It won’t be long until Notre Dame is playing ACC football, too
ACC commish John Swofford with Father John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame. (AP photo)
The big news Wednesday was that Notre Dame will join the ACC in every league sport except football. The news someday soon will be that Notre Dame has decided to remove the qualifier from its new affiliation. The guess here is that, come 2016, the biggest independent in the history of independents will be playing conference football in a conference that needs a football jolt.
Speaking on a teleconference, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Wednesday: “Our intention is to remain independent.” Then this: “If something would change, and it would have to be a drastic change, we’re committed to the ACC.”
In college football, drastic change occurs every hour on the hour. Three years ago, who’d have believed a playoff grid would be in place? Three years from now, the Irish will have grasped that continuing independence is overrated. (Not incidentally, Notre Dame’s TV contract with NBC lapses in 2015.)
The advent of that playoff left the biggest name in college football — say what you will about Alabama, but the Tide has never had its own TV network — in a place no program could afford to be. It left Notre Dame without postseason assurances. Even before the playoff format was finalized, the SEC and the Big 12 had partnered to create a new Champions Bowl. Who out there was willing to commit to being the New Year’s date of the famous independent?
In yet another display of clever thinking, ACC commissioner John Swofford pursued the school that every conference would kill to get, but they approached Notre Dame at an angle. You can join our league and stay a football independent, he said, but you’ll play five regular-season games against our membership and — big key — you’ll be eligible for bowl selection as one of ours.
(There’s a caveat: Notre Dame can’t replace an ACC team in the Orange Bowl, though it could play an ACC team in the Orange Bowl. But Notre Dame could be chosen as the ACC rep in, say, the Chick-fil-A Bowl.)
In a statement released by Notre Dame, Irish football coach Brian Kelly said: “We have further solidified our future as an independent in college football, maintained our unique ability to schedule nationally and greatly improved our postseason bowl-game options.”
But if you’re going to play five games against one league every blessed season, why hold out as an independent? Why not go the full Monty? And here’s the other deft trick Swofford turned: He upped the buyout fee for anyone wishing to leave the ACC to $50 million. That’s up from $20 million, and that’s a cost no university can begin to pay.
This means Florida State and Clemson and Virginia Tech aren’t going anywhere. And the buyout, Swofford noted, “does apply to Notre Dame and goes into effect immediately.”
As of Wednesday, Notre Dame is tied to the ACC. If/when — and really, more “when” than “if” — the Irish realize that independence is to contemporary college football as the Pony Express is to communications, they have nowhere else to go.
At a media briefing in Chapel Hill, Swofford spoke of “a changing landscape in intercollegiate athletics” and then quoted Clemson president James Barker as having said, “What was best 20 years ago isn’t best today.” That applies to the ACC, which had previously balked at offering partial enrollment, and it definitely applies to Notre Dame.
Say the Irish choose, for no real reason, to remain a football loner: The ACC still benefits. Its best-in-the-business basketball profile — remember, Syracuse and Pittsburgh are on the way — is further burnished, and the league has also enhanced its reputation as the conference that cares most about academics. (Insert North Carolina joke here.) Better still, the league has played the greatest bit of catch-up ball since Frank Reich, himself an ACC product, engineered that epic Buffalo rally against the Houston Oilers.
With teams switching conferences at the drop of a $100 bill, it was once feared that the ACC would be raided and ruined. Turns out it hasn’t lost a school while poaching three from the now-dilapidated Big East. You wouldn’t have bet on John Swofford to emerge as the most dynamic force in 21st century intercollegiate athletics, but here he stands.
And for all who insist that Notre Dame is an outdated concept … no, it hasn’t won a national championship since the day Georgia hired Ray Goff as its head coach, but Notre Dame remains the biggest national name in a sport that still beats hardest to regional pulses. You won’t find many Bama or USC or Texas fans in the Bronx, but you’ll find Irish backers. (Hence the phrase “subway alumni.”)
There’s no conference that wouldn’t benefit from adding the biggest of brand names. John Swofford’s conference is the one that did. On the day he spoke of “a changing landscape,” he effected the biggest change.
By Mark Bradley
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276 comments Add your comment
Goldenrod
September 12th, 2012
3:53 pm
FIRST! Bring on the Irish – we will destroy them like we do the puppies every fall!
Rudy was onsides!
Mark Bradley
September 12th, 2012
3:54 pm
Kudos, Goldenrod.
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
3:56 pm
FIRST!
Irish are over-rated.
George Stein
September 12th, 2012
3:58 pm
Second. Welcome to the greatest football conference in all of the land Irish!
Too bad you’re not bringing your hockey and lacrosse teams, we would have killed you guys.
HeluvaEngineer
September 12th, 2012
3:59 pm
Wake Forest-Notre Dame is a real David vs. Goliath situation, if David had killed Goliath four times in six years.
wes
September 12th, 2012
3:59 pm
As an ACC fan, I’d just like to say THIS IS GREAT!
Nobody thought we could do it. Especially every redneck with a pickup truck in the state.
Kudos to Swofford! Well played, ser.
StanRunAway
September 12th, 2012
4:02 pm
Why does the chicken run loudest by corners?
Lucrative Big East deal possible without ND – ESPN (blog) | Sports News
September 12th, 2012
4:04 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution [...]
Notre Dame to the ACC, but not in football? It’s still a big deal | Mark Bradley
September 12th, 2012
4:05 pm
[...] (Here, as threatened, is the longer take on Notre Dame and the ACC.) [...]
Golden Domers
September 12th, 2012
4:09 pm
Hey Goldenrod – you don’t scare me – as a Smyrna resident I follow the Bulldogs as well as the Irish and I can tell you first hand you guys don’t even come CLOSE to dominating them each fall! In fact it is the other way around.
If I recall correctly, since Coach Richt has been at UGA they have won something like 10 out of 11. Put THAT in your TI Scientific Calculator and see what % you come up with.
Rally sons of Notre Dame, Sing her glory … Up!
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
4:10 pm
Unlink my imposter, I don’t think the Irish are overrated and I think this is good for the ACC. This is a good blog also, it may help the SEC fans understand things a little better.
BGaston
September 12th, 2012
4:15 pm
“You won’t find many Bama or USC or Texas fans in the Bronx”
Biggest Ala Alumni Association outside of AL is in NYC, whoops!
http://www.uanyc.com/about.html
George Stein
September 12th, 2012
4:15 pm
Why did someone steal my handle?
JacketsWIN
September 12th, 2012
4:16 pm
Well. RUDY WAS OFFSIDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Albany_Jacket
September 12th, 2012
4:17 pm
Love the addition, Go Jackets!
ACC Forever
September 12th, 2012
4:20 pm
Mark,
Glad you think this will help the lowly ACC!! Your anti ACC schtick is getting old. Football power runs in cycles. By the way, I haven’t heard much out of the SEC media zealots about the Arkansas loss to UL Munroe. You guys can hype Missouri to be the next Alabama but when one of your SEC powers falls to earth, no mention of it. What did you have the mighty Razorbacks ranked, 8th?
The ACC will be fine with or without your support. Notre Dame is a fine academic institution that aligns well with the rest of the conference.
StanRunAway
September 12th, 2012
4:23 pm
Someone stole my handle. ACC is now THE premier conference in college football.
Paul Hewson
September 12th, 2012
4:32 pm
Notre Dame’s move to the ACC means nothing. Same deal the Irish had with the Big East. Wake me when their football joins a conference.
Al
September 12th, 2012
4:34 pm
ACC is so happy about getting Notre Dame. Only thing Notre Dame has is a little tradition, nothing else.
There football team is a joke every year but the media hypes them up and ND never lives up to it.
ACC is weak in football and getting Pitt, Syracuse, & ND is not going to help.
As for any SEC bashing check out the last 6 NC’s in football…..case closed!!
ToeMeetsLeather
September 12th, 2012
4:36 pm
Don’t really like this partial member stuff, but with the almighty dollar driving most college athletic decisions these days, I guess it makes sense. Maybe everything is in place to have Navy come on board when the NBC deal expires and the playoff system starts to form the first (16) member football conference. I guess you can add conference affiliation changes to the short list of givens, death and taxes.
Roll Tide Roll
September 12th, 2012
4:36 pm
Wake me up when the perennially overrated Irish schedule a football game against an SEC opponent BESIDES weak Vanderbilt.
GTT
September 12th, 2012
4:38 pm
Forty seventh!
So What You're Telling Me Is
September 12th, 2012
4:40 pm
Notre Dame will compete in the ACC in all sports but football. So they’re Duke.
MatthewH
September 12th, 2012
4:43 pm
I heard a point somewhere else about the location of the football games that ND will play against the ACC. Do we really think that ND will want to play at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham? Last time they played Maryland, it wasn’t in Collge Park, it was at FedEx Field. Will games be moved to Charlotte?
GeoffDawg
September 12th, 2012
4:45 pm
Good for Swofford but I’d say it’s a fair bet that most will still consider Mike Slive to be the biggest mover and shaker in college sports.
Harvey Updyke
September 12th, 2012
4:48 pm
Yet another Auburn loss Saturday against LA Monroe would be rock bottom, no bounce. Continuing the analogy, a win would be like grasping onto a shrub at the edge of a cliff, at least until LSU and Arkansas come along in subsequent weeks with their chainsaws. Until they develop some new weapons of their own, the Tigers and their coach are only hanging on for dear life. Not the same team without one Cam Newton.
Clay
September 12th, 2012
4:49 pm
Only the wuss conferences like the Big Least and the football challenged ACC would allow those prima donnas at notre dame to dictate their terms to be members of their conference. To be a member of a conference is like being pregnant. You’re in or you’re out. No toe in the water first. As long as ND has their own TV network, any AD or conference who schedules them in football plays right into their hands. Let them play Cornell or Fordham or Boston University in all sports. Who needs them?
Carlos
September 12th, 2012
4:49 pm
wake me up when any other school has it own TV contract with a major network.
ACC and notre dame win so its a good deal for both. Although made more sense to me for notre dame to join the big ten.
Clay Travis
September 12th, 2012
4:51 pm
Who said ANYTHING about Auburn? Chizik is a failure without sCam, plain and simple.
Now back to the topic of the Irish, the most overrated team in the long history of college football. When is the last time they competed for a nat’y championship? The 80’s? Sounds like a team in silver britches up in Athens.
Go Vols, beat them Gators!
MFranklin
September 12th, 2012
4:52 pm
For ND to willingly embrace the ACC… wouldn’t there have to be some natural disaster?
This concept is repulsive.
Lou Holtz's Retainer
September 12th, 2012
4:53 pm
I tune into NBC each Saturday for one reason – to watch the Irish lose – AGAIN!
Overrated {clap clap, clap clap clap}!!!
GeoffDawg
September 12th, 2012
4:54 pm
Hope it works out for the ACC but they need to keep in mind that there are potential pitfalls here that could make everyone miserable. 1) like in the Big 12 with Texas, the envy and jealousy that comes with treating one program as special and different than everyone else eventually takes its toll and 2) With their sweetheart deal and commensurate revenue, how long before ND tries to run the league and create a schism of haves and have nots ala Deloss Dodds? With the $50 million buyout, you may be chaining yourself to an unstable and unhealthy situation.
