Big news for Notre Dame on Wednesday as the University announced their plans to join the ACC for all of their sports team—except for football.
With the Big East quickly falling apart, this is a wise move for Notre Dame considering numerous other big-name schools such as Syracuse and Pittsburgh have already made plans to leave the conference. Plus, the move should help the Irish from both an academic and sports standpoint.
Obviously, this move was mostly influenced by the team’s other main sports, but it’s difficult not to wonder what type of impact this will have on the school’s football program. With the move, Notre Dame is required to play five ACC teams per season—which has a huge impact on their scheduling each season.
As everyone knows, Notre Dame prides itself on being independent instead of joining an actual conference and the new agreement to play five ACC teams each year means they may miss out on some of their big rivalry games. One of the best things about Notre Dame football is seeing the annual yearly games against teams like USC, Michigan, and Michigan State—so let’s hope they can still manage to keep most of these rivals in place each season.
When taking everything into consideration, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Notre Dame at least considered making the move for football once their contract with NBC is up in a few years. Either way, this is a huge move for a school like Notre Dame with such a great athletic program and it should be beneficial for all of the sports—especially football and basketball.
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