Notre Dame Could Follow USC, UCLA And Dollar Signs To Big Ten

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Southern Cal and UCLA are off to the Big Ten, but speaking as somebody who was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, home of the University of Notre Dame, here’s all that matters: Will the Fighting Irish keep Knute Rockne’s ghost happy by staying independent?

Yes.

Uh . . . maybe.

Actually, when it comes to that question, I’m hearing the Notre Dame Victory March as a funeral dirge after Southern Cal and UCLA spent Thursday moving college football closer to just two super conferences.

They’ll leave as powerhouses in the Pac-12, and they’ll form a 16-member Big Ten as early as 2024 to match the size of the SEC after Texas and Oklahoma bolt the Big 12 for the 2025 season.

Remember 2025. That’s a huge year for the Irish regarding what they’ll do now while keeping their future in mind.

For instance: Courtesy of 2025, along with those actions of Southern Cal and UCLA (and Texas and Oklahoma), Irish officials have at least their big toes out the door of Notre Dame Stadium in the direction of, say, the Big Ten.

It’s about the money, which is why the Irish are contemplating whether to join a conference for the first time ever on a full-time basis.

Speaking of the money, Notre Dame is the only college football program in history to have a national television network broadcast all of its home games, which NBC has done at $15 million per year for the past three decades. That contract expires after (all together now) the 2025 season. If the Irish joined, say, the Big Ten, they would lose the significant eyes of the peacock folks, but they would sit on the verge of the Big Ten getting a $1 billion TV contract from Fox.

According to ESPN, each Big Ten school (as in Notre Dame, too) would pocket anywhere between $80 million and $100 million.

It’s always about the money.

If you’re not me or Rockne’s ghost (as in, we don’t get this part of the story), 2025 for Notre Dame also is about national championships. The Irish have won 11 of them, but their last one came in 1988, when current Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman was two years old.

So, if you’re not me or Rockne’s ghost, here’s how 2025 and Notre Dame joining one of those two super conference supposedly puts the Irish closer to a 12th national championship: The College Football Playoff (CFP) contract will expire after that 2025 season. Then the number of CFP teams will remain at four, jump to 12, or CFP officials could satisfy the eternal wishes of Mississippi State Mike Leach by exploding the field t0 64.

If you’re not me or Rockne’s ghost, you somehow believe any of those scenarios involving the CFP’s next contract would help Notre Dame as a member of, say, the Big Ten reach the tournament better than remaining as an independent, and that’s because — well, I haven’t a clue.

Here’s what I know: With the Irish in the Big Ten, they’d have to compete with a slew of other heavyweights for one of the two slots in the conference title game.

No such worries as an independent.

Here’s something else I know:

• Everybody wants to schedule Notre Dame (always good for a packed house on national television, which translates into massive paydays for everybody), and that wouldn’t change for the Irish as an independent, even with super conferences around them.
• Despite the Irish operating as the only prominent independent during this era of heavy realignment of conferences, they reached the title game of the Bowl Championship Series after the 2012 season, and they’ve made the CFP in two of the last four years.
• That independent status hasn’t bothered Notre Dame’s recruiting, not with Freeman signing an epidemic of studs throughout his roster to rank among the elite of the elites in the nation.

For Notre Dame, that leaves the money thing — the big money thing — as a reason to join a super conference.

Which makes me wonder: Did I mention the big toes of Irish officials were out the door of Notre Dame Stadium in the direction of, say, the Big Ten?

I meant to say one of their legs.