In addition to on-field success, with the Irish claiming nine national titles in the year period from , independence was lucrative off the field as well. Delany became commissioner of the Big Ten, then the most powerful conference in the country, in and quickly made his mark with the addition of Penn State as a conference member in Continuing to chase more millions in television revenue with a nice bump coming from the proposed conference championship game , Delany approached Notre Dame for the first time in After the luster had worn off from the Lou Holtz years, though, Delany and the Big Ten again offered Notre Dame conference membership in , and this time the university said it would evaluate the pros and cons of membership.
However, what Delany failed to realize — or maybe he realized it and plunged forward with a longshot effort of convincing the Irish to join the conference anyway — was that decades of independence, first out of necessity but then out of choice, had left an indelible mark on the university, her alumni, and fans — a mark that could never be measured by dollar signs. Notre Dame would have been forced to join the Committee for Institutional Cooperation CIC , an academic consortium of Big Ten schools focused on faculty and student exchanges and grant sharing in graduate programs interestingly enough, the Notre Dame Faculty Senate supported joining the CIC.
Notre Dame president Fr. As a Catholic university with a national constituency, we believe independence continues to be our best way forward. Though Notre Dame has continued to remain an object of desire for the Big Ten since then, the university has never again seriously considered joining. Furthermore, in the past month Swarbrick served on the four-person committee that recommended College Football Playoff expansion to 12 teams, and indicated that the price of remaining independent was to give up the chance of ever getting a bye, and he and the university were fine with that.
We would be much better off all in with the ACC or any Power 5 conference. One small financial advantage to Notre Dame football remaining independent, though, is the fact that the College Football Playoff awards a base amount of money to independent programs regardless of whether they make the Playoff, and Notre Dame gets the most.
With its all-but-football deal in the ACC, Notre Dame football doesn't get the same conference revenue share other programs get. But it also is not obligated to play what otherwise might be a boring and in many cases, weak schedule almost completely full of ACC opponents. Notre Dame is obligated to play just five ACC opponents per year, and the rest of the schedule is, for the most part, a blank slate of possibilities.
Last year and in the Fighting Irish played Georgia. They've renewed their rivalry with Michigan over the last couple seasons. Texas and Oklahoma have clashed with Notre Dame in the last decade. This is a great deal for Notre Dame football fans, who don't have to watch their team play the same eight or nine teams every year. And Notre Dame football deserves credit for generally scheduling tough opponents in those open, non-ACC slots.
The TV networks love this, too. Last year's Notre Dame-Georgia game was such a big deal to CBS, the network sacrificed its only prime-time window of the season to show the game at 8 p. ET window later in the season. Notre Dame vs. Georgia ended up being the second-highest rated game of the regular season followed by, of course, LSU vs.
The Fighting Irish might not have had title chances either year had the program scheduled cupcakes. Notre Dame football gets almost all of the benefits associated with playing in the ACC. More College Football News ». More Big Ten News ». View all Big Ten Sites. More ACC News ». View all ACC Sites. More Big 12 News ». More FS Big 12 News ». View all Big 12 Sites. More Pac 12 News ». More FS Pac 12 News ». View all PAC Sites.
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