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The 2020 college football season looks less and less likely, with Power Five conferences reporting on the cusp of calling or at least postponing fall sports. Breaks seemed to be unchanging, as players nationwide tested positive for COVID-19, although the move would deal a crushing financial blow to athletic departments, costing athletes a season of their careers and schools a shot at shine.
One of those schools may have more to lose if play is stopped due to changes that the coronavirus has already forced. Last month, the sport’s most rigid tradition was reversed: for one year and one year alone, Notre Dame’s independence would have fallen and played in a conference. The temporary admission of the school into the ACC – which Notre Dame confirmed in a terse, statement of two cents“We are excited about the opportunity that the ACC has provided for our football program. We look forward to announcing our full schedule in the near future. “
“>1 – became a necessity when large conferences began canceling non-conference games. But after more than a century of Notre Dame remaining unusually independent, this move could also have been the extra impetus needed to return to the College Football Playoffs.
The examples of perhaps the most prestigious high school football program that are opposed to attending a conference are too many to mention here. In the early 1900s, Notre Dame was expelled from the original Big Ten (then the Western Conference), reportedly because of anti-Catholic sentiments by Michigan coach Fielding Yost. Since then, Notre Dame has rejected refusals to attend a football conference, and statements such as those made by school president Edward Malloy in 1999: “Notre Dame has a core identity, and at that core these characteristics are: Catholic, private, independent . As a Catholic university with a national constituency, we believe that independence remains our best way forward. In 2012, Notre Dame agreed to join the ACC in every sport but football and hockey, and although it started holding five football matches against ACC teams each year, it maintained its football independence. The pandemic forced the hand of the school like nothing else could.
Traditionalists in South Bend may have cruel many aspects of their new reality, including the canceled rivalry games against Southern California, Stanford and Navy, the need to share TV revenue with ACC enemies and the path to the playoffs via a potential conference championship . But for the first time in years, playing in the ACC was without a doubt Notre Dame’s best option.
Notre Dame has been playing a national scheme since the beginning of the 20th century. The school has played 91 times against the Navy, 89 against USC and 70 against Pittsburgh, in addition to on-and-off rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue. While this approach has its advantages, The Fighting Irish have gamed their scheme to their advantage over the years. They play Navy every year at home every year, but have never traveled to Annapolis and have played the game only seven times since 1958 in Maryland. The Stanford game was not always a challenge for the Jim Harbaugh / David Shaw days, and the Irish won 15 straight against the Army.
“>2 it almost always results in one of the most difficult schemes in the country. By participating in a Power Five competition and only planning a year of ACC teams, Notre Dame actually made its schedule easier.
By their own doing, in 14 of the past 16 seasons, the Fighting Irish have played at least one team that finished in the top 10 of the AP poll. They are 2-17 in 19 chances against those top 10 teams, and they have only played once for a national championship. Ambitious schedule has upset a few Irish teams who might otherwise have a chance. The 2019 team lost only to No. 3 Georgia and to No. 19 Michigan; the 2017 team slipped against no. 15 Georgia, no. 7 Miami and no. 20 Stanford; and the 2015 team fell briefly on the road at No. 12 Clemson and No. 13 Stanford by 2 points each. With a softer schedule in place, one of those seasons could end on bigger stages.
The only year that Notre Dame made the College Football Playoff (2018) was also the only year since that playoff began that the Irish did not play a regular season opponent who finished in the top 10. And in 2012, when they made the BCS national championship game, they played only one, a home game against Stanford that Notre Dame won in overtime. For now, Notre Dame’s schedule ranks 53rd among FBS schools in 2020 – the easiest since 2008, when the season ended, also ranked 53rd according to ESPN’s Football Power Index.
Notre Dame once again had an elite opponent on their schedule with a home game against Clemson, currently set for Nov. 7. But outside of the Tigers, the ACC’s struggles are well documented. Notre Dame is not scheduled to play another team ranking in the top 15 of Bill Connelly’s SP + rankings, and only North Carolina (No. 17) and Florida State (No. 26) are in the top 40. The average SP + ranking in the ACC is 5.9, and the average of Notre Dame’s opponents is even lower, at 5.5.
“>3 just before the Pac-12 (5.3), the worst of the Power Five conferences. While a former Irish team could have stumbled with two losses in a BCS as New Year’s Six Ball, this championship had potential.
The pandemic could now put an end to the tradition-busting experiment that forced it on Notre Dame. But perhaps the idea of an easier path to the playoffs will be enough to entice the Irish to end their independence and attend a conference for good. If that conference is the ACC, all pieces could fall into place before Notre Dame returns to the controversy of national championships.