James Franklin
September 12th, 2012
4:55 pm
Stop hating on Vandy or I will punch you in the mouth!
We are the Georgia Tech of Nashville, ignoring the fact we started 2-0.
This ain’t your Daddy’s Vandy!
Rick James
September 12th, 2012
4:57 pm
@Tony Barnhart
This, more than anything, is Notre Dame trying to return to the college football elite by traveling the road of least resistance. By moving to the weak ACC and playing five games annually against the league, it all but assures Notre Dame’s longstanding rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue will be altered or maybe eliminated.
And what did the ACC get? The Notre Dame name—and the false perception that the ACC really is a strong, viable entity in the new college football world.
————————————————————————————————————————-
Thank you Sir…
Bobo
September 12th, 2012
5:00 pm
Okay, so the ACC may not be where the SEC is, but as a Tech fan, I DO NOT WANT Notre Dame. This is getting ridiculous. How many more schools are going to break any and all tradition in the name of prostituting themselves for more TV revenue. I dislike Notre Dame as much as the next Notre Dame hater, but that doesn’t mean I want to play their over-inflated, self-righteous, delusional program. There’s something to be said about having a rival WORTHY of being hated, rather than just being a waste of time on your schedule that could’ve been used somewhere else. Yes, I HATE UGA and I HATE FSU, but at least those programs are worth some respect. As for Notre Dame, they can keep their yankee noses held up high and stay up North, except for the once a year where USC humiliates them or they decide it would be a good idea to schedule a Southern school (like they did with us when they lost 33-3 a few years back). This conference doesn’t need another Wake Forest or NC State caliber (if they’re up to THAT level) football program.
Notre Dame Headed To ACC – ESPN | Headline News Network
September 12th, 2012
5:00 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution [...]
Tim Brando
September 12th, 2012
5:06 pm
I think South Carolina is the sleeper to win the national championship out of the conference.
I think they are capable of doing it. This was a team that with a little bit of a break in scheduling should have and would have been the Eastern Division Champion a year ago and should be this year, but they have a tougher road than Georgia. If you tell me, ‘Give me one coach to win one big game in college football today,’ I would say Spurrier.
The question is – will he get Connor Shaw killed in the process?
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
5:06 pm
By moving to the weak ACC and playing five games annually against the league, it all but assures Notre Dame’s longstanding rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue will be altered or maybe eliminated.
Who exactly do you think Notre Dame is going to play in their other 7 games? If they were going to give up all of their rivalries then they would have just joined as a full member.
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
5:08 pm
Will the 16th team be a strong academic school? The best remaining choices from an academic standpoint are Rutgers, Buffalo, Rice or Tulane. Not athletic powerhouses.
Born2Buzz
September 12th, 2012
5:10 pm
Now finish the deal and go get Penn State. That would be a sweet 16 for sure.
Mike Golic
September 12th, 2012
5:10 pm
If I told you about a team that had lost 10 of its last 12 bowl games, had dropped nine of its last 10 to USC, had led the nation only in disappointment, you’d figure that team would be halfway down the Mountain West standings. But Notre Dame still gets perks and love from the NCAA and BCS as though the year is 1946 – and now we join the WEAK ACC?
Mother Mary spare us!
dawgfan
September 12th, 2012
5:10 pm
Notre Dame has won a grand total of 4 bowl games in the past 20 freaking years. Yeah, this is real upgrade for the ACC. It looks like the same medicore half azzed crap we’ve come to expect out of the ACC to me.
pawleys island jacket
September 12th, 2012
5:12 pm
Bummer, the five game crap. They already play BC so about every three years or so they will play 4 additional teams per year so figure how long before each team’s turn comes up….several years!
Rudy
September 12th, 2012
5:14 pm
I don’t love Notre Dame football anymore. Notre Dame football has been living a lie, as Lou Holtz likes to say. Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, nothing happened. The echoes are in REM sleep. It has failed to advance the ball.
In Europe, if you play too much bad soccer for too many years, you get “relegated” to a lower division, moved down, demoted. It just happened to the Blackburn Rovers. Now it has happened to Notre Dame. They have been demoted to the ACC.
Can you explain to me how a team that hasn’t won a national championship since 1988, a Heisman since 1987, or more than eight games its last five seasons still gets treated like the 1967 Green Bay Packers?
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
5:14 pm
Notre Dame has won a grand total of 4 bowl games in the past 20 freaking years. Yeah, this is real upgrade for the ACC.
This may shock you but recent bowl records probably weren’t a major factor in the negotiations.
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
5:16 pm
They already play BC so about every three years or so they will play 4 additional teams per year so figure how long before each team’s turn comes up….several years!
They will play every team in the ACC every 3 years so if by several, you meant 3 then you are right.
Brian Kelly is the Savior
September 12th, 2012
5:18 pm
Wait, what? Coach Brian Kelly is the savior? Really? Because he looks to me like he’s doing a very good impression of Bob Davie so far. He’s opened with back-to-back 8-5 seasons. Wow. Give him a sitting ovation. Doing about the same job as Paul Johnson does in a WEAK ACC conference.
dawgfan
September 12th, 2012
5:19 pm
“This may shock you but recent bowl records probably weren’t a major factor in the negotiations.”
That’s not a shock to me at all. It’s obviously all about attention and hype. Funny how you ACC crybabies love to cry in your milk when the SEC is getting hyped. Then Notre Dame wants to join your league and you can’t HYPE it up enough. 4 bowl wins in 20 years Bob. What an absolute joke of a pile of crap football program.
T-Bone
September 12th, 2012
5:20 pm
Mark, if you are reading this . . . Any guess as to who the ACC will add by 2015-2016 to make it a 16-team conference?
ACC is WEAK
September 12th, 2012
5:21 pm
The ACC is already week and now they added the most overrated team in the history of college football.
What have the Irish done lately? That’s right – NOTHING!
GTBob
September 12th, 2012
5:24 pm
That’s not a shock to me at all. It’s obviously all about attention and hype.
Yes, Swofford and Notre Dame made a deal so that we would talk about them on the AJC blogs. You really figured it out.
Just Stop
September 12th, 2012
5:28 pm
Too bad they didn’t join the SEC. Think of all the great joke possibilities there would have been:
A priest and a redneck walk in to the bar………………………………………..ya da ya da ya da.
Woofy One
September 12th, 2012
5:30 pm
Notre Dame hasn’t been a team cycling on and off the national stage in so long they need the ACC to stay relevant when their TV contract ends in 2015. Hopefully they improve enough to become a valued member.
Rick James
September 12th, 2012
5:36 pm
@GTBob
This may shock you but recent bowl records probably weren’t a major factor in the negotiations
——————————————————————————————————————————
I dont know about the rest of the ACC schools but I’m sure it was not a factor with Tech!! What is it,7 straight bowl losses?
BobDawg
September 12th, 2012
5:40 pm
Can’t wait to see Tech renew it’s Fighting Irish Tradition of throwing Fish onto the bench/field when the Irish come to Grant Field!!! Now that was Cool!!!!
College Football Fan
September 12th, 2012
5:59 pm
Look what happened to Miami and FSU when the joined the ACC. They became just like the rest of the ACC teams – a joke.
So Notre Dame will devolve into a joke too given a little time. That’s fine.
I just remember the Notre Dame of my youth that would not even consider playing in a bowl game, much less joining a conference. There was a aura about ND back then.
I believe ND finally gave in and played in its first bowl game around 1973 when Ara’s Irish played the Bear’s Tide. ND won it by one point and it was thrilling.
ND has hit a new low. The ACC? How sad.
Mark Bradley
September 12th, 2012
6:06 pm
Swofford said today the ACC is not interested in adding a 16th team. But I imagine that would change if Notre Dame’s intentions change.
Big Crimson 75
September 12th, 2012
6:15 pm
Geez, ND hasn’t been a member 24 hours & their already telling Swofford what to do.
Chuck UGA
September 12th, 2012
6:23 pm
Anyone have any idea what Goldenrod (at the top of the blog) is talking about? Certainly isn’t football.
Just sayin'
September 12th, 2012
6:24 pm
A team of thoughtfully-selected ACC + ND ‘All Stars’ couldn’t beat most of the SEC and PAC-12 team. You all agree — you know you do.
dwagfanny
September 12th, 2012
6:24 pm
Nothing shocks me at all. Trailer payment, crybabies, hypers, piles of crap, nothing. I am immune to shock! Money? Who cares about money? Wins baby! We wins a lot.
You serious, Clark??
September 12th, 2012
6:30 pm
I heard Auburn’s trees have perked up. Is that true? Then free Updyke!
Tdawgmoney
September 12th, 2012
6:31 pm
pardon a little lawyer speak…..the much hallowed $50 million sounds steep….but actually is unenforceable. I.E., loud bark…..no bite. The member schools did not contractually agree to/sign such a document, nor will they. Fora better word picture, you could bet $50 mill with Mark (an idea a minute) Bradley that UK won’t beat UGA next year in toundball…but if you are right, ‘you ainta gettin the loot’.
Evansdawg
September 12th, 2012
6:39 pm
When the football team jumps in…it will be another annual loss on the Wannabee’s schedule.
01HAWK
September 12th, 2012
6:40 pm
Is ALABAMA in almost every sports story concerning College Football. Here is a story about the ACC……………………..All Cissy Conference and yet BAMA name comes up.
Shows how much AJC has BAMA on their mind
Don’t you just LOVE US !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ROLL TIDE ROLL
Big Crimson 75
September 12th, 2012
6:45 pm
Hawk — it’s impossible not too!!
No matter what, we’re on everyone’s mind!!
dwagfanny
September 12th, 2012
6:48 pm
Lawyer speak = Lies
“In perhaps a bigger development for the stability of the ACC, the league presidents also voted to increase the conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. With the ACC’s current budget, the exit fee exceeds $50 million. That new exit fee goes into effect immediately and does apply to Notre Dame.”
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/20163126/notre-dame-to-become-acc-member-in-all-sports-except-football
230gr Full Metal Jacket
September 12th, 2012
6:49 pm
Just Sayin’ — Are you on crack or are you really that delusional (never mind, you’re an SEC sidewalk fan, so it’s just plain stupidity and inbreeding I suppose). You dwags crack me up. The SEC is a complete joke except for 2 teams — and UGA doesn’t play either one in the regular season. The rest of the teams are no better than the teams in the Big East or Big 10 or Big 12………or ACC. Ditto for the Pac-12: 2 good teams in a sea of mediocrity. It’s getting really pathetic listening to a bunch of trailer-dwellers chest thumping while chanting S-E-C because they can’t justify cheering for their own team, so they live vicariously through their conference opponents. Who does UGA get this week, Sister Mary’s school for wayward blind girls??? The SEC is at the peak of a good cycle, well at least 2 teams are. But football is a cyclical thing. It wasn’t long ago that Miami and FSU and such were winning all of the titles and the SEC couldn’t buy a win if they had to. And it will return to that shortly. Conferences rise and fall in a fairly predictable manner if you look at history. The SEC is wrapping up it’s tuime on top and will soon be displaced. Probably by the Pac-12 if I had to guess, but the ACC will also be candidate for the apex position. Do you really think FSU, Miami, V-Tech, ND, UNC, UVA, and GT will remain down forever?? It ain’t going to happen!! Ya’ll enjoy the season in Athens. It’s the best shot at a title ya’ll have had in over 30 years due to a strong defense and a pathetically weak schedule. But next year most of that D is gone, and the schedule comes back into the real world. Plus, the SEC is hitting the downward slope and is about to be usurped — possibly this season, although I doubt it (I think it will be next year before someone else steps up, due to scheduling and recruiting). Enjoy your time in the sun — because darkness is approaching!
