For decades — as the five- and six- and seven-win seasons became the norm — Notre Dame was told that it would never be a national contender again unless it joined a conference, preferably, it seemed, the Big Ten.
Critics claimed there wasn’t enough money as an independent — Big Ten teams get more guaranteed revenue even with the Irish having their own NBC deal. Likewise, there was not enough schedule stability or marketing power for recruits, who seemed to flock to league brands, especially the SEC.
Independence was tired thinking, a relic out of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, when Notre Dame still used to win. Until that changed, they never would return to glory, or so the theory went. The Irish could pretend they were special, but reality was in the record (just three 10-win seasons from 1994-2014).
Much of this was said by people who either didn’t understand college football, let alone Notre Dame’s unique reasoning for keeping to itself. So even when Brian Kelly turned the Irish into a good program again — a BCS title game and two four-team playoff appearances — the chirping remained because, well, blowouts still came in the end.
Now, though, Marcus Freeman has Notre Dame (13-1) as good as ever — 1.5-point favorites in Thursday’s national semifinal against Penn State (13-2) down at the Orange Bowl.
And suddenly independence isn’t an anchor to success but … an unfair advantage?
“This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference,” Penn State coach James Franklin said, addressing how his team has played one extra game (for the Big Ten title) than the Irish. “I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Well, this is a switch.
Anyone can be independent if they want. Penn State was one of the last major hold outs, not joining the Big Ten until 1993. They got a lot of stability and guaranteed money. What they haven’t produced is the national titles of 1982 or 1986 when they were an indie under Joe Paterno. Maybe that changes this year.
Franklin isn’t all wrong, of course. The uneven leagues and differing number of games are quirks of the sport. Losing a conference title game is a double-whammy in the 12-team playoff era. To win it all, the Nittany Lions would play 17 games; ND would only need 16. (To somewhat account for this, the Irish are forbidden from receiving a top-four seed and a bye).
And while the Big Ten plays nine conference games, the SEC and ACC only line up 8, providing them more scheduling flexibility (i.e. FCS opponents).
What’s fair? Well, when did fairness ever matter in college football?
The Irish clung to independence as much out of stubbornness than any possible advantage — although there are some. Every other Irish sport is in a league, mainly the ACC.
Notre Dame is a national university. Its students hail from all across the country (Illinois, with about 12 percent of the student body, is the most represented state, according to the school). It has a major presence in the Northeast. It wants to take its football program everywhere.
Its current deal has proven ingenious, if not always successful. Its “conference” is essentially playing five games a year against a rotation of ACC opponents, plus annual clashes with USC, Stanford and Navy. That’s their eight games. They fill in the rest.
It allows an appealing enough home schedule for NBC to give them an exclusive broadcast deal, but also the opportunity to go everywhere.
Just this year Notre Dame played in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Texas and East Rutherford, N.J. It additionally matched-up against teams from Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and the Bay Area. That’s good for recruiting and alumni relations.
It’s also a lot of travel and a lot of juggling season to season.
“I view it as a pro … we get to play coast to coast,” Freeman said. “You play multiple different teams from multiple different conferences. You started off the season in College Station (Texas), you ended the season in LA. And we’re in New York twice.
“We get to really view our program as a global in terms of a national program, in terms of how we play, and the audience we play in front of.”
He then noted that while the Big Ten is certainly a conference, it isn’t the familiar family it once was because with 18 members it has followed Notre Dame’s coast-to-coast vision.
“It’s not much different than the Big Ten now with UCLA and USC and some of the West Coast teams being in it,” Freeman said.
Conferences have gotten so large that there is little commonality, especially schedule wise. The SEC’s old scheduling/division system meant a team could go a dozen years between visits to a league campus.
In an ideal world everything should be evened out as much as possible, but this is college football. There are 134 teams of all shapes and sizes competing for the same championship. Unless the revenue gets shared like the NFL, why should anything else?
For Notre Dame, who has fought through years of browbeating about how dumb they were to stay independent, at least the current cries against it are entertaining.
Who could have seen this coming during all those 6-6 and 7-5 seasons?
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