FanPost

Why Notre Dame Don't Need No Stinkin' Conference

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Despite the fact that Notre Dame went uNDefeated in 2018, the amount of disrespect being thrown their way is getting ridiculous. Adding to this disrespect is the recent chorus for the Irish to join a conference, as articulated by poster AnthonyRobert. What follows is my more developed response, the bones of which I posted in a comment to AnthonyRobert's post.

Let's get real here. College football conferences are largely a sham, an archaic system left over from bygone years and used by some as some sort of evidence of regional superiority. While most objective viewers recognize (and largely ignore) this noise, Notre Dame has recently come under fire from a fevered pitch of protest here in the year of Our Lord 2018, as Notre Dame finds itself as the #3 team in the country and playing for a shot at the National Championship. Yet, despite an undefeated season and playing as many FBS team as any other contender played, some folks still claim Notre Dame needs an association with a conference to be considered a legitimate Playoff contender. I've decided that it's time to break down exactly why this attitude needs to stop.

  • Conferences don't matter. Don’t believe me? The College Football Playoff Committee has said as much the last few years by allowing Ohio State and Alabama to play for a crack at the National Championship. Neither team won their conference in 2015 or 2017, so arguments for a "13th data point" are immaterial. As long as you WIN in the regular season against known/marquee programs, as Notre Dame has done, you’re in the discussion. That’s all that matters.
  • A conference doesn't inherently improve your Strength of Schedule. Forget for a moment that "strength of schedule" is a contradiction in terms, guess what other team made it into the Playoff with a WORSE Strength of Schedule than the Irish? Clemson, which ranked #76 in the nation in terms of strength of schedule. Yet, no one argues their worthiness as the #2 team in the nation, which they were acknowledged as before they even played in their conference championship (see previous week’s rankings as evidence). Clemson would still be in the Playoff, even without belonging to the ACC, because of who they played and beat, and how they looked doing so. A conference association doesn't inherently improve your stock. You still have to win your games.
  • The Irish eliminated the need for a conference by historically doing more by themselves. It's not like Notre Dame hasn't tried to join a conference. They have, several times in their program history. The most famous example was when the Irish tried to join the Big 10, but got blackballed by scUM and their racist-ass coach Fielding (no relation to Ned) Yost in an attempt to kill the Fighting Irish football program before it got going in the 1910s and 1920s. Rather than accept defeat and fade into oblivion, Notre Dame said "Screw that," barnstormed around the U.S.A. for decades, and forged a national brand, becoming one of the first universities to do so, while also forging rivalries that cross geography. Notre Dame developed their program so that the purpose of a conference, to generate additional cash for its members through association with bowl games, and establish a regional connection/identity, was rendered moot. So again, I ask: why join a conference if you don't need it?
  • Notre Dame currently has the "best" of both worlds. While we can argue about what "best" means in this context, in this case, it means that Notre Dame essentially plays in a conference already by playing 5 ACC teams each year while retaining the freedom to schedule and play name programs like scUM, Florida State, Stanford, and USC, like they did this year. This is a scheduling feat they wouldn’t be able to do if part of a conference, given the requirements for additional conference games. By joining a conference, not only would Notre Dame lose more of these scheduling opportunities (and the historical rivalries they've developed as a result), joining a conference would likely WEAKEN Notre Dame’s strength of schedule, not improve it. Because really, beating teams like Wake Forest and Duke don't do much to influence the Committee.
  • Association with a conference doesn't bestow additional "respect." This is the argument I find most laughable. Respect? Really? Ask UCF if being in a conference is helping them any in terms of garnering "respect." Notre Dame doesn’t need the respect of the College world, because they’ve never gotten it historically. Notre Dame forged a National Brand because the conferences turned them away. As a result, they were able to leave the College Football Association, a consortium that administered television broadcast rights on behalf of over 64 schools, in 1990, and establish its own broadcasting deal with NBC. Notre Dame makes more money as an independent than it would as a member in most any conference. Yes, they travel more than most Power 5 schools do each year (something I've argued on more than one occasion as a negative for the team in the past), but one can also just chalk that up as the cost of doing business when Conferences rejected you when you were just getting going. So, why should they HURT their program by joining a conference now when they’ve eliminated the need to do so?
  • Conference Championships rarely enhance a team’s portfolio. Rather, the "13th data point" more likely HURTS your chance at playing for a National Championship. Again, you don’t need to believe me, just look at Georgia this year. Before playing Alabama in the SEC Championship, the 'Dawgs ranked as the #4 team in the CFP rankings. By playing and losing to Alabama, Georgia knocked itself out of the Playoff running by accruing a 2nd loss, allowing a 1-loss Oklahoma to slide into the #4 slot instead. Simply: Oklahoma didn't play its way into the Playoff; Georgia played its way out. History backs this point up as well. There’s a reason Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State, and Clemson have all played in multiple College Football Playoffs. It’s because they've regularly WON the vast majority of their regular season games; any resulting conference championships are just nice bonuses. Even the Selection Committee admits that Conference Championships are only considered "when teams are considered comparable" (emphasis mine). If the committee considers one team to be markedly better than another, then the conference championship becomes nothing more than an interesting factoid. Again, look at UCF and ask yourself if being a "Conference Champion" has helped them any the last two years.
  • Conferences and their associated championships are a legacy system that only benefit a select few. While they may have once served a purpose, the current College Football Playoff system renders conferences largely unnecessary. Notre Dame managed to break through and into the National Championship discussion by doing the one thing that College Football has always historically valued most: winning during the regular season. Association with a conference might make some folks "feel better," but only those clinging to the past or unable to break free from the mental shackles of the Power 5 conferences that still insist conferences matter.

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