With Texas and Oklahoma officially set to join the SEC in a few years, the discussion about the topic finally look to be dying down. However, the argument that Notre Dame needs to join a conference permanently refuses to go away. One such call has come from within the Notre Dame writing community.
Jake Lynch of One Foot Down, Notre Dame’s SB Nation site, has written a piece calling for the Irish to join the Big Ten for football. Among the arguments Lynch makes are the apparent inevitability of four super conferences taking hold of college football and just about every other program looking to avoid a typically quality opponent like the Irish for their nonconference games. To Lynch, the Big Ten makes the most sense because the Irish having more traditional rivals with those programs than ACC programs.
They’re good arguments, but it leaves out the reality that a conference needs Notre Dame more than the other way around. Also, if it was mandated that the Irish join a conference, why would it join a conference that one of its members actively blocked its path to entry? Plus, it’s doubtful the Irish would break their deal with all of the ACC schools that goes well into the next decade. Simply put, it most likely would take a direct order from God for the Irish to give up their independence.