Fact or Fiction: Notre Dame should join the ACC
In today’s Fact or Fiction, national columnist Mike Farrell looks at three big recent topics in college football and decides whether each statement is indeed FACT or if it’s FICTION.
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1. Notre Dame should join the ACC.
FARRELL'S TAKE: FICTION. Now that conference realignment and expansion talk is all the rage again let’s consider this important question/statement. And the simple answer for Notre Dame is no way. The Fighting Irish already get everything they need from the ACC without giving up Independent status and only joined the conference last season when it would have been impossible to make their schedule work otherwise.
And with playoff expansion on the horizon, Notre Dame has even less of a need for a conference. The Irish temporarily joined a conference last season and proved all the naysayers wrong by performing just fine. There is little upside here for them to join the ACC permanently.
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2. Kevin Warren can be aggressive enough for the Big Ten.
FARRELL'S TAKE: FACT. I’ve been as critical of Kevin Warren as anyone due to how the Big Ten handled last season but let’s remind ourselves that retention is just as important as expansion for the Big Ten. And Warren has already shown he will cave to Ohio State in any way needed to keep the Buckeyes happy.
The Big Ten makes a ton of money off the current TV deal and will make more soon and adding a Kansas or Iowa State isn’t that hard. But losing Ohio State and/or Michigan, Penn State or Wisconsin would be a disaster and there’s no way he’s going to let that happen.
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3. The Longhorns and Sooners to the SEC is good for college football fans.
FARRELL'S TAKE: FICTION. While this may be good for their fans in many ways, this isn’t the best direction for college football. The Big 12 got caught sleeping again. What would have been better was a stronger Big 12 with some nice additions and you’d at least have some sense of national parity with the new expanded playoff format. But now the road becomes harder for Texas and likely for Oklahoma.
The new SEC will be harder than the old SEC and everyone but Alabama has had to wait their turn for years to make their run. It’s going to be fun watching Texas play Texas A&M, but this mega conference approach could leave many programs in the dust.