Notre Dame to ACC: Weighing In From the Pac-12

Sep 8, 2012; South Bend, IN, USA; The Notre Dame Fighting Irish take the field before the game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame won 20-17. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-US PRESSWIRE

So how about yesterday’s news that the Fighting Irish would be joining the ACC in all sports, except football of course, where they will be joining in the capacity of essentially a half-member (while still maintaining their independent label). In other words they’ll play a locked in 5 games per year against ACC opponents, meaning each ACC team will now see the storied Golden Domes once every 3 years. Most of you know the details by now, so I’ll not beleaguer the point.

I’ve always kind of hated Notre Dame as a sports institution, for the same reason I hated the Atlanta Braves back in the day. Their affiliation with NBC (for Atlanta it was TBS I think), meant they were the game at 12:30 I always had to see, no matter how good or bad they were at the time. SEC games I wasn’t into watching and my Cougs rarely aired on tv if they were the home team, save for a few really good seasons. So the Domes are what I had to watch in between the morning games which were good because they kicked off the college football Saturday, and the late games, which were usually more Pac-12 oriented. I dunno, I just didn’t like seeing their mugs with those boring Navy jerseys and striped end zones and touchdown Jesus and all that hullabaloo. Of course they’ve upgraded the jerseys now and all that to where they’re actually pretty ballin’ but you get the point.

Don’t get me wrong, the history of the place as it pertains to sports is incredibly rich, especially if you throw “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy” in the mix, but I just couldn’t stand watching them. I guess in a way though I really enjoyed watching them too, because for some reason I found myself on their channel more often than not. I guess they were kinda like the girl on tv, the kinda cute one that you couldn’t stop watching her show, I dunno like Marsha from the Brady Bunch or something… (Come on man I was like ten), but you were mad that the other really hot girls weren’t on tv at the same time (like I don’t know who, it’s not important). Anyways, their non-football affiliation has always been a turn off to me. It was just a stupid power play and a way to get into the bigger bowl games than maybe they deserved because they would beat a few over-matched “rivals” on National television and get an invite. That was my thought as a young’n anyway.

Regardless, I’m happy with this choice to finally move into a conference at least as a partial football member. It’s good for the conference and good for the school. I’m not an ACC fan or anything but I think it makes the conference better, especially in other sports as well. ND may not be the sports power that it once was, but it still draws top recruits for a multitude of values and reasons beyond football and basketball. Also they are still “premier” when it comes to football teams around the country that attract the most attention. I believe with this move they really make themselves even more attractive to their boosters and potential ACC recruits who wouldn’t have otherwise looked at the school. It’s a big move for them and I applaud it.

Go Irish??? NAH! I’m not that happy about it! Besides it could possibly threaten the rivalries that I love so much with USC, Stanford and generally at least one other Pac-12 school every year. Heck, it’s the one time a year I really get to route for the Cardinal. You gotta figure Michigan, Navy and probably Michigan State continue their rivalries with ND no matter what so that leaves those extra games out, at least as far as the “other” yearly scheduled game goes. Those details haven’t been released yet but I’m just hoping that at least USC can continue its historic clash on a yearly basis.

GO COUGS!