Notre Dame's rivalry with USC may have been saved by ACC's petty ambition

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish saw themselves controversially left out of this year's College Football Playoff at the very last moment, dropping a total of two rankings spots over the last two weeks while a three-loss Alabama and non-ACC champion Miami were admitted into the 12-team bracket.

It was evident from online social media content and unofficial lobbying from the conference that the CFP selection committee was under considerable pressure from the ACC to admit the Hurricanes. The Irish were topped by Miami in Week 1 by a score of 27-24, a head-to-head metric constantly brought up in the weeks leading up to the final rankings.

Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua spoke out Monday, indicating that the school's biggest scheduling partner may be in jeopardy of losing its business, for lack of a better term.

"We were mystified by the actions of the conference to attack their biggest, really, partner in football and a member of their conference in 24 of our other sports," Bevacqua said on The Dan Patrick Show. "They have certainly done permanent damage to the relationship between the conference and Notre Dame."

Could Notre Dame's biggest rival be forced into renewing series thanks to ACC's ambition?

In a statement Monday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said the conference stands behind its efforts "to support and advocate for all 17 of our football-playing member institutions."

Sure, Phillips and the ACC have every right to want to get a team into the Playoff, but its explicit smear campaign against Notre Dame (an important partner, even if one not directly affiliated with the conference) was distasteful. Now they may lose the Irish as scheduling partners if Bevacqua wants to hit them where it hurts the most.

Strength of schedule is a big factor in the selection committee's criteriam and the ACC is clearly not one of the nation's strongest conferences anymore. So, the solution would be for Notre Dame to seek another partner while maintaining its independence.

A natural fit would be to look around at its neighbors in the Midwest and partner with the Big Ten. And you know who's a member of the Big Ten? Southern California.

The Trojans seemingly have attempted to ghost the Irish in a bid to end this historic rivalry, citing travel and logistical difficulties (but really it's because Notre Dame has dominated the last decade or so, much to Lincoln Riley's chagrin). This year's edition could've been the last in a series that began in 1926.

The Big Ten should jump at the opportunity to essentially "add" Notre Dame to its ranks. The Irish are consistently ranked and would boost their members' strength of schedule against that of the SEC. It would be a mutually beneficial partnership in which Notre Dame gets to have a reinforced resume while getting to keep USC on the schedule (as well as some cupcakes like Maryland, Rutgers and Purdue).

Why should Notre Dame stick around to play games against a conference that consistently shoots itself in the foot and then gets rewarded for it in the national championship conversation? Granted, more Big Ten teams on the schedule would offer more opportunities to lose compared to the ACC, but thus is the risk of resume-building in this new CFP era.

Notre Dame has an opportunity for some pretty big payback at not only the ACC but also USC for trying to skip out on its college football heritage. Bevacqua and the Irish just need to strike the iron while it's still hot.