Posted on 12/07/2018 5:21:39 PM PST by dangus
Could Notre Dame start its own conference.
This is not a prediction. This is trying to get a conversation started.
Conferences no longer need 12 teams to have a conference final. Five is a lousy number of major conferences for the post-season. And Texas has set precedent by having a special status within the Big 12. Could Notre Dame "longhorn" its way to a sixth major conference?
Notre Dame declined joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), but the ACC isn't that great of a football conference. There's not much beyond Clemson. Notre Dame would find better competition in a league featuring Central Florida (#7 according to computer rankings), Army (#22), Cincinnati (#24), Temple (#34), and Navy. Add #3 Notre Dame to that list, and, this year at least, you'd have a core of a higher-quality league than the Pac-12, the ACC or the Big Ten.
With Notre Dame plus those five teams who would kill to be in a major conference, who else might join? Would #15 West Virginia bolt the Big 12, where the team has a secondary status to Texas? Would traditional rival Boston College (#37), the sole other BCS Catholic school, prefer more local competitors like Temple, Navy and Army (plus Notre Dame and Cincinnati) to teams such as Wake Forest, Louisville, and NC State? Or would Syracuse (#17), another traditional rival? Other candidates would seem to include Memphis (#45) and Houston.
Notre Dame turned down the Big Ten. But the Big Ten would've commanded nine games out of Notre Dame, forcing ND to break traditional match-ups, and ND couldn't command special status in a league with Michigan and Ohio State. But this new league would command only six or seven. Notre Dame would have the scheduling freedom to maintain rivalries with Michigan and Michigan State, while NOT having to play teams like Rutgers, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin and Maryland, with whom Notre Dame has zero interest in.
Consider this line-up:
#3 Notre Dame
#7 Central Florida
#22 Army (a traditional ND opponent)
#24 Cincinnati
#34 Temple
Navy (another tradition)
plus two of #37 Boston College (another tradition), #17 Syracuse, Houston, Memphis... and Connecticut.
Yeah, U-Conn's football team sucks, but a basketball league including Cincy, UConn, Notre Dame and Temple would rock.
No. Because, amidst all those blood vessels popping in your head, you didn’t notice that I actually favored Clemson to beat Notre Dame. Not because Clemson had a tougher schedule, but because Notre Dame, despite the much tougher schedule barely won some games that should’ve been blow-outs. Ball State is clearly the weakest team on ND’s schedule, and they won by only eight. Similarly, they beat Vanderbilt by only 5.
I believe the rankings are pretty decent; Notre Dame deserves to be a middle-of-the-top-five team, but they are not a strong contender for the national title.
Largest Continuous Fan Base. Miami and Alabama rival it when they are winning.
26 bowl games. They play in the Military Bowl this year
“No. Because, amidst all those blood vessels popping in your head”
AHA! No? You do not have the courage of your convictions! THAT is very telling! ;-)
ROFL Blood vessels popping in MY head? What a joke!
I have been laughing at you and Mr. Chips because both of you are unhealthily, absolutely-fanatical about a football team. That simply floors me unless both of you are relatively young!
>> AHA! No? You do not have the courage of your convictions! THAT is very telling! ;-<<
No, you’ve thoroughly misunderstood what my convictions are. My convictions never were that Notre Dame is a better team. My convictions is that the notion that Notre Dame is undefeated because it has a crappy schedule is absurdly false. I don’t LIKE Notre Dame. I consider them apostate. My interest is in teams outside the Big 5, and the false presumption that any team not in a Big-5 conference should be disregarded.
Re: 26 straight bowl games
Thanks for the update.
Somehow, I thought VPI missed in 2017.
In any event, I think USC has the most impressive record in modern times....
Seven consecutive BCS Bowls, from 2002-2008.
VPI has not missed a bowl game in 26 years. Longest active streak in football. Let’s hope for 27
OK, now that makes sense! ;-)
It well may have. I do not know the origins. I just know that is is popular on the Notre Dame campus.
Well, I did say “Merry Christmas!” :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.