01HAWK
September 12th, 2012
6:52 pm
LSU coach Les Miles on Wednesday confirmed that four more players will not play for the team in 2012, bringing the number of players lost since fall camp began to 11.
Miles would not say why linebacker Tahj Jones and D.J. Welter, tight end Tyler Edwards and offensive lineman Evan Washington were dismissed, citing privacy issues.
“Those guys will not play this year,” Miles said. “I don’t know that I can tell you the specifics as to why and why not.”
A source told the Times Picayune that the four were ruled academically ineligible, but Miles said he had a “privacy responsibility” and declined to confirm that report. Jones, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound junior, was the only one of the four who was a starter.
Miles did confirm that sophomore defensive end Jordan Allen, who was injured on a kickoff against Washington last Saturday, is out for the year.
Big Crimson 75
September 12th, 2012
6:56 pm
Jacket — I agree with your post.
However, it’s not 2 programs that have done the work, it’s 3!!
Fla earned the right to be mentioned with Bama & LSU.
They might be down a bit now, but they won’t stay down.
Bama & Fla have given this conference 2 Titles recently, LSU only 1.
Collegeballfan
September 12th, 2012
6:59 pm
I detest Notre Dame.
But I must admit that Notre Dame has more college football tradition than all other NCAA members combined. There have been more movies made about Notre Dame football than all other NCAA members combined.
And the ACC now has a big hand in the Chicago and NYC TV markets.
Big Crimson 75
September 12th, 2012
6:59 pm
Hawk — good news!!
Oh wait, that can’t possibly be correct!! Uga is the only SEC school which disciplines players, remember?
01HAWK
September 12th, 2012
7:03 pm
Big Crimson 75
It is time for Dee Hart to show why he was one of the top RB in the country coming out of High School. It was good to see Kenyan Drake with the TD run. SABAN is doing the right thing by not giving YELDON the big head by not starting him. I like this rotation
Lacey
Yeldon
Hart
Drake
Sims………………..Only in an emergency
Sims should be the backup QB. He looked in control on Saturday.
I would hate to move Calloway back to RB. What kind of player is TREY ROBERTS from McGill Toolen ? He must have walked on for I do not see where he was heavily recruited.
ROLL TIDE ROLL
lxUn1c0
September 12th, 2012
7:07 pm
Notre Dame’s intentions will change, mark my words. As Mark Bradley noted, their contract with NBC expires in 2015. Ratings for the Irish on NBC are down 64% over a two-year period. I don’t see why NBC would ever want to renew the contract with performance like that.
Once that contract’s up, Notre Dame faces a choice: buy into the structure of a conference with an existing TV deal or stop playing football in front of a television audience. If they join a conference, it will be the ACC. Nobody can afford a $50 million buyout.
It’s just a matter of time before Notre Dame’s hand is forced, barring the luck of the Irish. At that point, all of these contractual privileges the ACC gave the Irish will be a thing of the past, and the ACC will begin to look for its 16th member.
01HAWK
September 12th, 2012
7:09 pm
Big Crimson 75
What do you know about TREY ROBERTS ? He is listed as a RB on the BAMA roster. He was not recruited heavily.
UAB, SOU MISS, TULANE, SOUTH AL all offered.
George Stein
September 12th, 2012
7:25 pm
Lot of folks showed up just in time to miss the point.
This is about ratings, not wins. Notre Dame gets ratings whether you like it or not. Period.
Nick
September 12th, 2012
7:56 pm
I was totally against ND joining the ACC and wasn’t enamoured with Pitt and Syracuse either. But times have changed and college football is now big time moneyball. Mark Bradley wrote a very articulate, concise, and direct article. ND’s fan base would not allow the administration to give up it’s current football status at this time. But the Big East will continue to unravel over the next 18 months and NBC’s next TV deal with ND won’t be as sweet as the last one.
ND will become a full time member by 2015 and the ACC will accept a 16th member at that time and that member may be a shocker. ESPN will sweeten the pot considerably and all members will make their $20+ million a year. The $50-56 million $$ exit fee will have Deloss Dodds and company tied up in knots because they are next on the clock.
The moneyball grows larger.
Gordon
September 12th, 2012
8:17 pm
Well said, George Stein. I was about to post the same thing.
Russ
September 12th, 2012
8:18 pm
So much hate and envy…. Yes ND is loved nationally, east to west and north to south ….why to you think there bowl game was a sellout and rating up almost 75% from any other year….???? GO IRISH we in southeast love the IRISH
Rick James
September 12th, 2012
8:31 pm
@230gr Full Metal Jacket
Are you serious?
Mary Mac's Tea Room
September 12th, 2012
8:33 pm
ACC is better than Big 12 minus two
guy
September 12th, 2012
8:35 pm
Having ND is like having obama as president.Both are vastly outclassed and terribly overrated! The press covers up for both of their weak ways.
Big Crimson 75
September 12th, 2012
8:36 pm
Hawk — I have no clue who that guy is.
I know Lacy needs to get going!!
And I agree with Fowler out, time for Dee Hart to step it up.
We still have 3 quality backs plus Drake to get some carries now & again.
I’ve always liked Blake as our #2 QB.
He’s got the most experience, plus he gives us an added element as a runner.
I will miss the big fella pounding the rock!!
Rick James
September 12th, 2012
8:39 pm
@Russ
So much hate and envy…. Yes ND is loved nationally, east to west and north to south ….why to you think there bowl game was a sellout and rating up almost 75% from any other year….???? GO IRISH we in southeast love the IRISH
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Why would anyone in SEC country hate or envy Notre Dame? The SEC would never have taken them under the cicumstances that the ACC did.They do have a national fan base but the havent won squat in ages..You do know that both teams are responsable for selling out bowl games right? Where the only people in the stadium ND fans?
tmc
September 12th, 2012
9:02 pm
ND= Irrelevant.
Yet, the ACC allowed ND to continue believing they are “special and elite”.
The only way ND becomes relevant again is by joining and winning a conference and stop acting like the shiot don’t stink. Other conferences wouldn’t allow ND to do what they did joining the ACC w/o football… ACC is desperate. It’s a match made in heaven and both parties will not improve.
GT GRAD
September 12th, 2012
9:15 pm
Great news!
Welcome to the ACC!!
BLT
September 12th, 2012
9:18 pm
Jeebus, ND has fans all across the country. I’m glad they joined the ACC. Lots of exposure and ND fans going to ACC games (if only for 5 games at the moment). Not much down side except they certainly have their eye on revenue. The ACC or B1G ten were the only alternatives given the future CFB landscape. The SEC fans (?) should not have anything to worry about. You guys have 3 teams always in contention for a MNC. I still don’t know why the rest of you hitch your wagon to the the big three in your conference. FYI- 2 of them are in the west and 1 is in the east (UF). Sorry cocks and dogs but it’s the truth. I know, I know…but Jarvis Jones, Jarvis Jones and we get those suspended players back which will make our defense better than the Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, Jeebus!
BLT
September 12th, 2012
9:19 pm
Welcome to the the Irish!
BLT
September 12th, 2012
9:29 pm
MB, not sure why my original post did not go thru? I guess it’s your narrative. Far worse has been posted already but keep the agenda going. Thanks
Ol'JacketFan
September 12th, 2012
9:31 pm
Filters acting up????
Ol'JacketFan
September 12th, 2012
9:32 pm
@BLT the same thing just happened to me
fuzzybee78
September 12th, 2012
9:40 pm
I flew to the GT- ND game a few years ago. Tech won 33-3 and despite that, we were greeted and treated with the utmost respect by every fan I crossed paths with. It remains the best away game experience in terms of class and sportsmanship I have had in 40 years of following the Jackets.
Welcome to the ACC Notre Dame!
Terrible Truth
September 12th, 2012
9:45 pm
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Missouri? I’d still take the latter two.
Reality Stinks
September 12th, 2012
9:56 pm
LOL
Just another team in the ACC that cant play football
Doug the Jacket
September 12th, 2012
9:56 pm
Wow! Bradley – you got it right! I can’t wait to see ND as a regular at Grant Field.
About Right
September 12th, 2012
9:58 pm
Get ready for the Irish to spank the nerds on an annual basis…………..
Virginia Tech
September 12th, 2012
10:03 pm
fuzzybee78
Why dont you fly the entire Tech fanbase to a Notre Dame game so you jerks can learn how to act
The UGA fanbase showed more class beating us than you do when you lose to us
Virginia Tech
September 12th, 2012
10:04 pm
fuzzybee78
Why dont you fly the entire Tech fans to a Notre Dame game so you jerks can learn how to act
UGA fans showed more class beating us than you do when you lose to us
Virginia Tech
September 12th, 2012
10:06 pm
fuzzybee78
Why dont you fly the entire Tech fanbase to a Notre Dame game so you jerks can learn how to act
Dawglasville
September 12th, 2012
10:08 pm
Growing up Catholic and a son of a Tech student I had to cheer for both teams. Some of you young guys have no idea how ugly that rivalry was. My dad said we couldn’t go to the games at Grant Field because the fans got so rough. He said, now this was a long time ago, that the students threw frozen fish at the Irish bench and one year a whiskey bottle was thrown. Of course, that may have been a drunken Rat thinking they were throwing at Pepper Rogers. A lot of 6-5 years during that period. Some of you older guys can probably paint a better picture. I’m 47 and was young when this happened.
Ol'JacketFan
September 12th, 2012
10:25 pm
I posted this on Ken’s page earlier, not trying to be snarky just very curious,
Have to admit initially I wasn’t real thrilled with this change but the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Academically ND is on par with some of the best schools in the country and despite their woes in football the remainder of their sports programs are usually nationally ranked. For all the naysayers out there the ND cachet still exists. By no means am I or ever have been a fan of ND but to deny that they have a tremendous fan base is simply silly.
My questions to all of the non ACC fans that have blasted and belittled the move is this. If ND is irrelevant as a sports insitution and the ACC is so horrible……………why do you care enough to voice an opinion? I am not telling anyone they cannot have an opinion I just what to know why it’s important to you to care?
Randy from macon
September 12th, 2012
10:28 pm
Old Tech – How about Penn State? Perfect!
