The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are now expected to bring their independent run in the NCAA to an end and join the oldest Division I conference.
The Athletic’s Manny Navarro is predicting that the program will eventually end up in the Big Ten, having tried to join said conference on several occasions in the mid-20th century but getting rejected due to its Catholic association.
Notre Dame has since stuck to its lone stance and remains one of four independent universities in the country. Even when the realignment of college programs took form in the 1980s, with several other independent schools joining conferences, the Fighting Irish stayed intransigent.
The independent schedule does have its perks. Notre Dame is involved in rivalries with the likes of Stanford, USC, Navy, Michigan, and Michigan State, among others. And, while they’re required to play five ACC teams every season, their schedules are always interesting.
“Once Florida State finds a loophole to get out of the final 13 years of the ACC’s grant of rights agreement — and the folks in Tallahassee swear they will — a second Power 5 league exodus that affects play beginning with the 2025 season will commence,” Navarro writes.
“Eventually, the Big Ten, to keep the Irish from joining the SEC, will give into Notre Dame’s demands and allow Stanford and Cal a seat at the Big Ten table — only after the league expands to 26 teams and goes from playing nine conference games to 11 will Notre Dame join the rebranded conference known simply as B1G.
Now that the Big 10 and Big 12 are expanding to 16 teams and the SEC is set for 14, the possibility of them running out of teams to play will be a real one. The Big Ten and Big 12 already play a nine-game schedule in their conferences and the number of games could increase to 10.
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The SEC has an eight-game schedule but could be pressured into playing nine fixtures by ESPN.
The Big Ten and Big 12 would be required to play two non-conference games at home to get to seven home fixtures with a 10-game slate.
Most programs want seven such contests for additional gate collections. And Notre Dame is fond of scheduling home-and-home games in neutral stadiums, which makes them a favorite for this kind of setup.
Still, we’ll just have to wait and see.
