Notre Dame Orange Bowl Talk; Sun Belt Commissioner’s Super Conference

TigerIllustrated.com’s report on Sunday night that Notre Dame officials were meeting with ACC presidents was confirmed Monday, via The Chicago Tribune‘s Brian Hamilton. Verified was talk of Notre Dame getting into the Orange Bowl mix to join the ACC, likely to the surprise of no one.

UND is a perfect fit as the ACC’s dance partner in South Beach, the Irish offering a national profile and sizable fan base, trending upward under Brian Kelly’s direction and the program’s contribution to Orange Bowl glory years.

Should the ACC-UND Orange Bowl partnership comes to fruition, high profile postseason options narrow for the Bowl Subdivision’s lower tiered conferences. The Big 12 and SEC are locked into a bowl match-up of their top finishing, non-playoff qualifiers at an disclosed location *cough*CottonBowl*cough*. The Granddaddy of ‘Em All has several more years left in it.

One suggestion for countering the growing disparity between the Big Five is strength in numbers. The Mountain West and Conference USA flirted with an alliance, but new Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson apparently tried taking it to a whole other level.

A 33-team super conference that combined the two, plus the Sun Belt was Benson’s idea. Thirty-three would be much more difficult to have whittled down to two, as is the case with Benson’s former home, the Western Athletic Conference.

Then again, the WAC once housed 16 teams. Football programs aren’t Pokemon, so simply catchin’ ’em all isn’t the golden ticket to the best New Year’s Day football parties.

On the contrary. The further into seclusion with one another the non-power conferences go, the more likely the vision many have for college football’s future becomes: that being, a three-layered Division one of the ACC/Big Ten/Big 12/Pac-12/Notre Dame/SEC in one section, the MAC/MWC/C-USA/Sun Belt and potentially Big East in the next, and finally the existing FCS the third.

After all, 33 teams isn’t a conference. It’s a tournament. Even the Royal Rumble has fewer participants with its 30 — though perhaps Benson’s vision would work as football’s Rumble. A 32-team, single elimination playoff comprised of teams from the Other Five are seeded based on the season’s first two months. Action begins the first week of November and extends through the first week of December, the title game coinciding with other conference championship games.

The last team standing in this five-week war gets a Wild Card bid into either the playoffs, or one of the elite bowl games depending on overall record, ranking, etc.

Or, maybe all 32 teams play simultaneously exactly like the Royal Rumble. It’s just as likely as the above scenario.

Editor’s Note: Sometimes Twitter conversations are so pertinent, they require an additional aside. New Mexico and FAU’s 1-11 seasons inspired memories of Bushwacker Luke in the 1991 Royal Rumble, h/t to @thethedude.