With all the talk about college football teams only playing conference games for a shortened 2020, Notre Dame is back at the forefront. The Irish and their fans take a lot of pride in the program’s independence, and if you asked most people who align themselves with the program, they wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, why would they ever admit that Michigan was right to deny them admission into the Big Ten?
But as Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated points out, the COVID-19 pandemic will create new issues and reignite old ones, namely whether the Irish should bite the bullet and join a conference. Although Notre Dame is not the only independent Football Bowl Subdivision program, it’s the only one regularly discussed as a College Football Playoff contender. To other fans, it’s not fair that their team has to devote most of its schedule to the same opponents every year while the Irish can play whoever they want and still get a seat at the head table if the committee deems them worthy.
The best solution for the Irish would be for the FBS to adopt the “conference-only, plus-one” model that athletic director Jack Swarbrick has talked about. That would almost certainly ensure that Notre Dame plays the same number of games as everyone else. Besides, everyone and their grandmother knows any game involving the Irish means greater exposure for their opponents.
Forde breaks down the Irish’s current 2020 schedule and what every game’s fate could be. Navy and the six ACC opponents should be safe, as should the Shamrock Series game with Wisconsin and the one involving Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference. Arkansas also is scheduled to play in South Bend, but would an SEC team want to play its only nonconference game on the road? Meanwhile, the Pac-12 has discussed its teams only playing within the conference, which could spell trouble for the annual games against Stanford and USC.
Whatever happens, Notre Dame’s football independence might be more contentious than ever. But even the most ardent Irish haters have to admit that without them, the overall college football brand would suffer greatly. Plus, it’s unlikely the university will have wanted to give away scholarships for nothing, even if it decided to honor them without the reason these particular students came to South Bend. The only thing to do is set up an abbreviated schedule in way that gives independent programs the same number of games as everyone else.
It’s really simple: If there’s no Notre Dame, there’s no college football. Period.