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
10:29 pm
Unfortunately the bottle was thrown from the upper deck, I was sitting in “Flash Cards” when it happened. According to friends the guy that threw the bottle was grabbed by several students & “educated” before being turned over to police
Ol'JacketFan
September 12th, 2012
10:30 pm
Just wanted to re post over here on MBs page. I just curious to see what the responses may be.
I have to admit initially I wasn’t real thrilled with this change but the more I thought about the more it makes sense. Academically ND is on par with some of the best schools in the country and despite their woes in football the remainder of their sports programs are usually nationally ranked. For all the naysayers out there the ND cachet still exists. By no means am I or ever have been a fan of ND but to deny that they have a tremendous fan base is simply silly.
My questions to all of the non ACC fans that have blasted and belittled the move is this. If ND is irrelevant as a sports insitution and the ACC is so horrible……………why do you care enough to voice an opinion? I am not telling anyone they cannot have an opinion I just what to know why it’s important to you to care?
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
10:30 pm
Randy, I don’t think so/ How about u of Florida? Trade FSU to SEC for gators?
Dawglasville
September 12th, 2012
10:37 pm
Old Tech – Wow. I had forgotten about the flash cards. “Educated,” pretty funny. I remember one year when the Rats stormed the field before a game against Clemson and cut off the tail of their mascot. Of course, that would be the highlight of any game to a kid. The whiskey bottle thing of course happened in Athens too, I think in the early 90’s. I’ve seen a lot of drunken stupidity at a lot of stadiums over the years. I don’t miss that.
Randy from macon
September 12th, 2012
10:42 pm
Old Tech – Absolutely not. Florida is a football factory and not a recognized academic school. Penn State would be a perfect fit. Then, if Notre Dame agrees to go football in the ACC, you have two 8 team divisions where you could play 6 games against your own division each year and 2 out of division teams each year. Great setup!
GT Girl
September 12th, 2012
10:43 pm
I was in the student section when the fish were thrown. Now that was funny, the bottle thrown was not.
Paul in NH
September 12th, 2012
10:48 pm
Roll Tide Roll
September 12th, 2012
4:36 pm
Wake me up when the perennially overrated Irish schedule a football game against an SEC opponent BESIDES weak Vanderbilt.
————-
In the last 15 years ND has played a 2 game home and home vs LSU (winning both) and a 4 gamer against Tennessee (going 2 and 2). I think Alabama stopped trying to schedule them because Bear could never beat them.
Randy from macon
September 12th, 2012
10:51 pm
GT Girl – I hope you were not hit by a fish! GO JACKETS!
IL Jacket
September 12th, 2012
10:51 pm
Dawglasville, I was in the seats for a lot of those 6-5 seasons. But at least in those years the losses were to USC, ND, UT, Auburn some of the longstanding rivals of Tech. Seeing the Trojans at Grant Field was incredible.
fuzzybee78
September 12th, 2012
10:55 pm
VT-
I havent been to Blacksburg yet but I cant wait to meet more classy guys like you.
Dont save the gift wrap paper, see you next year down here.
GT Girl
September 12th, 2012
10:56 pm
I was not, thank you. It was thrown at ND players.
Miami Dawg
September 12th, 2012
11:00 pm
John Swofford… the most dynamic force in 21st century intercollegiate athletics???
Seriously??? Given the SEC’s domination of college football, not to mention the ACC itself (no, clemson beating auburn doesn’t cover for decades of the SEC owning the ACC) this deal means little or nothing.
The power has shifted south. Notre Dame has great history but that is about it. Dont expect them to do much other than become not relevant as Miami is now and Flo State has been since its early days in the ACC.
Paul in NH
September 12th, 2012
11:00 pm
What the heck is Jim Delany thinkung about all this?
ylojkt
September 12th, 2012
11:03 pm
Can’t wait to beat the kiddy diddlers! Bring em on!
jeff g
September 12th, 2012
11:04 pm
lots of envy on here by the insecure dog fans. like the other poster said, nothing as pathetic as cheering vicariously through a rival teams success. this is huge for the acc and will put them at the top when tv contracts are done in 3 years.
Jacket Up
September 12th, 2012
11:05 pm
Blast us and the ACC all you want about Irish mediocrity, but as long as those yankees in NYC and ESPN believe people like to watch them on Saturday afternoons, they (ESPN) will pay the big bucks we need to compete in this dollar denominated “sport”. Also, there are probably a few hundred thousand ND fans in Atlanta who finally have a reason to come to Grant Field. So, we`ll take the Irish and all they bring with them (especially), mediocrity not withstanding.
Randy from macon
September 12th, 2012
11:07 pm
And thank you for that information GT Girl. I have a question for you – who should start at QB for the Jackets against Virginia: Tevin or Vad and why? Lots of love!
Paul in NH
September 12th, 2012
11:07 pm
“decades of the SEC owning the ACC”
Do those decades include the 80’s and 90’s when the ACC and SEC each won the same number of MNC’s?
IL Jacket
September 12th, 2012
11:07 pm
Paul, he cannot be happy, but ND has signaled for a long time that if they were to join a conference it would be the ACC. in addition to the loss of prestige with ND choosing another conference, with the 5 game requirement and ND pairing back some of its traditional rivals, it appears Purdue, Mich. St and UM may have to find other dance partners. Those games have been big for the B1G teams.
Nothings shocking
September 12th, 2012
11:15 pm
Also, there are probably a few hundred thousand ND fans in Atlanta
Wow are you effing stupid. 5.2 mil people in metro atl. MAYBE 33% are college football fans.
So now we have 1.7 million fans left. Of that 1.7 25% are easily uga. Now we are down to 1.3 million fans. Out of this, 50% are sec gt or acc fans. Now we are down to 650,000. Of this, 90% have to be fans of a big 10, big 12, pac 10, big east or smaller school like ga souther furman etc. So now we are down to 65,000 fans. So yes I would say probably 50-75k people in this city are big or small nd fans. Certinly not “a few 100k”!! Think before you type inane comments like this.
Coyote
September 12th, 2012
11:26 pm
I think you’re wrong Mark. This move is good for both the ACC and Notre Dame but the Irish no longer have any reason to join a conference. They have equal access to the new 4-team playoff as any conference champ because the selection is by committee rather than pre-determined AQ status for conference champs. They now have access to the ACC’s lineup of bowls, and they’ll maintain a strong presence in their most important media markets and recruiting turf. What could possibly compel them to join a conference now that all the factors that could have forced their hand have been eliminated?
This is not a move toward full membership. If anything, it’s the opposite. It virtually guarantees that ND will remain independent for football.
Dawglasville
September 12th, 2012
11:27 pm
IL Jacket – didn’t know that. I just remember my dad explaining to me that 5 – 5 – 1 was technically a winning season. It was tough to be a Dawg or Tech fan in the 70’s. I wish Tech had Auburn and UGA had Clemson every year still. A lot of fun. Cool to know about USC.
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
11:31 pm
nothings…….. I think your premise of 33% are college football fans is inverted more like 67%. And many Catholics cheer for ND and their own teams. Especially the ones from the Northeast. And if you don’t think their are many “hyphenated” Yankees down here, you haven’t been to a Red Sox game at Turner Field
ylojkt
September 12th, 2012
11:38 pm
Don’t know why they call them fathers, no father I know would molest his own children.
Nothings shocking
September 12th, 2012
11:50 pm
Old if 67% of people in this city were fans of college football, you would see a heck of a lot more stickers and plates on cars.
I live in a northern suburb and about 50% of the neightborhood is indian or asian and just one guy is a football fan. This is about 20 families.
Of the remaining 20 families about 5 are fans. This is a small sample. I realize going into an older neighborhood yields higher rates but there is no way that 2/3 people are fans. You’re even more insane.
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
11:51 pm
Randy in Macon……….. U of Fla ranked 54 to PSU’s 46, Both are AAU members, but Penn State will be crippled for decades because of Sandusky.
Old Tech
September 12th, 2012
11:54 pm
Randy I am a college football fan, wear my colors regularly and have purchased season tickets for over 30 years……. but I don’t have a sticker or tag on my car. I know many others who are like me.
Old Tech
September 13th, 2012
12:03 am
Ooops that last post was a reply for Nothings…. not Randy
IL Jacket
September 13th, 2012
12:04 am
Dawglasville, one other little piece of trivia. Traveler, the white Arabian horse Tommy Trojan rides at USC home games, made his debut in USC’s 1961 home opener against Tech.
ty
September 13th, 2012
1:09 am
Duke should do the same thing in foot ball. ACC really has lowered itself by letting ND dictate how they schedule their games. This is not a good thing for the ACC nor College Football. Allowing them to play a few ACC games and keep their traditional rivals is a real cop out to their ideas. ACC will never rise above this half and half idea of a football conference. It will not help the lesser schools in the ACC.
sting_em
September 13th, 2012
1:15 am
In two years from now, the ACC will go to 16 and ND will be a full member. Good opp to get Penn State in the league. They will be down for 4 years, but after that they will start on an upward trend. Then they could break down into 2 divisions North South or 4 pods:
Boston College Miami
Pitt Georgia Tech
Syracuse Wake
Penn NC State
Notre Dame Florida State
Maryland Duke
Virginia Tech Clemson
Virginia North Carolina
BC Miami
Pitt Georgia Tech
Cuse Wake
Penn NC State
ND Florida State
Maryland Duke
Virginia Tech Clemson
Virginia North Carolina
7 divisional game 1 cross division and 1 fixed division opp.
Russo
September 13th, 2012
1:29 am
Notre Dame just added 5 cupcakes a year, no matter who it plays. Well done, Irish.
get ur facts straight
September 13th, 2012
2:20 am
Yawn.
AC-Suckers
September 13th, 2012
2:46 am
The ACC are a bunch of suckers. The conference is not going to command enough of an increase in TV money to make up for Notre Dame’s, Syracuse’s, and Pitt’s additional membership and attract another quality member for a 16th. Syracuse and Pitt are dead weights for football and will not bring in the bowl game revenue in the near future. Notre Dame got out of the Big East because the conference had too many mouths to feed and not enough to go around. What do think is going to happen in the ACC?
So, when Notre Dame finally decides that being a football independent just isn’t financially justifiable.guess who they are going to run to? Big Ten. Only 14 members, if Rutgers eventually joins or Syracuse defects. Lots of revenue, less people to share it with, and many of their traditional rivalries can be maintained both in and out of conference.
AC-Suckers
September 13th, 2012
3:24 am
And $50 million ain’t all that. First, it is just a threat and a “keep out” sign for other conferences. If a school really wanted to jump, either a settlement would be worked out or the school would work out a deal with the new conference to pay some or all of the exit fee. And there are plenty of wealthy ND alumni to raise money from, if needed.
This deal is not going to work in the long term, the quality of Notre Dame athletics will fall off and the boosters will want out. See Boston College, whose supporters already want out of the ACC. Do you really think the ACC was Notre Dame’s first choice? The Big Ten told them “no football, no membership”.
