Tag: notre dame independent

Stephen A. Smith questions Notre Dame’s relevance

This guy.

Believe me when I say the last thing I want to do is bring attention to Stephen A. Smith. I could write a whole post about everything I can’t stand about him, but that’s a topic for another day.

With the College Football Playoff officially expanding to 12 teams, the inevitable topic of where Notre Dame fits in as an independent has come up. It has to given that the top four seeds automatically will go to conference champions, which locks the Irish out of those spots.

Whatever the reason for the Irish entering the conversation though, it prompted Stephen A. Smith to outright question why the program is relevant during the latest episode of ESPN’s “First Take”. He went on so long that Awful Announcing had to split the video in two when tweeting it out:

The only thing worth adding to this is that [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is working hard to build the program he sees fit, and the hope is that more progress will be made in his third full season at the helm. With luck, Smith will be eating his words before too long.

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Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson: Notre Dame ‘not an independent’

Keep telling yourself that, Richard.

With college football almost here, old issues are starting to be debated again. Notre Dame’s independence is about as old a debate topic as it gets, but with major conference realignment coming in 2024, it feels like a hotter issue than ever. Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated disputed the very idea of the Irish being independent on his podcast. Specifically, he cited the university being a partial ACC member:

There shouldn’t be any middle ground discussed here. Either you’re in with a conference all the way, or you’re not. Notre Dame is not a full-fledged ACC member, so it’s no use debating this particular point. Until an ACC logo permanently is painted onto the Notre Dame Stadium surface, we can’t call the football program part of it.

Notre Dame’s other athletic programs are in conferences out of necessity more than anything else. They can’t sustain themselves the way the football program can. And until the college football powers-that-be decide that independence is bad for the game, the Irish are staying independent.

[lawrence-related id=74924,74868,29105]

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Legendary coach Bob Knight dies at 83

Rest in peace, Coach.

Basketball Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight has died at the age of 83. In 42 seasons coaching college basketball, Knight accumulated 902 wins, the sixth-most of all-time. He made 28 NCAA Tournaments and came away from three of his five Final Fours with national championships, all of them with Indiana.

Notre Dame was a regular opponent of Knight’s Hoosiers, who asserted their dominance in the series with 21-6 record during those years. However, the Irish won their first game against Knight in the 1968 NIT, when he was coaching Army.

The Irish also were witnesses to one of the many incidents Knight was involved in during his career. In a 1993 game between the teams, he screamed at and kicked his son, Pat, and subsequently was suspended for one game.

In 2010, two years after Knight coached the final game of his career for Texas Tech, he got in some digs at Notre Dame during a public speaking engagement. He began by referring to Sam Perkins and fellow Hall of Famer Chris Mullin, two players he coached to the gold medal in the 1984 Olympics:

“They were two smart Catholic boys. They should advise Notre Dame to go in the Big Ten, because there are some dumb Catholic boys up there. They have no idea how much it would change their recruiting.”

Since then, of course, Notre Dame has joined the Big Ten for hockey and the ACC for all other sports but remained independent in football. Still, that had to have ruffled a few feathers in South Bend at the time.

In spite of everything, Knight accomplished a lot in his career and deserves to be celebrated for it. May he rest in peace.

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Deadspin wants Notre Dame to save Pac-12 by joining it

Dumb idea.

Much has been made over the past few weeks about the likely demise of the Pac-12. With only four schools currently slated to be members in 2024, the conference’s future doesn’t look good. Or does it?

DJ Dunson of Deadspin has decided that Notre Dame needs to be the savior of the remaining programs. California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State apparently have become important enough to Notre Dame that it needs to upend its entire future for the sake of these particular teams. Here’s the idea in full:

“The ACC’s ham-handed attempts to scoop up Stanford and Cal were reportedly at the behest of Notre Dame looking out for their natural rivals. For now, that quid pro quo is on life support. Props to them for making an effort to rescue the eggheads in Palo Alto from a sinking ship, but you know what would help?

