1) Jack Swarbrick has said that if its conference champs only, ND joins a conference the next day.

That is not what we have here, is it?

Jack Swarbrick was the guy who announced the playoff structure, so he is as "wired in as anyone".

2) Urban Meyer turned down ND, but not because it was independent.

He already had a deal in place with Florida and he wanted concessions like lower academic requirements for players, be allowed to recruit JUCO's and things like that.

Look at the thug show he ran at Florida and you have some idea that of the type of players he wanted to recruit and win with. ND said no.

3) ND is disadvantaged in recruiting a bit, but not by lack of a football conference membership. It is more related to the location of the school, the lack of diversity on campus, the academic requirements, the religious element of the school (which opposing coaches negatively recruit with) etc

4) With #3 above, and with the recruiting grounds shifting South, ND may never win another championship, even if it joins a conference.

That is ok, because that may put ND where about 120 other schools are, including but not limited to any ACC school not named FSU and Clemson, a few SEC schools and maybe Ohio State/Michigan.

ND isn't going to magically get players it cannot now simply by joining the ACC, unless it can move the campus to California, Florida, Alabama or Texas and admit Juco's and lower its academic standards to widen the prospect pool.

IF ND cannot win a championship as either an independent or a conference member, why not just stay the former and reject the latter?


4) Sure, ND plays 5 ACC games a year. I don't like it. I think that it should be three games, which would effectively replace the three Big Ten games it played each year.

But, ND is still "independent" in the sense that:

--it controls seven games a year for scheduling, not three

--it has its own, stand alone, OTA TV contract for nationwide exposure

--it has its own path to the playoffs, not through conference championships or standings


[Post edited by TerryD at 05/25/2016 08:37AM]