Notre Dame football should align with SEC not Big Ten conference
4 min read
If Notre Dame wanted to be in a meeting, it would be in a conference. The Irish really do not deficiency for suitors. Evidently, Notre Dame savors its soccer independence, even as tremendous conferences spring up.
The Irish never hold all the cards, while.
Conference commissioners could nudge Notre Dame into a conference by hammering out a Higher education Soccer Playoff that would penalize the Irish’s independence.
That’s exactly where the SEC comes in.
Greg Sankey’s conference may perhaps turn into an critical ally in Notre Dame’s motivation to stay unbiased.
A Notre Dame-SEC alliance ought to be extra successful than the farcical Alliance amongst the ACC, Major 10 and Pac-12, for the reason that the ideal outcomes for Notre Dame and the SEC overlap. An independent Notre Dame behooves the SEC, as opposed to the Irish becoming a member of (and enriching) the Massive 10 or the ACC.
Plus, Notre Dame’s excellent end result for the playoff’s future meshes with the SEC’s: The additional at-significant playoff bids, the superior for the SEC. Exact for Notre Dame.
Sankey has expressed written content with the continuance of the four-workforce playoff, in which no computerized bids are awarded to conference champions. That format will continue to be in place at least as a result of the 2025 period, after which the CFP agreement ends. Sankey also has revealed fascination in either an eight-staff playoff stuffed solely by at-significant selections (no AQs for conference champions) or a 12-workforce playoff with at minimum 6 at-huge places.
Any of those people formats would allow the SEC to command a strong playoff presence even though Notre Dame would retain a clear path to the playoff.
The Irish’s independence has hardly ever established a roadblock to the national championship, mainly because university football’s various postseason formats never ever penalized independents in a sizeable way. The Irish claimed eight countrywide titles through the significant poll era, experienced for the BCS national championship once and has twice been chosen for the CFP.
Notre Dame does not require to join a meeting if its independence carries on to give a honest shot at the nationwide championship.
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What about cash, you say? Effectively, if the Significant Ten’s media legal rights war upper body was Notre Dame’s top priority, then it would be putting in a B1G logo on its grounds by now.
The Huge Ten’s fascination in Notre Dame dates back a long time.
In 1999, the university’s board of trustees rebuffed a Massive 10 overture. The Irish have competed in the ACC in other sporting activities though preserving soccer independence sacred.
Notre Dame’s grant of legal rights of agreement with the ACC results in a financial penalty for becoming a member of a further meeting, whilst the Big Ten’s riches from an future media rights mega offer would battle that.
Just one outstanding Big Ten athletics director, Ohio State’s Gene Smith, has been open about his desire to see the Irish as a conference peer.
“I’ve usually felt like they need to be in a conference, and I hope that they are considering that,” Smith, a Notre Dame alumnus, said this thirty day period. “I really don’t know what a subsequent move would be, but I’ve usually shared that I hope they contemplate that option, and I hope it can be the Massive 10.”
Which is the previous thing the SEC need to want, and that is why the SEC ought to ally alone at Notre Dame’s aspect in serving to protected a future playoff that does not prioritize conference champions.
The Alliance flopped mainly because people conferences in no way experienced a clear aim, other than to switch up a collective middle finger at the SEC.
The ACC and Pac-12 foolishly joined the Huge 10 in rejecting a 12-team playoff proposal that would have integrated computerized bids for 6 convention champions. Months afterwards, Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff was left wearing a dunce cap just after the Large 10 plundered his conference’s two prized customers, Southern Cal and UCLA.
The SEC supported the 12-staff playoff proposal. But right after the approach unsuccessful to acquire unanimous assist from convention commissioners, Sankey vowed that the SEC will re-evaluate its playoff stance and may possibly even carry out its personal playoff following the present CFP agreement expires.
Sankey’s suggestion of an SEC-only playoff is no vacant menace, but it also does not feel like his chosen outcome. The concept is additional like a trump card stashed in Sankey’s back pocket to make certain that the SEC negotiates a playoff structure it wants.
The SEC’s suitable format must be an expanded playoff that awards access exclusively by means of at-substantial selection, enabling the prospect to stockpile various bids. Such a format also would be advanta
geous to Notre Dame’s quest to stay unbiased.
So, you can see the place this lowercase alliance might be a lot more aligned than the Alliance at any time was.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the Usa Currently Network. E-mail him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and observe him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
