By Ed McGranahan
There are rarely neutral attitudes when Notre Dame joins the a discussion of college football.
Polarizing is the best description.
It’s not much different today than it was 50 years ago, except that football at Notre Dame hasn’t been relevant since Lou Holtz, which is why many people don’t understand the ACC’s reason for entering this relationship.
As a kid in Ohio, I was more intrigued by Parseghian’s Irish than Woody’s Buckeyes. It was common in the mill towns along the Ohio River. The Buckeyes were deadly dull, and I sneezed on the dust Ohio State generated after three yards. Parseghian liked balance in his offense. In 1964 he had quarterback John Huarte, who became the sixth Irish player to win the Heisman Trophy. I was hooked.
Notre Dame was the original America’s Team. When only one college football game would be televised each week, replays of every Notre Dame game were available Sunday morning. In 1966, caricatures of sophomore quarterback Terry Hanratty and sophomore receiver Jim Seymour appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and the page went up on bedroom walls all over country.
My dad was a West Virginia fan, and most of my friends were Ohio State fans, but on Saturday everybody wanted to know the score of the Notre Dame game, either to fain disgust if the Irish won or deride them if they lost.
If Notre Dame seems arrogant, it’s no wonder. Only Alabama has more AP national championships (nine to eight) and nobody has more Heisman Trophy winners (seven), but none of the scholarship players on the Clemson team were born when Notre Dame won the 1988 national championship with quarterback Tony Rice of Woodruff.
So why was the ACC willing to compromise?
It resembles an open marriage. Notre Dame committed its other teams fulltime, but football can play around seven Saturdays a year. A show of hands if you truly care that the Irish baseball team will soon appear regularly at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
Ultimately it comes down to football and how it impacts the bottom line, and it better positions the ACC for the inevitable, a world of super conferences and a national tournament.
For the moment, NBC is willing to pay $15 million a year to televise Notre Dame’s football games. ACC teams are projected to receive $18 annually under the terms of its new agreement with ESPN. If Notre Dame becomes fully committed, the ACC footprint expands in the Chicago area principally and markets nationally. At that point, the ACC could potentially command a deal larger than any conference deal currently in place.
That should position the league for a 16th member that would further enhance its visibility and expand its influence.
When Clemson began wringing its hands over rumors over a move to the SEC, all the board wanted was reassurances the ACC would not lose its place on the national state. This was what Jim Barker was hinting over Pitt and Syracuse were invited to join the league when he told me the 15th and 16tth members would enhance the ACC’s football image.
Lacrosse anyone?