Why not join a conference that is seeking a media rights deal and join the Pac-12? The Pac-12 appears to DOA, but what does Touchdown Jesus represent if not the resurrection? It’s not a super-conference, but a mini-conference is a solid middle ground.”

No. No. Notre Dame does not owe anyone anything, least of all a group of teams they have very little history with except for the Cardinal. And the beauty of independence is that you can have this attitude and not worry at all about the shifting conferences around you.

Thanks for the offer, but if the day were to come that the Irish absolutely had to join a conference, the other side of the country is the last place they would consider. The aforementioned schools will just to find another way to sustain themselves.

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Woodward Sports Network: ‘Nobody should schedule Notre Dame’

Nope. Not happening.

With college football being thrown completely out of whack, attention has turned to Notre Dame once again. All indications are that despite the calls of many outside the Irish fan base, their independence isn’t ending anytime soon. The program will not be intimidated by such pressure.

But that’s not stopping outlets such as the Detroit-based Woodward Sports Network from telling would-be opponents to force Notre Dame’s hand. Check out this clip from a show with a panel that includes Braylon Edwards, who faced the Irish three times while with Michigan:

Please. Any athletic director with a brain would be foolish not to agree to play the Irish regardless of the state of their own program. The exposure and grandeur is too hard to resist, and lesser opponents gladly will take the money they’re paid to come to Notre Dame Stadium because being there is not an opportunity that comes along every year.

These programs are shifting conferences because of money. Nobody is going to take a financial hit just so it can get Notre Dame to persuade itself to join a conference. If anything, teams will do whatever it takes to get a piece of the pie in South Bend because it benefits everybody to some degree. Those who think otherwise should find a different line of work so they aren’t detrimental to their school.

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Heather Dinich: Conference realignment means nothing for Notre Dame

Don’t worry, Irish fans.

To put it mildly, college football is in chaos. The Pac-12 is about to become extinct or is seriously threatened at the very least.

Oregon and Washington will join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten in 2024. Colorado is rejoining the Big 12 in 2024, and we now know Arizona, Arizona State, Utah also are heading there as well.

What does this mean for Notre Dame?

If college football insiders are to be believed, absolutely nothing. As part of a series of questions published on ESPN’s website, Heather Dinich was asked to tackle the evergreen issue of the Irish’s independence and how it applies to the changing college football climate. If you’re worried about the Irish giving into public pressure and joining a conference permanently, Dinich says don’t be:

“Notre Dame athletic director [autotag]Jack Swarbrick[/autotag] has long repeated the same three factors that could contribute to the university’s position as an independent becoming ‘unsustainable.’

Those include: the loss of a committed broadcast partner; the loss of a fair route into the postseason; or such an adverse financial consequence that would force it to reconsider.

In spite of all of the drama swirling around Notre Dame, nothing has impacted those particular factors. Notre Dame still has a strong partnership with NBC as its broadcast partner that runs through the 2025 season. It recently announced a renewed commitment to Under Armour. It also remains a partial member of the ACC in football and has a contract with the league stating that if the Irish were to relinquish their independence, it would be for the ACC.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said recently at the league’s media days that he knows how much the Irish value their independence. Notre Dame still remains the most valuable property remaining on the Monopoly board – and it’s still not for sale.”

Tom Noie of the South Bend Tribune expressed similar thoughts earlier in the day. So sleep easy, Irish fans. The program is not changing its affiliation or lack thereof anytime soon. Besides, conferences need the Irish more than the Irish need them.

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ACC commissioner Jim Phillips talks Notre Dame independence

No need to be concerned for now, independence fans.Bra

With ACC Media Days underway, this also is the time for the man at the head of the conference to speak out. Commissioner Jim Phillips took the podium in Charlotte and faced his annual round of questioning from assembled media.