The Truth
September 13th, 2012
7:07 am
If ND joins full time it makes Texas A&M and Missouri joining the SEC look like Twidle do and Twidle Dumb.
te29wr
September 13th, 2012
7:09 am
It was a win-win for both sides They were both close to being on the outside looking in as neither have won anything lately.. and with no prospects of winning a NC So who cares By the way the north ave trade school might have another sellout other than when UGA comes to town if they get to play ND
Notre Dame Joins the ACC Links Round-up | Atlantic Coast Convos
September 13th, 2012
7:30 am
[...] “It Won’t Be Long Until Notre Dame Is Playing ACC Football Too” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) [...]
Hal
September 13th, 2012
7:50 am
The ACC dosn’t need a jolt. The SEC needs to be reigned in. The Big Ten has its own network but the SEC owns ESPN and CSS and that is a fact.. It doesn’t need its own network. These networks feed the beast. The ACC hasn’t figured that out yet.
Walmart Retards
September 13th, 2012
8:00 am
Hal – you can throw in CBS too. Verne and the Doofus know nothing about college football outside of the SEC.
Hal
September 13th, 2012
8:01 am
“You won’t find many Bama or USC or Texas fans in the Bronx” You won’t find many Alabama fans outside the State. Heck when I lived in Seattle everyone thought Auburn was in Georgia because they had so many players from Georgia.
Pippa's hiney
September 13th, 2012
8:16 am
Partial membership is a load of it. Should NOT be allowed.
Aqua Velva Man
September 13th, 2012
8:19 am
Ditto on the “partial membership”, what a crock and double standard.
Common Sense
September 13th, 2012
8:37 am
Notre Dame is currently playing ACC caliber football. LOL
My question is why ND gets these special perks that don’t seem to apply to anyone else (5 games and you can be our bowl rep, NBC deal, etc.)?
Common Sense
September 13th, 2012
8:40 am
Atlantic Coast Conference, huh? I love riding those big waves in South Bend. Won’t be long before Brian Wilson writes a song about it.
I Gipp Around
Jack Bobeck
September 13th, 2012
8:45 am
You mean RUDY is now in the ACC with us? Ugh!
olddog
September 13th, 2012
8:51 am
Mark-
I don’t think I have ever disagreed with you more.
First of all, kudos to Notre Dame for pulling this off. Whoever negotiated this deal for them should receive a bonus. It’s a wonderful arrangement for the Irish. They get to keep their football independence, maintain their existing TV network and its revenue solely for themselves, share in the ACC TV network and revenue for away games, participate in all ACC bowls with the exception of the Orange Bowl, and, most importantly, get to become part of the best brand in college basketball, the ACC.
Here is what the ACC gets: a once proud football program that has been irrelevant for 2 decades, and nothing else. The Notre Dame brand? What is that worth now? About the same as the Kodak film brand. Watching Notre Dame play football is like watching the Rolling Stones perform. Your main emotion is wishing you could have seen them in their glory days.
The only brand that matters here and now is the ACC basketball brand, and the ACC has just given it away. While the conference is on this nostalgia tour, why don’t they invite the Carlisle Indians to join too.
The ACC panicked. Why don’t they ask the Big East how the Notre Dame tie-in is working for them these days?
Vince
September 13th, 2012
8:54 am
Notre Dame couldn’t do any better than the ACC? They must be really hurting for bowl revenue !!!!
Bazooka Joe
September 13th, 2012
9:12 am
ND’s schedule just got a lot easier…. So now Notre Dame can be ACC champs every year because they are better than any program currently in that conference….
gt4ever
September 13th, 2012
9:18 am
In yet another display of clever thinking, ACC commissioner John Swofford pursued the school that every conference would kill to get, but they approached Notre Dame at an angle. You can join our league and stay a football independent, he said, but you’ll play five regular-season games against our membership and — big key — you’ll be eligible for bowl selection as one of ours.
Clever???? Time will tell…. ND football is similar to GT in that it has not been relevant in a long time… I still have no idea why there is this love affair with the Irish… Good school, but football is less than stellar… Oh well, we will see…
robodawg
September 13th, 2012
9:32 am
Quite a coup for the ACC. It will add TV games, and it will do wonders for selling football tickets at Duke or Wake Forest.
But I don’t think this move will do much good for the Notre Dame brand. They must be kicking themselves that they didn’t join the Big 10 when they had a chance. They could’ve been in the same division as Michigan and Michigan St and still play annual out of conference games with USC and Navy.
I think their plan is to remain a partial independent/partial conference participant for a very long time. This deal gives them postseason assurances and preserves their national scheduling. If they reach a point where they have to drop their national rivalries, it will be not only be bad for college football, it will be bad for Notre Dame.
PMC
September 13th, 2012
9:32 am
Yeah, they are going to play 5 ACC games a year.
Notre Dame even without success on the field in 2 decades still has more national cache than any team in the ACC.
People will still watch all over the country, more people than would watch horrible Miami or a “still waiting for that offensive line” FSU.
They really are that arrogant, they really do think they are better than everyone else, and they don’t think they EVER have done anything that might be the least bit shady.
They aren’t giving up the independant status.
PMC
September 13th, 2012
9:37 am
I don’t think Notre Dame ever even seriously mulled over the Big 10.
The Big 10 would love to have the only school that ever really mattered to the Northeast in football other than the graduates of thier gigantic institutions. I think ND likes the smaller atmosphere of most of the ACC schools for it’s other sports similar to what the Big East used to be, and they like academic bretheren like Duke and Georgia Tech.
PMC
September 13th, 2012
9:39 am
They like money of course, but ND doesn’t need money. They could care less about playing for a conference championship in football.
shankit
September 13th, 2012
9:44 am
NBC can’t be too happy with their current contract with Notre Dame.
Notre Dame is already playing four ACC teams this year,
Pitt, Syracuse, BC and one other ACC powerhouse.
I’ll bet the ratings on these four games will be a loser for NBC.
shankit
September 13th, 2012
9:46 am
Maybe NBC can make up their losses on the Notre Dame vs.
four ACC powerhouse opponents this year, by extending
Chris Matthews’ contract.
One Proud Seminole
September 13th, 2012
9:47 am
Bring ‘em on! I think the reason they don’t want to compete in the conference in football is because they know the ACC is Seminole country!
shankit
September 13th, 2012
9:49 am
Or, NBC could have Matt Lauer on the sideline to
compete with Erin Andrews for improved ratings.
Knole
September 13th, 2012
9:51 am
@ Bazooka
You are as dumb as your name if you think they are the best team in the ACC. Really dumb
shankit
September 13th, 2012
9:53 am
NBC’s top rated shows
MSNBC featuring Chris Matthews
Today show starring Matt Lauer
College football starring Notre Dame.
TexGT
September 13th, 2012
10:13 am
ATTENTION ALL NON-SEC FANS:
I, like you, am a fan of a team not in the SEC. As such, PLEASE stop trying to bash the football prowess of the SEC, or that any other conference is better. Particularly Tech fans. We have no leg to stand on–the SEC is far above any other conference, just look at 6 NCs straight, and likely a 7th this year. And we are not good. The ACC (even with new ND) is not close. Once the SEC is dethroned, then you can run your mouth–right now you just look like a fool. The fact all of the SEC’s schools (outside of Vandy) are a joke academically, or all the scandals, arrest, etc., fair game.
Alphare
September 13th, 2012
10:15 am
If you think ND is irrelevant, you are wrong.
I am not a ND fan, and like most bloggers I think are a skeleton of its old self. But ND is ND, some of ND fans literally follow ND religiously. ND has 2 demographics: Catholics and Irish. I am not sure how big about the Irish part, the Catholics part is definitely big for them, especially those with northeastern roots.
TexGT
September 13th, 2012
10:19 am
To all Non-SEC Fans (particularly Tech Fans). I am one of you. Bu please stop bashing the SEC re anything related to football prestige. We have no leg to stand on. They have dominated almost the entire decade, with 6 straights NCs, and a 7th likely this year. Until they are dethroned, don’t argue the ACC or anyone else is better, you look like a fool. But the fact all SEC schools (outside of Vandy) are an academic joke, all the scandals, arrests, etc – fair game.
Alphare
September 13th, 2012
10:20 am
BTW, the worth of a team is mostly ticket eyeballs and ticket sale. ND are high values in both categories with people 30+ years old.
If ND continues to be mediocre for another 20+ years, their fan base will be the 60+ year old seniors. That’s when they become irrelevant. For now, they are still one of the best college sports brand.
TechRon
September 13th, 2012
10:25 am
ND is trying to hang on to their old position of dominance without having to actually win. They are pretending that they are still in the Rockne era when they have not been like that for oh so many years. For the last 50 years they do not approach the likes of Alabama, USC, Oklahoma, Nebraska, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan or even UGA. Their pathetic coaching revolving door is a joke. In short, they are “pretty good” at football. To pretend that they are elite and a “national brand” is silly. Clemson has a better football program than ND does.
They should join one of the major conferences and display their “dominance” on the field and silence their critics. I think that if they played everyone in the ACC right now, they would be about 5th best. About 7th or 8th in the SEC.
I am not a ND fan, as you can tell, but I do not really dislike them. I just get tired of their pretense that they are in a class by themselves.
All that said, I think that if they completely joined the ACC, it would be a great thing for all concerned. To do what they have done so far is to come in about halfway.
Notre Dame’s impact on Tech scheduling | Georgia Tech
September 13th, 2012
10:27 am
[...] said, my esteemed colleague Mark Bradley wrote a column Wednesday predicting that Notre Dame will eventually join the ACC for football. If you’re into speculating, that would leave the league in a position to have to add another [...]
ARdawg
September 13th, 2012
10:30 am
ACC, where old football programs go to die?
TechRon
September 13th, 2012
10:30 am
TexGT….your comments are on point. I cringe when GT people post a lot of big talk on here. Our program is average, that is all. Sure, we had glory in the past. I remember postwar through 1966 when Tech was indeed great, but today’s GT leadership is very poor and we are down the wrong path. Nothing to brag about, that is for sure. ACC has made great strides in assembling a good league, but still not to be compared to the SEC. Face reality.
ARdawg
September 13th, 2012
10:35 am
TechRon
I see a ND attempting to patchwork an illusion together while they still have some network monetary value. Their NBC contract expires in 2015 and the state the program is, they’ll need some coattails to hang on for the television contract money
Alphare
September 13th, 2012
10:42 am
TechRon, ND’s value has nothing to do with wins or losses, it has to do with the eyeballs and ticket sales of their religious followers.
I am afraid if ND continues to struggle for another 20 years, their fan base will age and dwindle. That’s when they become a real skeleton.
NDAlumAtlantaNative
September 13th, 2012
10:49 am
Yes, our program is overrated and irrelevant – that’s why there are as many postings on this site as there are and media outlets all across the country yesterday were running stories regarding ND/ACC. I’m happy to now be able to have at least one or two games a year within easy driving distance.
Hey Bama fans – the Bear NEVER beat Notre Dame,
Buck Belue – 1 for 22 passing; nah, it wasn’t all #34 in that game.(Luckiest QB of ALL TIME)
LHarding Dawg
September 13th, 2012
10:56 am
So the ACC commissioner can, at the drop of a hat, change the buyout fee from 20 million to 50 million. That sounds like extortion to me. If I were Florida State or Clemson, I might consider taking that rule to court.
