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Oh, Notre Dame Football. We try. We really do.
We understand your value and we appreciate your interest in playing ball with the ACC. We know how hard that was to commit, even if it was a half-in, half-out commitment. That it feels a bit like you're hooking up with us over the summer when all of your friends are around cause you don't want to feel embarrassed. Totally understand. We'll watch what we eat while you're around. Promise.
On the other hand, of course, you know we're kinda doing you a favor, right? This sport is changing and regardless of how storied your tradition or valuable your program, the days of the independent football program are just about over (ask BYU about that). Without a conference affiliation of some kind, you just don't have all the juice you need. Not to mention that your inclusion is a bit of a headache for everyone over here who would rather just know you're in everyone's rotation fairly rather than this Irish schedule roulette nonsense.
So, you know, you could, just once, be cool about that.
No? You're gonna whine about it? Oh okay. Cool. Cool.
Cool.
All I can do is voice my ... you know, as a football coach, especially one that's been in the Midwest, I love the ability to play Michigan and Michigan State and the tradition of it. But the reality of it is, you know, for our athletic department to enter into the agreement with the ACC, we have to give up a little bit from a football perspective relative to scheduling. To make our athletic department whole relative to soccer and lacrosse and basketball, that ACC agreement was absolutely crucial for our athletic teams.
Football had to give up a little bit relative to flexibility and scheduling by taking on a commitment with the ACC. Therefore it's put us in a very difficult situation scheduling and unfortunately, it's taken some of those schools like a Michigan or Michigan State off our schedule. Because we're gonna keep Navy. We're gonna keep Stanford, and we're gonna keep USC. Those three schools are not coming off and those are etched in stone. So now, add your ACC schools with those three schools and you're really limited to where you can go.
For the record, Notre Dame scheduled Rice in 2014 as well as UMass and Temple in 2015. Pretty sure you could have swapped out any of them for better opponents, Brian. And as BC Interruption points out, you know who else is dealing with tougher scheduling in the face of an ever-changing landscape? EVERYONE.