At some point during the day, Phillips was asked about Notre Dame’s independence. He is on record as saying he wants the Irish to join the conference for football, and he had this response according to Brandon Marcello of 247Sports:

With the SEC and Big Ten on the verge of becoming super conferences, the question of whether the Irish will stay independent becomes more relevant than before. It will be interesting to see how long the program can keep this going before the deck becomes stacked against it enough that joining a conference is the only option.

While many Irish fans don’t want to think about being in a conference, nothing is off the table anymore. Money talks, and the Irish might eventually have to bite the bullet to stay relevant in college football.

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Big Ten opponents Notre Dame should play annually if it ever joins

Just picture at least some of these games happening annually.

The Big Ten has unveiled its “Flex Protect Plus” scheduling model, which will take effect when USC and UCLA join the conference in 2024. Eleven particular matchups will be protected and thus played every year, and every school will play every school at least twice over a four-year period. There will be both annual and rotating matchups over each team’s nine-game league schedule.

Which brings us to Notre Dame. We all know about the Irish being denied entry into the Big Ten in the 20th century’s early years, but times areMidw changing. With college football’s landscape radically changing soon, questions about the feasibility of the Irish’s longtime independence are being raised. Plus, with their next athletic director currently heading NBC Sports Group and the Big Ten about to start a long-term TV deal with NBC, the Irish almost seem destined for full-time Big Ten membership.

Now, before you Irish traditionalists hang me from the top of the Golden Dome, really think about this. Many of the Irish’s most frequent opponents in their history are based in the Midwest. This would revive annual or semi-annual rivalries that largely have been discarded to fulfill obligations to the East Coast-centeric ACC. Nothing against that conference, but Wake Forest, North Carolina and Georgia Tech just seem to be awkwardly forced upon the fan base by the arrangement and don’t exactly rile anyone up.

In the event of a Big Ten membership, certain parameters will have to be set for the Irish. They definitely would need to keep Navy as one of its nonconference opponents because any season not completely compromised by COVID that doesn’t have the Midshipmen just seems wrong. Other than that, there are some opponents that need to be scheduled every year or at least merit consideration for that. Here are the ones most worth considering:

Twitter user: Notre Dame plays two of 10 most important games in 2023

The Irish have a soft schedule, huh?

We all are looking forward to Notre Dame’s 2023 season, but two games in particular are circled on everyone’s calendar. The Irish host Ohio State on Sept. 23 and then don’t return home until they face USC on Oct. 14. It goes without saying that at least one game likely will have big College Football Playoff implications. Now, we know exactly how important both games are, at least according Twitter college sports list aficionado Big Game Boomer:

The fact the the Irish are independent might have something to do with the fact that only appear once outside the top 10 the list. Regardless, it’s a reminder of how tough a schedule the Irish have if they want to make the playoff in the final year of its current format. They most definitely will need to at least split these two games to have a shot at the playoff. Being swept will kill any chance they might still have at that point.

So the next time someone tries to tell you the Irish never really play anybody and thus don’t deserve to go to the playoff ever, just show them this list. Hopefully, that shuts them up for at least this season.

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Phil Steele preview cover causes confusion by including Notre Dame

Can we get some consistency here?

With the calendar having flipped to June, annual college football previews are starting to make their way to shelves. Among those are the Phil Steele College Football Preview. As is the case with many such magazines, regional covers are sent out to be displayed in certain areas around the country. That’s where this gets confusing.

When you go to Steele’s website, you’ll see Notre Dame, specifically [autotag]Joe Alt[/autotag], included among players from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska. You’ll notice that the website explicitly says this cover is for distribution in the Midwest. But if you go to Steele’s Twitter account, you’ll notice quite a different label:

Huh? There’s no question that this cover is Big Ten-heavy, but did Steele conveniently forget about the Irish’s independence? Anyone familiar with the program’s history knows it was denied entry into the Big Ten numerous times in the early part of the 20th century, paving the way for the independence that has remained almost completely uninterrupted since.

Me thinks Steele needs someone to edit his tweets before he sends them out.

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