Notre Dame will make it’s debut as an official football member of the ACC on September 12 when the Irish welcome the Duke Blue Devils to South Bend.
In what has been an insane year, perhaps an even crazier college football season awaits us in under two weeks.
Today The Sporting News broke down the ACC and as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Notre Dame will be not just a major story-line all fall for the league, but a player for the conference championship.
Bill Bender is a favorite of ours for The Sporting News and wrote the ACC preview. Here is what he said about Notre Dame, who he predicts will finish second in the league.
Here are other Notre Dame mentions from Bender in his ACC preview:
- Calls Notre Dame joining the conference for 2020 the biggest story-line entering 2020. That might seem obvious but remember that the consensus top team in the nation this pre-season also calls the ACC home.
- By no means does he call him a favorite for the award but Bender lists one Notre Dame player as a Heisman Trophy contender: Ian Book.
- In his conference games of the year, Bender has Notre Dame hosting Clemson and their trip to North Carolina as the two biggest games of 2020 in the ACC.
I never thought about this until right now but walk with me for a second here. What if Notre Dame beats Clemson on November 7 and enters the North Carolina game unbeaten and then say North Carolina is also unbeaten at that point.
You know where I’m going.
Do you perhaps, not run a full playbook and perhaps walk out of Chapel Hill with a loss that doesn’t make you that upset because it’d mean a rematch with the Tar Heels in the ACC Championship instead of a second game with Clemson?
Then again Boston College remains a week after for the Irish and we’re all aware of what they’ve done to Irish teams with championship dreams before.