if Notre Dame commits to the ACC and plays a full 8 game slate, 4-5 of those will be crap games. Further, Notre Dame will lose the ability to tailor their schedule with respect to time and travel. Their 2016 is tough and full of marquee games, but also has six home games, two games in Texas, a game vs a Michigan school, and a home/away vs California schools. They also get a game vs a Florida school courtesy of the ACC. It is, quite simply, the perfect geographical mix for a national school. Why would they give that up? The tough games are also well-spaced between easier games and a bye. It's the perfect tough but manageable schedule.

I have a really difficult time with folks here that argue that while Notre Dame is the most successful independent football program of all time (as well as one of the most successful period), that it has nothing to do with being an independent. How many other small catholic schools located in a dingy part of the midwest have risen as a national football power?

As for the playoff, Swarbrick shows he's thinking like a rational person in citing their odds of finishing with one loss. The elephant in the room is that when they actually did so, they got into a two-team playoff. Now with a 4-team playoff (and playing a compelling schedule including the both P12 division champs and the B1G champ), doomsayers here say Notre Dame is locked out.


[Post edited by lawhokie at 07/11/2016 1:08PM]