How would a move by Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC affect Notre Dame?

On Wednesday, I basically ignored the comments about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by new ACC Commissioner, Jim Phillips. He wants Notre Dame to join the ACC full-time... duh.

Of course the ACC wants Notre Dame to throw football in with the rest of the sports, and they are still enjoying the fun from last year’s inclusion of Notre Dame due to COVID. It would be the ultimate conference realignment move by a conference that really didn’t do much to improve itself during the last round. It’s not much of a real issue, however, because the ACC is unwilling to play hardball with Notre Dame — and Phillips will likely use the same playbook as former commissioner, John Swofford.

Who would have guessed that Phillips’ statement was some unintended foreshadowing for the bombshell that was to come later in the day... the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns are eyeing a move from the Big 12 to the SEC.

We’ve seen these type of realignment rumors before, but after a day of non-denial denials, it really feels like this might actually happen.

This type of news sets off an avalanche of columns and blogs about what will happen across the country should these things take place. While I do believe that a Texas and Oklahoma migration to the SEC would turn the college football world upside down — I’m not going to speculate (in this article) about the thousands of different scenarios this move could spawn. I’m here to tell you about what might happen with the Irish — it’s not much.

Outside of some mega event that created mega conferences, and a change to the 12 team playoff proposal — Notre Dame doesn’t have to give up its independence. The playoff agreement basically made Notre Dame alignment proof.

The one thing that conference realignment brings (for sure) is that the future schedules for the Irish are up in the air. By itself, the Texas and Oklahoma move doesn’t really shake Notre Dame’s schedule up — but the aftershock moves inside the other conferences would most likely change things in the future.

And that’s basically it. We get to sit back and watch this realignment round with much more security than the last time around thanks to Jack Swarbrick’s moves and deals. We get to be the villain that sits back and watches the world burn — because I think this thing could get ridiculously messy before it’s all said and done.

By all means, go right ahead and speculate about everything, but don’t make the mistake of thinking Notre Dame has to do anything, because they don’t.

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