PEACH TREE
September 13th, 2012
10:57 am
Mark Bradley predicted Georgia Tech would win
the ACC Coastal Division,
I agree.
shankit
September 13th, 2012
11:00 am
LHarding Dawg – Right on, kinda like changing
the second amendment. Time to rise up.
GTBob
September 13th, 2012
11:11 am
So the ACC commissioner can, at the drop of a hat, change the buyout fee from 20 million to 50 million.
No, the ACC commissioner can’t do that. It is a change in the conference bylaws that requires a vote by the presidents of the member institutions. This was voted on and passed by the members of the ACC, although reports are that FSU voted against the buyout increase. They were overruled by a majority vote.
Alphare
September 13th, 2012
11:17 am
GTBob,
does that buyout fee includes ND?
GTBob
September 13th, 2012
11:20 am
Alphare,
Yes, the buyout includes Notre Dame.
flagboy?
September 13th, 2012
11:25 am
Notre Dame hasn’t really be relevant for some time. The last BCS bowl game they were in was a complete sham (much like Michigan vs. Va Tech last year), and they got waxed by LSU i believe.
nevertheless, the name carries clout. Good get for the ACC in regards to name recognition and all that. Wonder how people will feel when they get passed over in bowl games in favor of ND though.
Old Dawg
September 13th, 2012
11:27 am
As I wrote yesterday, this is a major media coup for the ACC. Forget the quality of football. With the media $$$ from television markets in New York and Chicago, plus the national pull of ND fans (i.e.: Roman Catholics), this is agin to the AFL’s Jets signing Joe Namath for the star power he brought to the brand.
And with those media dollars come added exposure to recruits and the signings to follow.
Yes, the ACC likes to have its hoops tourney in North Carolina, but what AD wouldn’t want his team in the finals on Madison Square Garden’s floor? Or in Chicago, another huge market. Or in Boston’s TD Garden?
And imagine the ACC football championship game at Soldier Field? Cold? yes. Packed for an ND vs whomever game? Without question. The same goes for season-opening tilts/conference championships in NYC, Chicago or Boston.
Without question I’m an SEC guy. Sad to say no one in the current SEC is located in a market of this magnitude.
In other words, in the new world of media dollars and playing in major markets, the SEC just got out-flanked!
flagboy?
September 13th, 2012
11:33 am
Old Dawg
September 13th, 2012
11:27 am
And imagine the ACC football championship game at Soldier Field? Cold? yes. Packed for an ND vs whomever game? Without question. The same goes for season-opening tilts/conference championships in NYC, Chicago or Boston.
____________________________________
Packed for an ND vs. whomever game? slow your horses and cancel the parade. ND will not win the ACC for some time if they keep the same talent level as they have now.
NCJacket
September 13th, 2012
11:36 am
It is all about TV markets … Don’t you guys get it ????
The ACC will soon be in 6 of the top ten TV markets. No other conference even comes close. The conference grew from 4 small south atlantic states to stretch from Miami to Boston to Chicago, a growth unmatched in geography and TV markets. ND will strengthen its recruiting in the talent rich southeast. Don’t be so quick to bash the ACC.
shankit
September 13th, 2012
11:36 am
But, Alabama has Paul Finebaum on Sirius XM. His coverage is certainly
stronger nationwide than anything Notre Dame could
bring to the ACC.
BILLY JACK
September 13th, 2012
11:48 am
Does this mean Notre Dame can pick what 5 ACC teams they play every year?This is such a crock of s–t nobody has cared about ND in 20 or 25 years-they belong in the ACC.
Seriously?
September 13th, 2012
11:49 am
The ACC should move to pick up Suwanee next. After all, they were once one of the powerhouses of Southern collegiate football. Surely, there are some people still alive today who remember when they were relevant in the sport of football. In addition, they are an “academics first” institution, and that would fit in well with the overall character of the ACC.
GTBob
September 13th, 2012
11:53 am
Does this mean Notre Dame can pick what 5 ACC teams they play every year?
No. ND will play every team in the ACC every three years.
mtneer1212
September 13th, 2012
12:01 pm
John Swofford has damaged college athletics more than anyone. His conference raiding has caused this entire mess. He is a weasel that only looks out for himself and his conference.
The Hunter
September 13th, 2012
12:03 pm
MIAMI. FLA STATE, GEORGIA TECH, VIRGINIA, VIRGINIA TECH, CLEMSON, SYRACUSE, PITTSBURGH, U.N.C., N.C. ST, DUKE, B.C.,
N.O.T.R.E. – D.A.M.E. (OUR LADY OF THE LAKE)
john
September 13th, 2012
12:06 pm
Why in hades did the ACC thow Notre Done a lifeline? They were on their way to oblivion.
Seriously?
September 13th, 2012
12:07 pm
john
September 13th, 2012
12:06 pm
“Why in hades did the ACC thow Notre Done a lifeline? They were on their way to oblivion.”
Misery loves company.
Poppy
September 13th, 2012
12:08 pm
An underlying trend that, as always, is anti. This reporter (?) is just looking to stir up trouble. I have noticed these types of articles since I first became a ND fan. back in the 30’s. We are considered non relevant, yet everyone talks and writes about us. Non relevant ???
Tokyo jacket
September 13th, 2012
12:08 pm
Mark, don’t forget that Frank Reich also owned the largest ever college comeback for a couple decades. Both times Miami got shafted – first time was the Canes, second time was the game after the miracle the Dolphins were kept out of the super bowl.
Oh, and ND to the ACC is awesome and they WILL be a full member in 2016 along with Penn St (fresh of getting Sanduskied).
NCJacket
September 13th, 2012
12:10 pm
mtneer1212
I believe it was Roy Kramer (SEC) who started conference raiding by taking Arkansas from the old SWC.
Seriously?
September 13th, 2012
12:14 pm
Poppy
September 13th, 2012
12:08 pm
“An underlying trend that, as always, is anti. This reporter (?) is just looking to stir up trouble. I have noticed these types of articles since I first became a ND fan. back in the 30’s. We are considered non relevant, yet everyone talks and writes about us. Non relevant ???”
“Irrelevant” is the word for which you are grasping. I could understand the excitement that the ACC feels for this deal with ND — if this were the year 1980. The only reason ND made this overture to the ACC is that they know they will not be able to retain their network deal when the current contract expires.
ND = No Demand
Tokyo jacket
September 13th, 2012
12:17 pm
Old Dawg, I think you hit the nail on the head. No one can question Mike Slive’s business acumen or effect he’s had on college football. But, I think you have to start throwing John Swofford in the same category. What he’s done for the ACC in the past several years is amazing. The ACC now has 15 members – ALL of which are in the top 100 universities in the country according to USNWR. We got ND when the B1G couldn’t for years. We will up the ante with our friends at ESPN.
Most people don’t realize that the reason the SEC has won 6 straight national championships is because of the groundwork that was laid 20 years ago to make the SEC the most profitable conference in the land. I think the ACC has pulled a move of similar style, we’ll have to wait 20 years to see the results.
I tip my hat to Mr. Swofford.
Triangle Hokie
September 13th, 2012
12:18 pm
“The guess here is that, come 2016, the biggest independent in the history of independents will be playing conference football in a conference that needs a football jolt.”
The Domers are relevant in name and tradition, but it’s been a very long time since they were relevant on the field. If the ACC is looking for a “football jolt” in terms of performance, they aren’t getting it from ND unless something changes. Right now, FSU, Clemson, GT, VT would run them off the field.
Seriously?
September 13th, 2012
12:22 pm
Playing in the ACC will probably be beneficial for Notre Dame’s football program. Look what it’s done for Miami.
CFFan
September 13th, 2012
12:40 pm
Notre Lame will not ever join a conference…not the ACC, not the SEC, BIG whatever, MAC. You name it, they will not join. Think about this for a second.
They have the easiest route into any BCS game of all teams in college football.
They receive all the money from their bowl games and do not have to share revenue with anyone.
They all are the only team televised on NBC…who really cares…but they have their own tv channel basically.
They are free to schedule any teams they want…they can pick any 5 ACC teams and any other teams in America. Their toughest games are still Stanford and USC.
No brainer for them to stay independent. Too many benefits for them not to join a conference in football.
If a playoff finally becomes realized, then and only then would they have to consider moving into a conference as long as they don’t get the same setup and easy entry into the playoff.
ACC to 16
September 13th, 2012
12:46 pm
Bringing in Notre Dame alone might not produce a football jolt, but bringing in Notre Dame AND Penn State would definitely send shock waves across the college football landscape. It would be the beginning of the 16 team conference which could get the SEC cranked up to find two more teams. Meanwhile, the Big Ten is sitting at 11 teams with no worthy teams left to get up to 16, let alone find the one team they would need to just stay eligible to keep a conference championship game. The Big Ten would be at a HUGE loss, and it would just be a matter of time before the ACC leap frogged them in the pecking order. I hope there is a major push to get Penn State….especially now that there is so much dissatisfaction from PSU fans and alumni with the way the NCAA and Big Ten have treated them. There are a growing number of PSU faithful who would love to leave the Big Ten so get crackin’ ACC!!
GTBob
September 13th, 2012
12:48 pm
They are free to schedule any teams they want…they can pick any 5 ACC teams and any other teams in America.
Once again, they can’t just choose any 5 teams they want, they have to play every ACC team over a three year period, and from what I have read, the ACC will decide the teams from year to year.
IRISHfan
September 13th, 2012
1:00 pm
sometimes i really wish ND would go the SEC route and over sign 5-7 recruits per year and drop their grad rates to about 60% tops, so they could start winning more football games. sure the kids will end up screwed if they don’t make the NFL. No biggie! winning is more important! Maybe some day the NCAA will put a stop to all this garbage (over signing/pathetic grad rates) and make the entire playing field level for all teams. you know back to college football with student athletes.
Charles
September 13th, 2012
1:04 pm
I’d say they already play ACC football…which is to say they’re not very good and haven’t been for some time.
Rudy
September 13th, 2012
1:04 pm
South Carolina is the mos over-rated team in the country!
Seriously?
September 13th, 2012
1:05 pm
@ACC to 16
Just because PSU is down at the moment, doesn’t mean that they will move to an inferior conference. If you’re dreaming of 4 16-team conferences forming the foundation of some future playoff scheme, then you’re only dreaming. Even if that were to eventually happen, neither the Big East nor the ACC would be in the picture. It would be the B1G, the SEC, the Big-12 and the PAC-12.
Dawg in Griffin
September 13th, 2012
1:06 pm
I may be incorrect, but nothing I’ve seen says that Notre Dame MUST play a round-robin ACC 5 game-a-year schedule. I’m betting dollars to donuts that the Irish will get to choose which 5 teams they play each year, and they’ll probably get ample opportunity to negotiate WHERE those games are played, too. The ACC has hitched their wagon to the biggest bully in the FBS. And the biggest empty suit, too.
