Opinion: Why Notre Dame should schedule Big Ten opponents

Notre Dame is one of the hottest topics in college football these days. They are the only major brand in college football that is still independent, and it has angered many fans who demand that the Fighting Irish join a conference. Notre Dame refuses to obey.

And quite frankly, they should stand their ground. Notre Dame, being an independent, I would argue, is better for college football. Before your head explodes and you want to call me dumb using every word in the book, hear me out.

Does anybody think that the conference realignment that has occurred since the COVID pandemic is good for the sport? Is it really good for the sport to have Texas and Oklahoma leave the Big 12 for the SEC? Or to have the Pac 12 dissolve and teams from the West Coast playing in the ACC and Big Ten?

Why do we need more realignment? This is one area where it would be good for college football to trek backwards, not keep moving forward. This is a sport rooted in tradition, and conference realignment has destroyed a large chunk of that tradition.

Speaking of that, let’s get back to Notre Dame. They aren’t completely independent. As part of their agreement to join the ACC for most sports back in 2013, Notre Dame is obligated to play five ACC opponents every year, as opposed to eight like the rest of the conference.

For the people who argue Notre Dame should join a conference because they’re mad that Notre Dame picks their schedule every year, and it isn’t tough enough, they don’t completely control it. They also try to make their schedule difficult. More on that later.

Also, over the past two years, they’ve played seven Big Ten and SEC teams. It just so happened that the teams they played turned out to be at the bottom of their respective conference in multiple cases.

This is because Notre Dame schedules its games up to a decade in advance. That’s another problem for another day, that is across college football, not specific to the independent Irish.

But if the ACC isn’t fulfilling Notre Dame’s desire to schedule multiple tough opponents, why not leave? For those thinking they can’t just back out of a deal, if we’ve learned anything in college sports the last couple of years, it’s that nothing is set in stone, even if it seems obvious.

This leads to the solution. Notre Dame should make a deal with the Big Ten, similar to the one they have with the ACC. Stay independent, but mandate they play five or six Big Ten teams a year.

It’s definitely plausible since Notre Dame already has a relationship with the Big Ten, as it’s a member for men’s ice hockey, and there is no ACC in hockey. It would also solve many of the problems they and fans have, while restoring traditions.

As I mentioned, Notre Dame tries to schedule multiple tough opponents every year. It’s why they recently signed a deal to play Clemson 12 years in a row and are pushing the ACC to give them Florida State and Miami every year.

The problem there is that two of those programs aren’t exactly in great spots right now, and again, Notre Dame might fall into the trap of scheduling what appeared to be a tough opponent at the time that simply doesn’t work out.

It is reasonable, though, that if you want the toughest ACC schedule possible, you would schedule the three major brands.

People will also point to them not being able to sign a contract to continue playing USC, and those two won’t face off for the first time since World War II, excluding 2020 during the pandemic.

That story is a whole story in itself, and there is plenty of blame to go around. That’s also not a case of Notre Dame looking for an easy schedule.

Teams don’t want to schedule them late in the year anymore, though, because of their conference slates, which will be nine games for all power conferences this year for the first time. It’s why they’ve played teams like Texas A&M, Ohio State and Wisconsin all in September in recent years.

This was also a struggle for BYU and Army in their final years as independents. Go look at their schedules in the last few years, and you will see almost all of their tough opponents early in the season.

Notre Dame needs help for its schedule, so why not join the conference with multiple rivals and top-tier programs?

Remember when I mentioned realignment being a detriment? It goes back farther than you think. Because Notre Dame’s deal with the ACC is precisely the reason they don’t annually play traditional rivalry games against Michigan and Michigan State anymore.

With their schedule flexibility being limited, they prioritized their rivalry games against USC, Navy and Stanford over the two teams in Michigan. And for those saying they picked the weaker programs to ease their schedule, Stanford was a much better program than either Michigan school at the time.

Joining the Big Ten would bring back not only the Michigan and Michigan State rivalries, but also USC. It would provide them the same flexibility to continue their traditional Stanford and Navy games, while having their other rivalry games taken care of with the conference mandate.

Outside of the rivalry games, we could see more games pitting premier brands against each other with Notre Dame facing teams like Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State more often. Now, doesn’t that sound like fun for fans? Don’t we want more high-profile matchups during the season?

It would solve the scheduling problem Notre Dame has while also restoring some of the best rivalries in the sport. This idea may be difficult for many to accept because they are so determined that everyone needs to be in a conference.

But if this result happens, I believe the argument will diminish. Fans will be captivated by the rivalries returning and the top 10 matchups they watched that many of their arguments for Notre Dame joining a conference will have been solved, while maintaining the sport’s tradition.

Jacob Rudy is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jar7371@psu.edu.