ACC's top scheduling model: ND plays 10 ACC games +1 NC, eligible for CCG

[TerryD44]

I could care less about ND playing in the ACC championship game.

Me neither. In fact, I have little interest in the 2020 season, especially if it is an all ACC schedule.

With the Dublin game gone, the Wisconsin Lambeau Field game gone and the USC and Stanford games gone, I don't care if they just pull the plug on the season.

An all ACC schedule, the Coastal division championship and the ACC title game mean nothing to me.

 

[TerryD44]

In 1969, somewhere between 80 and 95% of ND fans said they were 100% opposed to ND playing in bowls. In 1970, when ND was going to play in a bowl, well over 2/3rds of ND fans claimed they had no interest in bowls and never would. Some predicted that ND in bowls would ruin ND football.

ND won the Cotton Bowl that season, upsetting undefeated #1 ranked Texas, which had been undefeated National Champ the previous season.

I was one of the young ND fans more than ready for the Irish to play in bowls.

The 1970s was ND's best decade since the 1940s, and none of it could have come to pass without ND playing in bowls. The momentum was huge, even with some of the Old Guard causing trouble for Devine because they thought it a bit unseemly that ND had a former NFL coach. And that crowd was key to hiring Faust, because he sounded like a silly pre-WW2 movie script.

The only way that ND football is ever getting back to what it was in the 1970s is with full football membership in the ACC, and playing for ACC championships.

Sorry, playing for a consolation prize is meaningless to ND football success.

It will not help recruiting nor in hiring a dynamic coach.

 

[TerryD44]

Not sure if you understand my point. My point was that being independent was rather common before 1990. But for years prior to that, the NCAA limited the exposure of each team on TV either nationally or regionally. Georgia and Oklahoma sued to own their own TV rights and won in the Supreme Court in 1984. This started negotiations with networks and schools and conferences. It was clear that the networks wanted to limit the number of negotiating partners, so that's why the Big East added football and picked up Miami (but refused Penn State by a 5-3 vote championed by Pitt) and then negotiated a TV contract. Paterno was pissed and that is why the annual game between PSU and Pitt ended, and then PSU went to the big ten.

The real genesis of all of this was the creation of an organization called the College Football Association (formed in 1977) to help independent schools (such as ND) and some conferences to get TV contracts. Not all schools were members, but the NCAA threatened sanctions against any school working with the CFA. That led to the lawsuit that the NCAA lost.

When ND got its NBC deal in 1991, it left the CFA. But no other single school could replicate that NBC deal and many independents started looking for a conference home. And as college football grew in the 1990's, conference "realignment" began as the conference led TV contracts became more valuable....and more negotiable by changing members. The CFA disbanded in 1997 as it no longer had any purpose.

Without the CFA, ND would have to negotiate its own TV contracts or join a conference. It basically did both. As we all know, it joined the Big East - and then the ACC - for all non football sports. And it kept its football independence with NBC. But unless ND can keep its NBC contract, or replace with another network, it would have to join a conference to get any TV revenue for its football games.

It is my understanding that NBC did not have a lot of competitors for the latest renewal. I am not sure if $15M per year is the correct number. ND got $8M from the ACC and about $3M from the college football playoffs (they get that whether they are in it or not). The ACC gets $66M a year from the playoffs to be shared by the 14 members. FSU got $28M from the ACC last year; Clemson got $34M. Each SEC school got about $10M-$15m more than that, per member. The Big Ten gets the most per member.

Money doesn't matter until it does.

ND is #6 in total revenues in the country with the worst TV and conference deal than any P5 school

Be careful with the money talk. IF ND is really looking to maximize that, it would drop the ACC like a hot potato and make an instant extra $25 million a year by joining the Big Ten.

The NBC contract pays enough for ND to remain a football independent. ND has other financial resources and is not as dependent on a TV deal as most schools.

 

[northvanole]

ND is #6 in total revenues in the country with the worst TV and conference deal than any P5 school

Be careful with the money talk. IF ND is really looking to maximize that, it would drop the ACC like a hot potato and make an instant extra $25 million a year by joining the Big Ten.

The NBC contract pays enough for ND to remain a football independent. ND has other financial resources and is not as dependent on a TV deal as most schools.

Nobody disagrees with the value of ND to any conference, and the potential huge revenue lift if the Irish went to the Big Ten. I was only showing how it works. And I should have added that the NBC deal gives ND a national broadcast of every home game (currently 5 on the free channel and one on the NB sports channel). No other school in any conference can match the impact that this has on the national fan base. And if ND gets less money from NBC for those games than if it went to a conference contract, isn't that worth it for the reach of ND? I have no interest in ND reducing its national brand if it finds a way to align more with the ACC, but I am fine with the current arrangement. But there are a lot of haters out there.

However, I have studied these contracts since 1992 and the "odd bedfellows" it has created. Rutgers in the Big Ten? Seriously? Missouri in the SEC?

