Notre Dame Joins the ACC



Life is too complicated. As I get older I have more and more difficulty in following stuff that used to be simple but now is “complicate" as my grandmother used to say. Football conferences are a case in point. Those of you who know me know that I am not an avid sports fan. But I follow, or used to follow, college sports on some level. But now I can’t tell the players, literally, without a program. Schools have been shuffled in and out of conferences like so many pieces of fruit. Add to that the scandals and who is eligible to play in what bowls, what’s a body to do?

Notre Dame is the latest example of schools doing the Teaberry Shuffle. Notre Dame is traditionally an independent when it comes to football, but has floated in and out of conferences for "everything else." It was in the Big East, but announced last week that it is leaving the Big East for "everything else" and joining the ACC (the Atlantic Coast Conference for those who are blissfully ignorant about such things). But its football schedule must include five ACC teams which may cut into its traditional rivals mostly in the Big Ten which now has twelve teams, two of which are under some sort of NCAA sanctions. I don’t get it.

Conferences used to be geography centric. Big Ten schools were in the Midwest; Pac 10 along the west coast. The Big East was mostly northeastern schools; the ACC along the central east coast and those along the southern east coast were in….you got it…the Southeast Conference. There was a reason for this, including school travel arrangements as well as time zones to fit school and limited broadcast schedules.

Conferences also exhibited different styles of football, most notably the Big Ten which had a reputation for old style, big bruising football…the Woody Hayes “three yards and a cloud of dust!” The Southeast Conference was noted for fast paced passing football.

Now it is all jumbled as schools jockey for positions and money. Below is how the Big East and ACC conferences will look in 2014 after the shifts in and out.

ACC: Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Florida State, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Notre Dame

Big East: Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Marquette, DePaul, Rutgers, Temple, Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Connecticut, Rutgers, Villanova, Memphis, UCF, SMU, Houston, Boise State, San Diego State

Boise State and San Diego State in the Big East…really?

I always thought Notre Dame would eventually end up in the Big Ten. But the conference has a long and historic tradition of revenue sharing and program integration that would never fit into Notre Dame’s school centric view of sports (translate: its broadcast contract with NBC for $20 mil plus/year). That may change as the conferences continue to slosh their way through the muck to a true national championship game based on conference playoffs rather than poll rankings incorporating the traditional “bowl” games as playoff venues. How long will other schools tolerate Notre Dame as an independent?

But what do I know? Can anyone tell me what conference Youngstown State is in? I think I need a Bloody Mary.