Notre Dame conference realignment: Will Notre Dame join ACC or Big Ten?

With Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, does this mean Notre Dame will finally join a conference too?

Will Notre Dame join a conference?

That’s been the question asked for decades among college football fans. And for decades the answer has been the same. They aren’t interested in joining a conference.

However, in the wake of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC and a proposed College Football Playoff that rewards conference champions, could that long-held belief be changing?

Notre Dame conference realignment rumors heating up

Notre Dame values their independence above all else.

While Texas and Oklahoma are divorcing the Big 12 to cash in with the SEC, they aren’t concerned with getting every last dollar.

Notre Dame could make more money in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 or Big 12 if they wanted to join those leagues, but they don’t want to join those leagues.

They would all fall over themselves to add them, especially the Big Ten which has long coveted the Fighting Irish. The ACC has Notre Dame as a member in sports outside football and partial membership in football. Notre Dame joined the ACC for the 2020 season due to COVID.

It literally took a global pandemic and the threat of no college football season for Notre Dame to kinda join a conference. That shows you how much Notre Dame values being an Independent.

So, no, Notre Dame will not be joining the Big Ten.

Notre Dame will not be joining the ACC.

In fact, if they wanted to join any other conference besides the ACC, they couldn’t do so until after 2036. Of course, they could pay upward of $100 million with the best lawyers on the case to facilitate a way to the Big Ten or Pac-12 or SEC.

Notre Dame may never join a conference

The proposed College Football Playoff expansion rewards the top four conference champions with a bye, so they won’t get that benefit. However, the benefit of not playing a conference championship game means their players will still have played the same number of games as their playoff opponent. And they will still get an opportunity to host a playoff game.

So what’s the benefit of joining a conference other than money?

There isn’t one.

Notre Dame makes about $15 million through their NBC contract, which is about $10 million less than what it would make in the ACC and substantially less than what it would make in the Big Ten, especially when they finalize their newest TV deal.

What’s most important to its alumni and boosters is the special quality that comes with being Independent. They are the only show on NBC and can play USC, Michigan and Navy across different conferences. This is just how it is and how it’s going to be.

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