With the Big Ten and Pac-12 making their decisions to play a conference-only schedule for the 2020 season, the logical choice for the Irish is to join the ACC. With six games already scheduled against ACC competition and a relationship outside of football, Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel’s report makes it seem like the most likely scenario.
Sources: The ACC is discussing scheduling models, with 10 league games and a "plus one" outside the conference as the favorite. The ACC start date is still being debated between September 12, 19 and 26.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) July 24, 2020
Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick told ESPN’s Heather Dinich that he would like to see the season delayed. It looks like that could very well be the case as Thamel is reporting the ACC is debating a later start date. Swarbrick also wanted a shorter season, one that has 8-10 games, the other portion of Thamel’s report of what could be in store for Notre Dame Football in 2020.
If this is the case, then the schedule would take off the SEC’s Arkansas along with the MAC’s Western Michigan. That would leave Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville to face off against the Irish this year. Miami has said they would welcome a match-up with the Irish, in what is building up to be one of the oddest college football seasons possibly ever.
We are all awaiting an announcement of what might happen this year as more conferences make their intentions known, the Irish would hate to be left out of a season. Joining the ACC for the 2020 campaign makes the most sense, and it looks like that is going to be a reality, for hopefully just this year.