Notre Dame Football Not Being In ACC Full Time Hurts FSU, Entire League

With Notre Dame’s agreement to play a five game ACC schedule and not join the conference full time, schools like FSU are hurt and will continue to be.

When the news broke in the summer of 2013, the world of college sports shook in disbelief that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a team rich in history and who had spent years as a member of the Big East Conference in all sports but football, was heading to a new home: the Atlantic Coast Conference.

With the move, the first question was asked: “Well, what about the football team?” Just like their previous home, the school was able to get away with an arrangement to join the conference in every sport…but football. This time, the Fighting Irish gave in slightly and agreed to play five games a season against teams from the ACC, playing teams like FSU, Clemson and Miami once every three years.

Like so many issues that have been documented before, the ACC got the raw end of the deal when it came to the gridiron. The conference, so desperate for attention and trying to be something it isn’t, increased their basketball, baseball and Olympic sport programs while leaving football with a slight taste of what could be…and then taking the plate away.

It was a genius move for Notre Dame: the program found a home for its other programs while getting a piece of the ACC’s money pie without having to buy an ingredients. The Fighting Irish get a higher check at the door when they play ACC opponents on the road (since they are still a non-conference game) and get to jump over an ACC team in the conference’s bowl order.

Best of all, when Notre Dame makes it to a bowl game, they have to share that money with the ACC…unless it’s a College Football Playoff or New Years Six game (such as this past season’s Fiesta Bowl) in which case they get to keep all that money…something Clemson didn’t get to do even though they played for the national title.

At the same time, the Fighting Irish didn’t have to share their television contract in any way with NBC, meaning that the ACC is stuck being second fiddle on ESPN and other networks instead of having a new home hat would put them on the level of other Power Five leagues.

The argument that the ACC gave was that it would raise the profile of the conference’s football resume, with Notre Dame traveling to play FSU in the first year of the arrangement and Clemson during the second. While those two games were instant classics, Notre Dame doesn’t play the Seminoles again until 2018 (and in Tallahassee until 2021) or the Tigers until 2020 (and on the road until 2023).

This season, Notre Dame will host both Miami, Duke and Virginia Tech while traveling to N.C. State and playing Syracuse in East Rutherford, NJ (a “road game” just outside New York City, one of their largest alumni bases in the nation). If the ACC was truly interested in what is best for the conference, it would have given Notre Dame an ultimatum: join in every sport or look elsewhere.

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It shouldn’t be a shock that the ACC would do something that was not in the best interest of the football programs. Schools like FSU and Clemson have played for national titles in the last three seasons (with the Seminoles bringing home the title in 2013), and the conference still treats it as just a warmup for basketball season. It’s no wonder Maryland left for the Big Ten after 2013 and FSU continues to be courted by other conferences.

When Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College joined the conference in 2004 and 2005, it was seen as the first sign that the ACC might be serious about embracing its football programs. Slightly over a decade since then, the conference is back to where it started: a step behind everyone else but acting like they’re on the same level.

The ACC is fine where it’s at with 14 members playing in football. If Notre Dame doesn’t want to become the 15th (which would then require someone to say bye bye or a 16th school to come into the equation) in football to make them equal with most other sports, it would be in the best interest for the conference and football schools like FSU, Clemson and Miami for them to go. One decent crowd every six seasons isn’t worth it.

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