Under the agreement, the Irish will play five football matches a year against ACC schools – a turning point for both sides. It remains to be seen how the five-game deal will affect Notre Dame`s football schedule, but that most likely means the Irish won`t play as many Midwestern opponents in the future. USC, Stanford and Navy are all likely to stay on Notre Dame`s schedule, and the Irish will play Arizona State at Cowboys Stadium next year. However, do not assume that Notre Dame or ESPN, if they reached an agreement, would see some kind of change in Notre Dame`s independent status. Notre Dame already had an appointment with the ACC, which puts five or six games with the league each year on the Fighting Irish calendar. They`ve had six this season: Clemson, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Pitt. In addition, there are home games against Florida State and Syracuse as well as away games against North Carolina and Boston College. There will be no revival of the rivalry between Notre Dame and Miami. Notre Dame and Michigan have scheduled a two-year hiatus for 2018 and 2019, and the two schools have never officially signed an agreement that would require them to play against each other by 2030.
There`s certainly a chance that Notre Dame will use the ACC as a way to remove Michigan — along with Michigan State and or Purdue — from their football calendar. The CCA and Notre-Dame have decided to extend their agreement for more than a decade. “These are the questions that Jack Swarbrick has at a higher level,” he continued. “If they come to ask my opinion, I would say that the CCA was a great relationship for Notre Dame, but independence was part of who we are in our DNA.” “It was a win-win situation,” said then-CCA Commissioner John Swofford ahead of the 2020 ACC title match. Notre Dame has the opportunity to add two more games to this schedule. Six ACC games are already scheduled for the 2023 season, so the additions will not be acc opponents. Notre Dame`s concession is that NBC`s coveted $15 million television contract will be included in the conference`s media revenue pool and shared equally among all CCA member institutions. In addition, five of Notre Dame`s remaining six games are scheduled to take place against ACC teams.
Notre Dame-Alabama, Notre Dame-LSU, Notre Dame-Georgia – or Notre Dame-Duke, Notre Dame-Boston College, Notre Dame-Georgia Tech. It`s a one-year contract for the Fighting Irish and [Miami AD Blake] James said he didn`t expect it to go beyond that. Notre Dame for the ACC championship game would be one of the great injustices of college football of our time. Adding Notre Dame, the CCA Council of Presidents voted to increase the conference withdrawal fee, and that number is expected to be more than $50 million. While the Big 12 has been dismantled and the Big East decimated by the conference realignment, the ACC has remained strong and appears to be a permanent hotbed for the Irish. And then there`s this: The Wall Street Journal reported that Notre Dame reported $118 million in football revenue in 2019, and Forbes had the program in 2018 with a profit of $72 million. Notre Dame plays only one game against an ACC opponent who had a winning record in 2020. To read my first look at each team, click HERE. Either way, the Irish could be good for an additional $4 million to $6 million for the conference in the form of bowl money.
Aside from the fact that the Irish don`t have to join a conference, it`s best for most other teams that Notre Dame remains independent, because if you`re not the one who benefits from this relationship with the Irish, then your position in the game will be affected. Notre Dame will play a completely independent schedule again in 2021, but the Irish will face five ACC opponents: Florida State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia Tech. This would mean reformatting the post-season to exclude teams that are not in a conference, meaning the Irish would not be able to win a national championship unless they joined a conference. On Wednesday, a wave of anti-Notre Dame sentiments erupted among fans of ACC schools. .