The ACC Sports Journal reports that Notre Dame is about to become a “partial member” of the ACC (i.e., maintaining its independence in football, but committing to some football games).
As an ACC fan, I am appalled by this. In or out, Notre Dame. If Notre Dame would like to join the conference as a full member, that’s fine, but the hell with allowing them some sort of special, exalted status.
Thoughts?
How in the world is this an “exalted” status? What does the ACC lose in this arrangement? Absolutely nothing - and they gain an incredibly competitive team across the board. The ACC solidified themselves as the most media-dominant basketball conference in the country with this move.
Not only that, but the ACC gets five guaranteed football games a year against ND. They’re not going to do better than that, because there’s no way ND would give up their rivalries against USC, Navy, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford, etc. for a mandatory 9-game ACC schedule. I cannot see where the ACC loses in this equation, as any network deal they work on in the future just became that much more attractive.
I am opposed to Notre Dame being granted special dispensation. That is not fair to other programs. Should Duke be allowed to drop half its ACC basketball games so it can take on more lucrative opponents?
The only thing I can think of is, if Notre Dame’s men’s basketball team isn’t good enough to make it to the NCAA tournament, then the other ACC schools lose about 7.5% of their basketball tournament revenue as the ACC’s money now has to be split 13 ways instead of 12.
Then again, the prospect of two or three ACC teams per year getting a guaranteed “national” football game (assuming NBC keeps its contract with Notre Dame concerning its home games) might make up for that.
It’s not all that special.
Notre Dame has had a non-football affiliation with the Big East since 1995. In fact, the entire Big East was characterized by teams with some sports in-conference and others non-coference.
The Missouri Valley Conference doesn’t sponsor football, but 5 of its 10 teams play in something called the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The other 5 teams play their other major sports in different conferences.
I have a feeling the TV money will far outweigh potentially lost NCAA tourney money.
You know, it isn’t, or shouldn’t be, all about money. I frankly don’t give a damn whether this is a profitable arrangement for the ACC. As I suggested, you could also make the league more profitable by freeing Duke and UNC from their ACC basketball schedules and letting them schedule big-ticket arena games.
This is college athletics, damn it. At some point, tradition ought to trump $$$.
And boy - if there’s one way to kick “tradition” in the balls, getting more association with the University of Notre Dame should certainly fill that prescription, amirite? Because really nothing says “tradition” like the ACC - just ask Boston College, Miami, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Florida State and Georgia Tech about their storied histories there.
So again, should Duke be allowed to drop half its ACC games and fill the slots with big-payday arena games?
Notre Dame’s tradition can kiss my ass. Either join the conference or don’t.
I was OK with Miami, Virginia Tech, Florida State and Georgia Tech joining the conference, because that made some geographic sense. But once we added Boston College, that all went out the window. It was all about $$$. Which it shouldn’t be.
(Georgia Tech has been around for over 30 years. You really think they have no ACC tradition?)
Sure - if that’s mutually beneficial to both the ACC and to Duke.
The fact remains that the ACC would have zero chance of getting Notre Dame to bring in big bags full of money to share with the class if they didn’t allow them to maintain football independence. The ACC loses absolutely nothing with this deal, and gains, frankly, far more than ND does. If I’m wrong, then the Big East will surely be turning cartwheels as they bid fond farewell to Notre Dame and the “special priviledges” they’ve been enjoying. Oh wait - they won’t, and will most likely be putting up a far bigger fight for ND to wait the requisite 27 months (or pay up) than they did when Pittsburgh and Syracuse left. Where did those schools defect to again?
Notre Dame ain’t all that. They struggle to hold onto a spot in the top 25 in football these days, and it seems like nobody much cares to watch them.
I don’t think anyone’s made a claim that bringing Notre Dame into the ACC will all of a sudden turn the ACC into the Big 10 or the SEC, football or no football. I will be willing to bet that Notre Dame will increase ACC revenue (even without ND’s football home game revenue) more than Syracuse or Pitt’s entrance will.
An article stating that the ND v. Air Force game last year was their lowest rated game in recent history? Fascinating.
Spoke, you’re totally missing the bigger picture here. Either the Big 12 or the ACC is going to be on the chopping block going forward. This almost guarantees that it will now be the Big 12. The SEC was going to go after a couple of ACC teams going forward, and I think they would have been successful.
Notre Dame’s contract with NBC is up in 2015. I suspect the 5-game arrangement is temporary until then. Contrary to what was said by an above poster, I don’t think ND will have any trouble dropping Stanford and Purdue, and may even drop Navy and Michigan.
This is a very good thing for the ACC, which is why the other teams signed off on it.
ETA: I thought you were a Georgia fan.
Stanford, Michigan St. and Purdue would be on the chopping block, in that order. There’s no way that ND would drop Navy from their schedule unless Navy requested they do so. (Hell, if ND is going to be pulled whole-hog into the ACC as their 15th team, I could see them lobbying to get Navy to join as the 16th - but that’s extreme prognostication). Notre Dame would lose more in alumni donations and support by dropping Navy than they would get from a TV contract. The ND/Navy connection is extremely strong.
Why is ND-Navy such a strong connection? I know they play every year, and ND won some 40 straight games, but that’s about it.
Back during WWII Notre Dame’s enrollment plummeted, because everyone was going off to war. They were on the brink of having to completely shut down, and then the Navy came in and filled campus up with officer training programs. Navy essentially saved Notre Dame from completely liquidating. As a result, Notre Dame made Navy the promise that there’d be a place on their football schedule whenever they wanted. It’s something that players and alumni on both sides are well aware of, and while it hasn’t exactly been a competitive rivalry, it’s an extremely meaningful one. It’s not Army/Navy, nor is it ND/USC (or even ND/Michigan), but there would be heads rolling if ND cut Navy off their schedule.
(It’s odd that ND’s top rivalries are the other team’s #2 (or lower) rivalry, isn’t it?)
Really? Norte Dame would lose over $20 million per year? Because that’s what the new TV contract for the ACC will bring.
Regardless, it would be very easy for ND to keep Navy as their annual patsy. Maybe even easier than having to sign a Central Michigan or Arkasas St., which is what everyone else does.
I did a quick search for an ACC TV contract - didn’t see one. Got a link? This suggests the current contract is $17m per team - but yeah, $20m per is probably accurate after a renegotiation.
Subtract out the $9m that ND currently gets from NBC, and that’s $11m/year. Notre Dame just completed a $2 billion capital campaign that ran 7 years - that’s almost $300 million a year. So yeah - I think that suggesting that ND’s donations would decrease by about $11m/year isn’t too outrageous.
Thanks, Munch. I’d never heard that before. That’s pretty cool.