Paul in NH
September 13th, 2012
1:12 pm
“For the last 50 years they do not approach the likes of Alabama, USC, Oklahoma, Nebraska, LSU, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan or even UGA.”
Since 1962 ND has won 5 MNC’s. That is more than UGA, Michigan and LSU combined.
GTBob
September 13th, 2012
1:12 pm
I’m betting dollars to donuts that the Irish will get to choose which 5 teams they play each year
“Notre Dame will likely be here far more often in the coming years; the Irish will play each ACC member at least once every three seasons.”
http://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2012-09-12/acc-accepts-notre-dame-new-member-all-sports-except-football
AP
September 13th, 2012
1:15 pm
I’m not all that impressed. In the end ND can’t win the ACC championship in football and a ND WF or UNC or GT game won’t draw that much interest unless scheduled at the beginning of a season or if both teams are ranked relatively high in the polls. What are the chances of that? The ACC lacks being “pure” because ND’s level of participation is dictated by them. I don’t think we would ever see the other big conferences go for this. It would be an all or nothing membership. As an alum of an ACC school I feel like I’m being told we aren’t quite good enough but ND is going to grace us with their presence. Oh what a minute… we aren’t quite good enough!
NCJacket
September 13th, 2012
1:22 pm
IRISHfan, don’t forget the use of “greyshirting”, the practice of delaying the entry of a prize recruit until January to stay under the signing limit. The SEC, the biggest abuser of this practice, acted to self-impose a limit on members for fear that NCAA would clamp down harder, or worse, ban the practice completely.
Nativebird
September 13th, 2012
1:26 pm
Apparently….a ‘winning’ program is irrelevant in major college football.
GT
September 13th, 2012
1:35 pm
The media market will make the ACC the leading brand in football in 5 years.
Damon Evans
September 13th, 2012
1:38 pm
This can only help a very weak ACC.
Whether any of you Dawg fans want to admit it or not … ND is a huge draw. This will only help the Conference.
Dr. H
September 13th, 2012
1:39 pm
John Swofford has always done his homework….and had class. It has shown for years in every position he has filled. This excellent strategic move was perhaps his biggest success….and showed up on the national stage. An excellent article about an excellent move!!
James
September 13th, 2012
1:44 pm
I’m sure ND will be playing:
1.Virginia Tech
2.Florida State
3.Miami
4.Georgia Tech
5.Clemson
old dog
September 13th, 2012
1:45 pm
too bad, I always liked the acc. nd I will not watch.
Big Dog 89
September 13th, 2012
1:48 pm
ND would be second tier in the SEC.
Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina are all much better than ND.
Boss
September 13th, 2012
2:42 pm
I bet the ACC gets Penn State to round things out to 16 after ND joins fully.
dwagfanny
September 13th, 2012
2:45 pm
“Penn State Football: Now Is the Time for the Nittany Lions to Move to the ACC”
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1332647-penn-state-football-now-is-the-time-for-psu-to-change-conferences-move-to-acc
BILLY JACK
September 13th, 2012
3:05 pm
I BET THE AGREEMENT STATED THEY MUST PLAY GEORGIA TECH EVERY YEAR OR THE DEAL IS OFF.
BILLY JACK
September 13th, 2012
3:16 pm
I understand that Notre Dame wants to remain independent so they done have to share bowl revenues-not that they gone to that many good bowls the last 2 decades.
DONNAN OF A NEW ERA
September 13th, 2012
3:28 pm
When will UGA win another bowl game?
DONNAN OF A NEW ERA
September 13th, 2012
3:30 pm
“Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina are all much better than ND.”
Depends on the year. Right now Ole Miss, Auburn and Arkansas aren’t ranked. ND is. THe ONLY two SEC schools that matter right now are Bama and LSU since both were in the championship game last season.
DONNAN OF A NEW ERA
September 13th, 2012
3:31 pm
“Since 1962 ND has won 5 MNC’s. That is more than UGA, Michigan and LSU combined.”
Actually, that’s double what UGA has. UGA has two claimed national championships in their history.
sting_em
September 13th, 2012
3:32 pm
Seriously? – If we went to 4 16 team super conferences, the ACC would be the 4th while the BIG 12 would be dismantled. The BIG 12 would send a couple of teams to the PAC 12 (Texas, T. Tech, Oklahoma, Ok. ST), some to the SEC (West Virginia and someone else), and the BIG would get a couple of more. Maybe the SEC and PAC 12 would split the two Texas and OK schools as long as Texas and OK went together and both schools had a yearly in state rivalry with the other two. More than likely the PAC 12 would get Texas because of perceived academic success.
Reality
September 13th, 2012
3:58 pm
Oh great! Instead of losing to uga and a bowl every year, we’ll lose to uga, nd, and no bowl every year. No more 7/4 years. Now it will be 6/5!
Has anybody seen O’leary and Joe Hamilton?
Please bring college football to Atlanta!
Reality
September 13th, 2012
4:00 pm
It sux to-be-a-yell-ow-jacket…It sux to-be-a-yell-ow-jacket…It sux to-be-a-yell-ow-jacket…
steveo
September 13th, 2012
4:04 pm
Yep right where they belong….in the 5th best conference in the nation…..Notre Dame hasn’t been relative since the 80’s…..maybe Ga.Tech will have a chance to beat another mediocre team…..
Irishmike
September 13th, 2012
4:07 pm
But Bobo GT (assuming that is your tech reference) has played ND the most out of any ACC teams, well after Pitt, but they are not scheduled members yet.
All you haters still talk about ND, its never irrelevent until the hatred stops and it will never. So I just laugh at you all. ND has been playing football for 125 years the ACC has been around for 60 mmmmmmm. Oh well as this shiney new member glistens in the warmth of tobacco road be sure that this conferences revenues’ have just jumped thru the roof. And once ND joins in football, and it will happen as the college football landscape will change again. (AHHHHH poor big 12 gotta do something.) The earnings will once again increase. If’s about the money fellas and that it.
Personally Death Valley is on my buckit list for football, Cameron for b-ball I live in PA can’t wait to travel to see my beloved Irish. WE ARE ND!!!!!
steveo
September 13th, 2012
4:14 pm
Yep Notre Dame legends in their own minds!!
Notre Dame is credited with 13 national championships. The years were 1924, 1929, 1930, 1938, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1953, 1966, 1973, 1977, and 1988.
==actually, in division 1A, the NCAA does not award a championship. The reference made to thirteen championships here are “POLL” championships. The early ones especially have to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Notre Dame has not won any NCAA Football National Championships. The NCAA does not award a national football title in Division 1A football because there is not a sanctioned NCAA playoff system in place as there is in most other NCAA sports. The football Division 1A National Football title is a “mythical” title being decided by as many as several dozen different polling groups over the past 150 odd years. There have been as many as five national champions voted in a single year in the past. The current BCS National Title is not recognized by the NCAA either.
TNTIrish65
September 13th, 2012
4:22 pm
Great move by the Irish! We keep our fball independence, have better access to non-BCS bowl games, (we already have access to BCS Championship), and upgrade to a more stable conference.
NBC contract will be re-nogotiate within 6 months with more $$.
Since we are playing the toughest schedule in the Country, again, with 4 ACC teams, it won’t make much of a change.
Mark, we’ll be independent as long as there is NCAA football.
Go-o-o-o Irish!
TNTIrish65
September 13th, 2012
4:26 pm
Steveo,
ND doesn’t count 13, but 11 CONSENSUS National Champinships. We are NOT ‘Bama!!
Of your list, 1938 and 1953 are not counted, even though there were several polls and other entities that awarded “mythical” NCs.
Nice try, though.
Go-o-o-o-o-o Irish!!
T DOG
September 13th, 2012
5:05 pm
Sorry Mark. I had to post and let you know that Notre dame has the best of both world’s with it’s schedule. I’m sure they will take having to play Wake Forest and Duke every other year instead of every year. If they join the ACC, this week’s game wouldn’t happen. Cross off Stanford and Navy as well. Their non-conference would be USC, Michigan, and insert cupcake here.
DONNAN OF A NEW ERA
September 13th, 2012
5:25 pm
steveo
Get a life.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
5:50 pm
James Franklin
September 12th, 2012
4:55 pm
Stop hating on Vandy or I will punch you in the mouth!
We are the Georgia Tech of Nashville, ignoring the fact we started 2-0.
This ain’t your Daddy’s Vandy!
________________________
Won’t be hard to ignore the “fact” that you started 2-0–since you didn’t.
Beast from the East
September 13th, 2012
6:28 pm
Good move by the ACC, if nothing more than to generate interest in a conference that has underperformed on a national stage the past decade in football. Also, it will certainly make the ACC far and away the most powerful conference in hoops. Heck, half the conference will be in the top 25 in hoops.
David Fahey
September 13th, 2012
6:54 pm
When you look at the best undergraduate academic institutions, they typically are among the weakest in their football conferences. Until recently this was true of Stanford in the Pacific conference. Certainly in most years it has been true of Duke in the ACC, Vanderbilt in the SEC, and Northwestern in the Big Ten. Like ND, they have small enrollments compared with the giant state universities. Although ND is highly ranked as an undergraduate institution, I suspect that its football team will manage in most years to rank in the top third of the ACC (and about half its players will come from the southeastern states). It also has decent men’s and women’s basketball teams, is competitive in lacrosse, etc. Probably its hockey team is better than that at my wife’s alma mater, FSU. By the way, if Midwesterners are “Yankees” what are most Floridians?
Beast from the East
September 13th, 2012
7:03 pm
“By the way, if Midwesterners are “Yankees” what are most Floridians?”
Being from Florida, I would say most of the folks in the southern half of the state are either Yankees or of Latin descent.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
8:49 pm
Poppy
September 13th, 2012
12:08 pm
An underlying trend that, as always, is anti. This reporter (?) is just looking to stir up trouble. I have noticed these types of articles since I first became a ND fan. back in the 30’s. We are considered non relevant, yet everyone talks and writes about us. Non relevant ???
___________________
They’re considered irrelevant ON THE FIELD. And, in fact, they ARE irrelevant on the field.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
8:56 pm
CFFan
September 13th, 2012
12:40 pm
Notre Lame will not ever join a conference…
They are free to schedule any teams they want…they can pick any 5 ACC teams and any other teams in America. Their toughest games are still Stanford and USC.
No brainer for them to stay independent. Too many benefits for them not to join a conference in football.
____________________
“No brainer” would be more accurately used to describe the inside of your head. They CANNOT “pick any 5 ACC teams.” They’ll play ALL ACC teams–as has been explained several times here already. Go find some brains for that empty head of yours.
Mobile Dawg
September 13th, 2012
8:57 pm
Good read, but “frankly Mark, I don’t give a damn” about ND. They have been irrelevant longer than the Dawgs. Let’s hope that changes this year, for the Dawgs.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
9:09 pm
IRISHfan
September 13th, 2012
1:00 pm
Maybe some day the NCAA will put a stop to all this garbage (over signing/pathetic grad rates) and make the entire playing field level for all teams. you know back to college football with student athletes.
____________________
Won’t happen as long as speed remains the focus of college football recruiting.
