With the success of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in question, many college football fans have grown tired of the team success.
The college football world has long cherished Notre Dame, but as time continues to progress and the sport changes, many fans have become upset. Besides a few notable spurts, Notre Dame has long been an independent and a team that has relied on building their own schedule. While building a schedule can be very challenging at times, it also offers a team incredible flexibility in who they get to play.
In the case of Notre Dame, the challenges, this season have ranged from playing against Texas A&M all the way to service academies, such as Army and Navy. Notre Dame has been incredibly successful this season behind star quarterback, Riley Leonard, who has been leading the team on offense with both his arm and his legs.
However, many college football fans argue that even without Leonard, and just some random quarterback, Notre Dame would still have the same success this year.
Notre Dame should be forced to join a conference now. This isn’t 1940 anymore, their tradition doesn’t matter in this new age. They have an advantage over many teams not playing in conf champ week. If they don’t join a league they should be treated as a G5 team just like Boise.
— Austin Randolph (@austinsrandolph) November 13, 2024
While that statement might be outlandish at the same point in time Notre Dame does not have to play the same level of opponents as certain teams do.
Would the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Become a Full-Fledged Conference Member?
After a massive, two years of college football realignment the conferences all now have different competition and different teams fighting for the top. However, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish remain without a conference, with just UConn and UMass joining them as independents.
While some fans are extremely upset that Notre Dame is able to have an easier schedule than other teams, at the same point in time, the Fighting Irish might be forced into joining a conference.
With the new age of realignment, introduced many teams must fight harder in order to earn a place in the College Football Playoff. Most notably in the playoff four tickets are given to conference championship winners. However, since Notre Dame does not have a conference championship, they would not be able to earn one of the top four tickets.
With just this fact taken into account, the idea of moving into a conference would benefit Notre Dame because then they would potentially be able to secure an automatic bid in the playoff. The fighting Irish are proving this season that they very well could still make the playoffs without having a conference championship under their belt. However, it definitely makes the road tougher for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish moving forward.
Without a conference championship, Notre Dame must play an extra game in order to make it to the finals. Winning a physical championship will be extremely difficult for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, because they do not have the luxury of receiving a bye week.
Currently one of the reasons as to why the Notre Dame Fighting Irish might not be in a conference is due to their media right ownership. NBC currently owns the media rights to Notre Dame football after renewing a contract in 2018. This could also potentially open up a future partnership with a conference as one specific conference has their rights owned by NBC as well.
The Big 10 Conference also has a partnership with NBC for college football media rights along with other partnerships that extend into other sports. Theoretically, the college football team could join the Big Ten Conference, however, that would also involve other sports switching over.
A portion of the Notre Dame sports teams are members of the ACC and due to this they would have to leave the ACC and join the Big Ten in a complete move. It would be extremely unlikely for Notre Dame to be a part of multiple conferences, given their prestige, which is why a merger would have to occur.
As to whether or not one will, that is completely different question. Notre Dame may very well continue to be an independent school as it arguably has not affected both the recruiting of the team and as well as the talent development. As long as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are winning games and winning impactful games as well, then the team will likely remain an independent.
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