I ask because I don't know. Assume you are the ND AD and you are scheduling football games with FOOTBALL as the primary or only consideration. That alone makes this a silly question. Is it feasible or possible to schedule traditional opponents Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan, USC, Stanford, BC (oops-ACC), Pitt (oops- ACC), Air force, and Navy each year? If so, can ND then add a Georgia/Oklahoma (Kelly years) or Miami (oops-ACC) or LSU or Alabama or Washington or UCLA or Tennessee or Ohio State or Penn State or Florida State (oops-ACC) or Georgia Tech (oops-ACC) home/away series each year as with the Holtz/Davie/Weis years? If so, that's 9 or 10 "palatable" games per season. What about the other 2 or 3? What if conference constraints in the B10 keep Michigan, MSU, Purdue etc from having home/away series with ND? Wasn't that a driving force here?

From a distance, its damn easy to say the ACC alignment is a shitshow, and part of me agrees, but again, what's a better alternative?

It would balance both ND's interests and the ACC's interest just fine.

Saucy would never tell his ACC buddies to "go shit in a hat" though.

IMO it's not about playing some of those teams, even if some of them are on a consistent basis (Miami, Florida State, or even Pitt). It's about being contractually obligated to having so many of them on our schedule each year. It basically means we are in that conference with little leeway or schedule flexibility.

Now, if one were to ask me, I would ditch all of the service academies for sure. As to BC, I don't really have strong feelings about them and don't really consider them a "traditional" opponent the same way Sc, Mich, MSU, et al are.

Without some sort of a tie on to a conference, how hard would it be to get 8 quality opponents between mid-September and mid-November? Personally, I don't mind ND playing Wake Forest or Duke or NC State or Virginia Teach quote as much as the MAC schools. The current scenario is much better than becoming Penn State or Nebraska and joining the B10, at least to me.

ND obviously carries more cachet than BYU, but go look at BYU's schedules as an independent for the next few years. In 2019, they play Utah, Tennessee, USC, Toledo, and Washington in August and September, and in 2020 for the same months, Utah, Michigan State, Arizona State, and Minnesota. In the other months, it's USF, Boise State, Utah State, Liberty, Idaho State, Umass, San Diego State, Missouri, Houston, Northern Illinois, North Alabama, and Stanford (on the road).

The conference arrangement allows us a more balanced schedule with teams like Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Clemson obligated to travel to South Bend in late October and November which would never happen as an independent. Teams in major conferences generally don't want to travel for a "meaningless" non-conference game late in the year to South Bend or anywhere else. Michigan only agreed to the game this year in late October because we allowed them to use B10 refs at the Big House instead of ACC officials.

The ACC deal isn't ideal (5 games a bit too much for me), but it was a good move by Swarbrick.

because we let the program deteriorate with poor leadership at the top levels. That's my issue with it; we gave up control over our schedule and basically our future because of our own ineptness.

of smelly, pasty white, Irish folks attending these ACC dregs.

As a side bonus, the NIU game will be a true Swarbrick festival of Midwest fart smellers.

of smelly, pasty white, Irish folks attending these ACC dregs. Now THAT would be horrible.

used to pull things out of the boiling vat.

In 2020, Wisconsin at Lambeau and Stanford as long as it's not a night game. In 2021, Wisconsin in Chicago and USC, again if it's not a night game. I won't attend any games this year.

I will not pay money to watch a game against an ACC opponent. And, I will no longer attend night games down there because it ruins the entire day (no nice dinner in Chicago after the game, etc.). It's quite possible that I will never attend another game in my life. I'm hopeful--I don't know why I should be--that the next AD will shitcan the ACC deal and go back to a traditional Notre Dame schedule.

When is it that we play OSU? I might try to go to those games if we're competitive. I might go down to the Texas A&M game whenever that is.

I like some of the Universities as institutions. I like UVa, for instance.

But we are a fish out of water in the conference. That will never change. And the games will never be interesting.

With travel schedule and costs cited as reasons B10 is a better fit.

I am a never Big-10we.

Football wasn't the driver. JS needed a conference home for everyone but football. The ACC acceded to the independence request with that huge 5-game kicker that mucks up our schedule. The puzzling thing to me is how hockey found a home by itself.

The ACC doesn't, so that's probably why ND isn't in there.

Lax wasn't in the ACC until it decided to put together a league.

for football.

The debate about whether it was worth it to prop up our other sports is a separate one.

For example, the SEC.

It's better than some other options, such as the B1G (an opinion on which I know we disagree).

The P12 and the BXII probably are pushes.

You say that "the ACC is a horrific option for football."

Let's say that a reasonable argument can be made the the ACC is among the better Power 5 conference options for basketball, soccer, etc.

In your opinion, should the needs of those other sports be taken into consideration when choosing a conference partner, or should the best interests of the football program be paramount, given its history at ND and the revenue that it brings to the school?

they let their main sport be their driver.

that it takes to get us in that conference, saving our independence (by committing to playing the same teams from the same conference all the time), and by keeping our Olympic sports powerful.

Clearly it takes a man of vision and high intelligence to get us where we need to be! The best AD in all of ND history.

In the big east than they are after however many years we’ve been in the ACC?

I know your post was in jest, by the way.

Both basketball teams would be. FS1 is a shitty distribution medium, and as much as ND fans (including me) hanker for games vs Marquette and Nova and GTown, UNC and Duke et al carry more weight with recruits, not to mention more $$.

Baseball and softball definitely would be worse off.

I believe the soccer programs would be.

I can't speak to the other Olympic sports that are in the ACC.

not sure how much worse off they would possibly be.

and .500 is the basic definition of mediocre.

I suppose I was being a bit generous.

behalf.

That you write on behalf of your singular client, but which is intended to be read by a panel of judges. At oral argument, would you expect a judge to ask “why should I buy your argument,” or would you expect him or her to ask “why should WE buy your argument?”

doesn't have to give a crap about whether he uses a singular or plural pronoun.

Incidentally, I've heard both.

I was in South Bend the weekend before the Senior Open, and I was struck by the number of TV and radio ads offering ND season ticket packages. We're what, sixty days out and they're mining the South Bend market for season tickets?

They’ve done the math with the tiered ticket pricing.

Any season tickets sold at this point are gravy on top.

How is that supposed to sell more tix?

Home schedule: Toledo, Purdue, Cincinnati, USC, North Carolina, Navy, Georgia Tech

I feel bad for the seniors who get this as their home schedule, particularly the first half.

and make it impossible for us to run on them. Impossible, I tell you!

And they’ll probably run the veer.

It’s tough to win football games.

Meaning, of course, that they had 8 in the box vs. 4 wide, with no safety help.

We have to throw!

(note: that never happened, even though some insisted that it did. I believe Kelly even made comment about that and some suckers took it hook, line, and sinker.)

They haven't been to ND in awhile and they're now decent.

Purdue kicked the shit out of Ohio State? Good times. Good times.

It will be a very competitive game.

You’re not wrong, but that’s a lot of reality for July.

in reality I'm not.

This year he relinquished his tickets due to the shit schedule. There was no point buying season tickets when we would have only went to two games. We are better off buying them off stub hub.

It will always be cheaper to scalp or go on Stubhub, excuse me... Vivid Seats (official partner of ND Football) than it is to pay for season tickets. The only reasons to have season tickets is to financially support the program, guarantee the same seats every season, or to carry on a longstanding family tradition.

the same families for fifty years. The softening of the schedule got it to the point where the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze anymore.

Sadly, depending on how some of these games progress, that may be ND at certain times.