More important to the integrity of the game would be for the NCAA to prohibit D-1A teams from buying victories by paying softies to come in and bend over. And that’s not likely to happen either.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
9:11 pm
Dawg in Griffin
September 13th, 2012
1:06 pm
I may be incorrect, but nothing I’ve seen says that Notre Dame MUST play a round-robin ACC 5 game-a-year schedule. I’m betting dollars to donuts that the Irish will get to choose which 5 teams they play each year
__________________
You ARE incorrect. There’s no “may be” to it.
DawgNole
September 13th, 2012
9:18 pm
TNTIrish65
September 13th, 2012
4:22 pm
NBC contract will be re-nogotiate within 6 months with more $$.
____________________
The ratings for your games on NBC have plummeted along with the quality of your football. No way they’ll be paying “more $$” for that. Wise up.
Score Check
September 13th, 2012
9:29 pm
ND USE to have a great FB program.
Now they are on par with the weak teams of the ACC. So in that respect its a good match.
Rudy's Back!!!!!
September 13th, 2012
9:54 pm
Here Come the IRISH!!! As usual, all the DUMB #SS ND bashers are wrong. ND has a winning record against the SEC. 5-1 against Alabama and 1-0 against Fla. Ga. lucked out and played an 8th ranked mediocre team. Buck Belue, 1-12 for -34 yards!!! What a joke.
Dawg Bite
September 13th, 2012
10:43 pm
Rudy,who cares about what Buck did? #34 did you guys in, and 17-10 is all we care about!!
1 4 GT
September 13th, 2012
10:45 pm
This is kinda about ND, in a twisted round about way. I kept seeing these 2 or 3 comments on the Georgie/ND Sugar Bowl (well really about Belue’s passing stats) when Georgie won the MNC. I knew they would have been kinda good without Walker, but not how much they really relied on him. He really was Superman! Without the 4 lost turn overs ND had, it would probably have been a big loss for Georgie. I just looked up the stats for the Sugar Bowl game & for Georgie that year. All this time I’ve been thinking Georgie was really good that year. They would not have been there without Walker, IMHO. I thought Buck Beleu was all this great QB. 1 for 13 passing for 7 yards total. He has ridden “Lindsey Scott” & Walker’s separated shoulder to a real cushy job. Good for him! He really was not that much better than Tevin Washington. And the Georgie trolls & some so called “GT guys” have the nerve to rag all over TW. Give me a break!
Bobo
September 14th, 2012
2:08 am
Let’s put it this way. No one on Notre Dame’s team was born when they last won a national championship. Since Lou Holtz, no coach has even come close to ‘restoring their tradition’…..and don’t even lay it on thick about ‘winning with honor’ because we’re talking about Lou Holtz here who was as crooked as a riverboat gambler. Also, don’t play up the Catholic angle, because your best wide receiver other than Tim Brown was a Rocket Ismail. The ‘legend’ that is Notre Dame isn’t real. It’s like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. The school is liberal and secular just like almost every other major Northern university. Sorry, there is just nothing to like about ND. It’s not envy, it’s more like recognizing a ‘fraud’ when you see one and calling BS. Why should ND get all the revenue, their choice of bowls, and the right to call the shots, when no other program with no credentials doesn’t?
It Doesn't Make Sense...
September 14th, 2012
7:30 am
The people actually trashing the Notre Dame move to the ACC are saying Notre Dame Football is overhyped??? And other teams aren’t???
Oklahoma is ranked #5th right now….and they deserve that?
And as far as “winning”, no offense GeoffDawg but Georgia’s last title was in 1980 and as a Ga Fan, we get the same “overhyped” press as anyone else.
SOUTHGADAWGG88
September 14th, 2012
7:55 am
ND should do well recruiting the South,signing some of these Deep South athletes,will have them relevant quickly.
RightAllTheTime
September 14th, 2012
9:25 am
Haters (out of jealousy) can’t help but hating. But the fact is, Swofford is smart and skilled. ND fits r the profile of ACC schools and every honest person knows this. And, you can bet your redneck baseball caps that they ACC will rise to the top. Hey, if the SEC did not want ND, fine, but don’t allow your ignorant fans to bring you down to the level of barking and breying. Mother of Mary, show some modicum of propriety in this your darkest hour.
No Seriously?? Huh?
September 14th, 2012
9:34 am
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy!!
UGA = Yawn
September 14th, 2012
11:13 am
RIGHT, you are correct. They do fit our profile. What is funny is that 99% of the posters in here talked about the move with regards to football only. But, that is just a small % of why the move was made or what the ramifications are for all involved. The ACC, as the ND AD stated, IS the best conference in the country. He did not say it is the best football conference. We, ACC, don’t state that. But the overall best conference, including academics, etc. IS and always will be the ACC!!
The Ohio State University
September 14th, 2012
2:08 pm
When did the A She She start playing football? Looking at records in BCS games I am not sure they have ever started.
lance manion
September 14th, 2012
2:15 pm
This is a great match for both the ACC and ND. The ACC along with adding ND is a collection of some of the top academic schools in the nation, and the even the world according to US News. Most of the naysayers who are fans of bigger, less prestigious academic colleges seem to resent the success of the ACC in all areas. None of us as fans of ACC schools would argue that the SEC is not a great football conference. What we would argue is that as a collection of some of the best academic schools in the country, and we are extermely competitive in all sports. For us, it more about education combined with athletics and we could not be more proud of our institutions. I supsect most of the haters are sidewalk fans of schools who do not understand college athletics.
p
September 14th, 2012
3:17 pm
Why join the ACC? Because the Big 10 was starting to get too tough for them. In the ACC, the can play the dreadful football teams of BC, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Wake, NC St, UNC, MD, Duke and GT. The ACC is a goldmine of opporunity and easy wins for Notre Dame.
lance manion
September 14th, 2012
3:43 pm
P, that is laughable. Which college did you attend?
Jonnylujack
September 14th, 2012
4:39 pm
Shake down the Thunder. Both Pitt and Syracuse are playing like true ACC teams this year. Looking good, looking good,looking good. ND will have not trouble in the ACC. It will be our Bitch.
Seriously?
September 14th, 2012
5:18 pm
lance manion
September 14th, 2012
2:15 pm
“This is a great match for both the ACC and ND. The ACC along with adding ND is a collection of some of the top academic schools in the nation, and the even the world according to US News. Most of the naysayers who are fans of bigger, less prestigious academic colleges seem to resent the success of the ACC in all areas. None of us as fans of ACC schools would argue that the SEC is not a great football conference. What we would argue is that as a collection of some of the best academic schools in the country, and we are extermely competitive in all sports. For us, it more about education combined with athletics and we could not be more proud of our institutions. I supsect most of the haters are sidewalk fans of schools who do not understand college athletics.”
All you needed to say was; “We suck at football, but we don’t really care anymore.”.
Cobb Dawg
September 14th, 2012
5:20 pm
What next, Texas to the Big East?
taylor
September 14th, 2012
5:46 pm
I would still say that Texas is the biggest college football program. Forbes ranked it the most valuable and Notre Dame came in at #2.
kevin
September 14th, 2012
6:09 pm
Love the Irish but I wish they could better than the lowly ACC
intellibird
September 14th, 2012
6:58 pm
Its great to have add another school with proud tradition to the academically superior ACC. You imbicile SEC fans that never even attended college may be interested to know that Notre Dame, in addition to having won 21 collegiate football championships (Alabama, 18), also has the geatest number of Heisman Trophy winners, and the “largest fan base” in the country.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/234824-notre-dame-fan-base-may-be-on-decline
and other numbers, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_football_national_championships_in_NCAA_Division_I_FBS
The bigger question is why a good academic school, such as Vandy, would continue losing year after year in a conference whose chief concern is winning football games.
The Truth
September 14th, 2012
7:06 pm
Wow…nd and acc football….really exciting.
KJ
September 14th, 2012
7:06 pm
LOL @ people who still think conference affiliation has anything to do with academics.
Nick
September 14th, 2012
9:14 pm
It is funny how the Alabama fans thump their chests over the football team when the school sucks. How is you medical program? Uh, rednecks, you don’t have one-have to go to Al-Birmingham. How is your B-school? It sucks. School sucks, almost as bad as LSU. Geaux Tigers? Dumbasses, in French “go” is “allez”, not geaux. The SEC is nothing but a conference for trailer trash.
DawgNole
September 15th, 2012
1:55 pm
lance manion
September 14th, 2012
2:15 pm
None of us as fans of ACC schools would argue that the SEC is not a great football conference. What we would argue is that as a collection of some of the best academic schools in the country, and we are extermely competitive in all sports.
____________________
ALL sports? Uh, since when is football not a sport?
GT Fan
September 15th, 2012
2:37 pm
Huge get for the ACC. And I love the $50 million move by Swafford as well!
NOTRE DAME is a NATIONAL brand, like it or not. This will help all ACC schools in recruiting, and anyone out there (SEC fans included) that doesn’t think having ND travel TO your team’s stadium won’t be an instant sellout is crazy.
Notre Dame @ Clemson
Notre Dame @ VT
Notre Dame @ GT – we’ve seen that recently, and it was a huge deal (wasn’t College Game Day there that day??)
Notre Dame @ UNC, NCST, Wake, Duke
And any of you SEC fans that don’t think ND @ say Auburn, UGA, South Carolina, UF would create a fan frenzy are just kidding yourselves.
jerryg
September 15th, 2012
4:53 pm
No conference but the ACC (besides the Big East) would allow Notre Dame to join without football being included. Not the Big 10, not the Big 12, not the Pac 10, not the SEC, not one major conference would have agreed to such an arrangement.
Yankee
September 15th, 2012
6:14 pm
ND is no longer a national team. Worse, their program is damned since their head coach is responsible for the death of student whom he allowed to mount a scissor-lift in high winds. He should have been fired and indicted for negligent homicide.
Steve
September 16th, 2012
8:27 am
The ACC got the name brand and nothing else.. This makes about as much sense as anything else going on in the world of college football. It will be interesting to see what the landscape looks like in 5 years.
Steve
September 16th, 2012
8:30 am
Dawgnole… maybe you should learn to spell or at least use spellchecker.. since you are bragging about your fine academic institutions. bwahahahaha
Dan
September 16th, 2012
8:38 am
Nobody under the age of 60 is interested in Notre Dame. Interest in Notre Dame football is dying at the same rate as the Baby Boomers.
DawginNY
September 17th, 2012
12:21 am
I hope that Mark is right about ND deciding to give up independence in football in a few years, but I don’t understand the choice. The Big 10 makes much more sense geographically and they are quite a good academic conference as well. That’s no slap to the ACC; it’s just a question of fit.
DawgNole
September 17th, 2012
10:08 am
Steve
September 16th, 2012
8:30 am
Dawgnole… maybe you should learn to spell or at least use spellchecker.. since you are bragging about your fine academic institutions. bwahahahaha
_____________________
Looks like you’ve screwed up yet again, fool. I didn’t brag on anything, and I didn’t misspell anything. You must’ve been looking at someone else’s post.