If you have the chance to win a championship, you always want to do it the right way. Notre Dame will have that chance when it battles Clemson for the ACC title.
But what if the game isn’t played?
Ralph D. Russo of The Associated Press has learned what would happen in that case:
From the ACC, if either Notre Dame or Clemson cannot play in the championship game, the game is a no contest and Notre Dame would be crowned champion by virtue of the regular-season standings.
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) December 13, 2020
Naturally, the replies to this tweet were along the lines of Notre Dame players will purposely go out so they can get infected with COVID-19 and cause this game not to be played. After all, how many times in the history of sports have we seen teams change their approaches when a scenario in which they would be safe is in play? They don’t care about the integrity of competition as long as they get what they want.
One would think Brian Kelly will teach his team to be smarter than that. The last thing a program that takes a lot of criticism from outside its fan base wants is to have its first and possibly only conference championship come with an asterisk. More importantly, being reckless on purpose would compromise the health of the players and the community at large. It’s better to keep doing what they’ve been doing and go about this ethically, safely and correctly.