Noooo...
The entire country is not going to all of a sudden change the game to favor Notre Dame.
You boys want to go it alone and proudly proclaim that daily so sit down and enjoy the fruits of your labors.
The game is built on conferences and that means you have 15 other teams fighting FOR you as well as access to a championship game.
Wanting this stuff to not matter won't change that it VERY much does.
The reality is any actual Notre Dame football fan should BADLY want them in the Big 10.
The conference would get 3+ teams in yearly, and you'd get headline treatment on Fox many times per season.
You'd also have watchable games as opposed to Syracuse and Boston College.
You could schedule Navy, 1 primo game versus the SEC and a G5. You'd at worst have a tOSU type schedule that allowed you to be ranked top 4 even with a loss and top 10 even with 2.
You also have a free slot in the Big 10 hierarchy that Penitentiary State just simply abandoned with silliness.
This is hot take that stinks. Part of it starts with this myth that ND always plays cake schedules. They do not. Now in fairness, the previous AD along with his buddy Brian Kelly decided their path to the postseason was through easier schedules and in fact, ND did in fact ease some schedules that have shown the last few years and next year. But that is changing back under new leadership.
Take the 2028 schedule for example. The open with Texas, play Clemson and Miami (and may add back USC if they can figure out their issues). They also have a game at Auburn on that schedule. Then they have mid-level teams like Pitt on there as well.
2029? Bama at home to open. Then a road game at Texas a few weeks later. They also have at FSU and at Clemson later that year. And again, if they figure out the USC situation, they could be back on the schedule.
Now could these change? Sure. Could Texas bow out claiming they don't want to play tough OOC games anymore since it does not benefit them, so we will see on that.
But the idea that ND "has" to join a conference is more driven by bitterness that ND can get away with going it on their own more than rationale analysis. Put it this way. If ND was a full member of the ACC this year, would they have gotten in? Nope. Why? Because ACC or not, ND would be taking a spot away from the biggest power player in the room - the SEC - and Yurachek and his conference mates in that room were going to protect any SEC team in Bama's spot.
You want to fix all of this? It's not conference membership for ND. It's tearing apart the stupid selection process we have now. That's where we should start.
PS - It should also be noted that this notion that ND has total autonomy with their schedule is also a lie. The ACC dictates to ND which 5 teams they play each year and then the schedule is created working around the existing ACC schedule. So while ND has control over a chunk of their schedule, they don't have complete control.
