Notre Dame Football: Reasons for and against Irish finally joining a conference
By Dante Pryor
No. 3 reason to join: Renewed regional rivalries
Some of this was mentioned in the previous slide, but one of the benefits of joining a conference — using the ACC and Big Ten for context once again — is many of their regional, historic rivalries would become annual rivalries.
If they were to join the ACC, they could play both historic rivals. If they were in the Coastal — which the ACC would do to get a Clemson/Notre Dame championship game — the Irish would play Pitt every season and could schedule Boston College for a home and home non-conference game.
The opposite would happen if the Irish were in the Atlantic division.
The Big Ten is much more attractive for regional rivalries. Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame are so close to one another. Those would be attractive divisional games.
Even if they moved to the West for the purpose of balance — with Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame and Michigan in the same division the West would never win a title — they’d get Purdue every season. Schedule Indiana every season and play for a Battle of Indiana trophy between the three schools.
Even if you lost one of your annual rivalries — bye Stanford — you would make up for it by gaining annual regional rivals, especially in the Big Ten.