 

[Canes-Rule]

Notre Dame schedule

Home - Clemson, Duke, Syracuse, FSU, Louisville + 1 non-conf game
Away - Boston College, Georgia Tech, UNC, Pitt, Wake Forrest

 

[NDSMC78]

Notre Dame schedule

Home - Clemson, Duke, Syracuse, FSU, Louisville + 1 non-conf game
Away - Boston College, Georgia Tech, UNC, Pitt, Wake Forrest

Thanks for posting this. I really thought ND would end up playing you guys this year.

 

[northvanole]

Best news since FSU joined the conference for the 1992 season. Swarbrick and Swofford showed real leadership getting this done. I always knew it would take someone like ND to get rid of the stupid ACC divisions. (FSU had no horsepower to change anything. It took the Irish to pierce the Tobacco Road cabal). Seriously.... Many Thanks!. Even when ND goes back to being independent in 2021, I hope we keep the ACC division free.

Unfortunately, FSU's schedule just got a lot more challenging. But a lot more interesting. Really pumped for this season now.

Hopefully Clemson at ND could be the highest TV rating game of the year.

 

[Leahylads]

If there is a season, one and done as an ACC member in football is fine. Once play for pay NIL starts there will be a super conf for the high rollers anyway.

 

[WoadBlue]

Sorry, playing for a consolation prize is meaningless to ND football success.

It will not help recruiting nor in hiring a dynamic coach.

The same was said about going to bowls.

 

[WoadBlue]

Thanks for posting this. I really thought ND would end up playing you guys this year.

One thing to think about going forward, should ND decide that being a permanent full member in football will happen in, say, 2026. ND now ends its season every year in CA. There have been rumblings that Stanford may not be an annual game for much longer. If ND decides to go full ACC football, then one of the demands could be to play at Miami as a season ender when not ending at SC.

 

[NDSMC78]

One thing to think about going forward, should ND decide that being a permanent full member in football will happen in, say, 2026. ND now ends its season every year in CA. There have been rumblings that Stanford may not be an annual game for much longer. If ND decides to go full ACC football, then one of the demands could be to play at Miami as a season ender when not ending at SC.

Stanford should be replaced. But by Cal, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona St., Texas, Texas A&M or any other number of schools. Miami? Meh.

 

[Canes-Rule]

Stanford should be replaced. But by Cal, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona St., Texas, Texas A&M or any other number of schools. Miami? Meh.

"Miami? Meh"....maybe because last time we played you got spanked 41-8 on National TV???

 

[NDSMC78]

"Miami? Meh"....maybe because last time we played you got spanked 41-8 on National TV???

We're 17-8-1 against you guys. Meh.

 

[Weisnheimer]

We're 17-8-1 against you guys. Meh.

And 1-0 in brawls.

 

[TOMMY_23]

Please. I don't want to hear it. Don't give me what happened 50 years ago. ND playing in the ACCCG does zero for me. Zip. Nada. None. Nil.

Playing WMU, Temple, Rice and New Mexico does zero for me. Zip. Nada.
None. Nil.

 

[TOMMY_23]

You dinosaurs and your "threat to national identity" crap are NEVER going to let it go, are you?

Notre Dame had a "national identity" from the 20's to the 80's because hey guess what; there were like 15 relevant college football programs and they happened to be the 1 there from the beginning. What's their national identity now? Oh yeah; it's falling flat on their faces when they play a really good team. I'm sure Clemson really struggles with national identity.

You all sound like MLB fans who completely refuse to change ANYTHING about it to try and adapt with the times because of the "purity of the game." Makes me want to puke. You'd rather see what you love die and stay the same forever than acknowledge that times change and to stay relevant you need, to some extent, to adapt along with them.

Excellent post. Spot on.

ND has a national following for sure, but the brand is just what you said it is. It’s been two decades of being destroyed on the national stage. ND hasn’t won anything meaningful in a long long time.

I know these kids on the team would be ecstatic to beat Clemson in the ACC title game. It’s time ND brings some meaningful hardware back to campus.

 

[TOMMY_23]

You want to go pull for Clemson? Then go pull for Clemson.

ND fans want to beat Clemson. You want to beat Bowling Green.

 

[TOMMY_23]

This, an ACC title is meaningless to Notre Dame football.

The way ND plays against top-10 competition makes it seem like the players think the games are meaningless.

 

[TerryD44]

"Miami? Meh"....maybe because last time we played you got spanked 41-8 on National TV???

What is the record all time? How about in the last thirty years? Twenty? Ten?

 

[Kelso86]

Me neither. In fact, I have little interest in the 2020 season, especially if it is an all ACC schedule.

With the Dublin game gone, the Wisconsin Lambeau Field game gone and the USC and Stanford games gone, I don't care if they just pull the plug on the season.

An all ACC schedule, the Coastal division championship and the ACC title game mean nothing to me.

"In fact, I have little interest in the 2020 season, especially if it is an all ACC schedule"

Guess you won't be watching too much ND football if the season goes as planned.

 

[TDIrish27]

He can wait till spring and zero in on that Brown-Columbia donnybrook.

 

[Canes-Rule]

What is the record all time? How about in the last thirty years? Twenty? Ten?

When both Miami and ND are good (ranked) the all-time record is 4-4. Wish we played you guys this year.