historically closest relationship in the Big 10, going back to our "glory" years when Purdue kept us on their schedule as other Big 10 teams dropped us. I hope this administration has an appreciation for history. I also hope we continue to play MSU. I'm ambivalent about Michigan. It would not bother me at all if that series ended.

Re: the NBC contract, it's only my opinion, but when it comes time to re-negotiate, we could be in the catbird seat money-wise. Why? The ND football brand has become very crucial to NBC's sports coverage. If NBC considers itself in competition with the ACC FB $ distribution, and if the ACC per-team payout is higher than what we receive from NBC, we might get an offer from NBC that would match the ACC payout, thus eliminating any potential issue regarding football revenue.

The above is only one man's speculation on the financial aspects of the move. The bottom line IMO is what Terry and Gip said above: Money is not the prime motivating factor, and our clear preference is to remain independent in football.

 

Yeah I would agree the Purdue and MSU games would take precedent over retaining the Michigan series. I wouldn't be surprised if Mich would be very happy we want out as I have read several times that while UM fans like the ND series they also feel it constrains them from scheduling other good non-conference teams. Not that they can't but like most conference schools they only want 1 good home/home non-conf game the rest for $$$ reasons need to be buy games for home only.

 

A couple of key excerpts from the University's Release:

 

Ah that last quote says that Notre Dame will be part of the non BCS Bowl package. That puts you guys in a better position than now doesn't it?

 

It sure does. It's not going to sit well with some ACC football coaches.

 

I reached my limit on Wolvie bashing. The Butt Hut will never see another thin dime of mine again.

 

ND

<t>The Butt Hut??? Whatever. <br/>
<br/>
Boy the ND haters are really getting their panties in a wad over this ACC move aren't they! Love it. This is a great move on the ND's part.</t>

 

As yes all this media attention on a program that is irrelevent. You know that you're in the BIG TIME when you get your own topic on the ESPN trailer. We're up there with Bret Favre. :lol: