(08-24-2022 10:41 AM)OdinFrigg Wrote:  

(08-24-2022 08:23 AM)Guardian Wrote:  Can we all (SEC and B1G) just let ND wither and die on its Independent vine? They are perennially overrated and if we stopped reserving space for their ego, they would fall back to earth and irrelevancy.

You said that in a straightforward way. I wasn't as blunt but won't counter your point. The sports media, sponsors, Bowl executives, NBC, BIG, old BE, the ACC bigtime, USC & Stanford, and recently SEC schools, have all played enabling roles.

Let Notre Dame stay independent and stop with the carrots. Give the carrots to the Mustangs of SMU if need be, not for Irish stew that won't be shared.

I don't wish Notre Dame ill fortune. I respect their long history of high achievement. But these special seats at the table equal to or beyond what's granted to a power conference commissioner, and accommodating only Notre Dame with hybrid designs, need to cease in this era.

ND has done a masterful job (I give Swarbrick most of the credit for this) of playing the P5 against each other. As long as there is rivalry between conferences, whether it's 2 or 22 of them, there will be a spot for a team like ND. In the current iteration, the ACC has a huge incentive to maintain ND where they are b/c they help the conference, and the SEC has a strong incentive b/c an independent ND is not helping to boost the entire B1G. In the future that calculus could change, perhaps significantly, but at least for now ND is kind of like Switzerland in WW2: everyone wants them on their side, but will accept them as neutral as long as they don't join the other side.