Anything ND does this year will be on the back of a disgustingly soft schedule. They came into the season with 6 combined starts for their OL. If the coaches can coach the kids up they could be tough by the time playoffs come around.
That’s interesting. Why wouldn’t they just then opt to join the ACC where they already have context and familiarity? The B12 and the ACC are dying entities. There’s little appeal to either.
They looked like big ol babies. lol. I mean, they had baby faces. But one thing ND always gets right is O line and TE;
I don't know . The ACC isn;t going to have enough elite teams to challenge them, and they might be worse off than being independent.
I think you have a flawed vision of Notre Dame’s goals at this point. They don’t need to be the biggest thing in the conference when that conference has the brands that B10 and SEC now have. ND objected to being a Michigan and Ohio State level brand and unserious brands like Illinois Indiana Purdue etc…suckling from the hard work ND created. ND in the B10 or SEC would finally have a conference that they wouldn’t have to carry like they would carry other conferences.
I think the pathway to actually winning a national title entails playing the kind of schedule they will see in the B10 or SEC. You’re right. If the goal is beating up on pansies they stay status quo. The competitive balance has changed. It’s two super conferences and a lower tier of football everywhere else.
I dont know man. Most of us from outside the ND bubble saw ND always wanted to stand out and be it's own entity.
That’s because you’re stuck with a vision of 1970s,80s,90s ND. Academically, they’d love access to the B10. That’s always been the case. The B10 has improved their brand considerably since ND turned them down in the 90s. The faction that hated Fielding Yost’s WASP bigotry and said Never the B10 are quite frankly dying off. Different rules now.
Correct
Expansion will get so large that you’ll see subdivisions created for just that reason.
I don’t think that’s punishment at all. They don’t have to play in a conference championship game. That’s pretty fair. They gain from playing that disgusting ACC schedule. I think their situation this year is the only reason they’re in the mix for a playoff spot. This team is really raw. In a conference, they’d be more likely to be exposed. As it is they have A&M and USC to start and finish and a bunch of ACC garbage in the middle.
Then ND would just stay status quo. The USC game isn’t in jeopardy. They will be able to play one SEC team a year as well. They can continue to play lesser in the ACC. ND has won something like 28 of their last 30 ACC games.
There is no value in changing their situation to join a dead entity. They’d just stay in their current dying entity.
That model is going to dry up. If a team isn’t playing SEC and B10 games they’re essentially going to be playing second tier college football. They won’t be able to recruit kids to play in the lower tier.
