Notre Dame Football Still Values Its Independence, Even After ACC Cameo

Notre Dame has enjoyed everything about this one-year experiment as a full football member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. 

From planning to scheduling to adjusting on the fly to pandemic protocols and sudden viral outbreaks, things have gone quite smoothly, all things considered. 

And with a second win over powerful Clemson on Dec. 19 in the conference title game, the unbeaten Fighting Irish would hoist a league trophy above those famous gold helmets for the first time in the 114-season history of the program. 

Just don’t expect it to happen again. 

Notre Dame’s traditional status as a football independent remains as sacrosanct as ever.

“We hope we’ve been a great member of the conference,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said this week in a video meeting with reporters. “We’ve certainly enjoyed being a member of the conference and having the opportunities it’s presented. It was a very positive experience.’

And yet, it figures to remain a cameo. 

“The things that drive us to independence don’t relate to that,” Swarbrick said. “The reasons that we value independence and it continues to be a priority for us aren’t impacted by the positive experience of being in the ACC fully this year.” 

Start with the national TV contract for NBC to carry all home games at Notre Dame Stadium. This was season No. 30 of that agreement, which pays Notre Dame $15 million annually and runs through 2025. 

Ratings were up 121 percent over 2019, and overall viewership was the highest it’s been for the package in a decade and a half.  

The Irish also make another $3.19 million per year from the College Football Playoff, whether they are selected as one of the four participants or not. Rather than pool all that money with the rest of the ACC, as they did this year, Notre Dame is traditionally free to cut its own deals and follow its own path. 

That will resume in 2021, when Notre Dame plans to return to its traditional rivalries with USC, Stanford and Navy. The Irish also have five games scheduled against ACC opponents as part of an annual arrangement that started with the 2014 season. 

So, yes, having the ACC as a valued partner is great. All other Notre Dame scholarship sports, save for men’s hockey (Big Ten), play in the ACC. 

However, football will remain independent. 

“It’s just that it serves some other interests of Notre Dame as a university that are very important to us,” Swarbrick said. “That’s why we’ll continue to do that.”

Among the fan base, Swarbrick said he hasn’t sensed any groundswell support for a permanent move into the ACC. To the contrary, he said, there seems to be renewed confidence in the program’s championship aspirations as an independent after going 43-6 over the past four seasons.

That includes a CFP semifinal appearance in 2018.  

“I don’t sense any change,” Swarbrick said. “I guess the one thing I do sense is that because we played so well over an extended period of time now, I do think there is a view among Notre Dame fans that we can succeed independently and still have a shot at the postseason in the way we want it.”