Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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8 SEPT. 26, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Notre Dame Should And Will Join The ACC By 2024 By Todd D. Burlage It sounds almost sacrilegious, but Notre Dame will enjoy its run through the ACC so much in 2020, it's going to become a full-time conference member sooner rather than later. It comes down to dollars and sense. Let's start with the sense. Joining the ACC would provide Notre Dame a dramatic boost toward becoming a regular College Football Playoff partici- pant and ultimately a national champion, especially in a conference where the Irish have excelled as a part-time member. Since its miserable 4-8 season in 2016, Notre Dame is 15-1 against ACC teams in regular-season games and has won 11 straight. The Irish are 5-0 in league games during the last two seasons, winning by an average of 26.6 points per outing. Now, let's talk dollars. The ACC Network — a subsidiary of ESPN — pays its 14 all-in (football included) members about $29 million per year. Notre Dame receives around $7 million for its non-football membership in the league, and its football deal with NBC (which runs through 2025) is reportedly worth about $15 million annually. Notre Dame also receives another $3.19 million from the College Football Playoff, whether it makes the field or not. That's around $25.2 million, or about $4 million less than a full-time ACC member — though that figure doesn't include any money Notre Dame receives from the Big Ten for having the Irish hockey program as a member. With revenue a wash, longstanding rivalries such as Stanford and Navy los- ing worth, and conference membership providing a clearer path to the CFP, Notre Dame needs to join the ACC as soon as possible. Football Will Remain Independent Through Kelly Era By Lou Somogyi An interesting question raised on our BlueandGold.com message board after the Duke opener was, "What will come first: Brian Kelly finishing the extension of his contract through the 2024 season, or Notre Dame football joining the ACC as a full-time member?" While I can someday envision Notre Dame joining the ACC as a full-time member in football, it will come later than sooner. That includes the rest of the Kelly era, which for now is con- tracted through four more years after this campaign. During the 2022 and 2023 seasons, when Notre Dame will play both Clemson and Ohio State in the regular sea- son, Kelly should have a good grasp on whether his ceiling with the Fighting Irish has been reached, or whether the program's momentum begun in 2017 is something he wishes to remain a part of beyond 2024. If Notre Dame is in a position where the success from 2017-19 (the sixth- best record in the Football Bowl Subdivision) is sustained or even expanded, then I don't believe any discussion about joining the ACC full-time in football will be on the table. There is also a general vibe that by the time the original 2014 contract with the College Football Playoff elapses after 2026, the CFP will expand to an eight-team format — which could give Notre Dame even more reason to maintain its sacred football independence. Nothing is forever, and I don't think football independence for Notre Dame will be either. For now, though, I still believe the chances are more promising that Kelly fulfills the extent of his contract. Point ✦ Counterpoint: WILL NOTRE DAME JOIN THE ACC BEFORE BRIAN KELLY'S CONTRACT EXPIRES IN 2024? Jac Collinsworth realized all the way back dur- ing his teenage years at Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Ky., that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and carve a career path in sports journalism. Cris Collinsworth, a former Pro Bowl NFL wide receiver and Jac's father, is an award-winning ana- lyst for NBC's Sunday Night Football. Jac, a 2017 Notre Dame graduate, recently joined his father at NBC Sports, becoming host of the network's pregame, halftime and postgame shows during its Notre Dame football broadcasts. This is Jac's second go-around with NBC Sports. He served as the network's first social media cor- respondent at the 2016 Rio Olympics, while at the same time he was working as a member of NBC's sideline production team for Fighting Irish football games (2013-17). Jac, 25, also served as the network's sideline reporter for the Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game in both 2016 and 2017. BGI: Any advice or moments you remember from your father? Collinsworth: " The biggest thing in general that I have taken from him is just watching him work. He'd be up at 6 a.m. studying film. It'd be midnight and I'd be doing my homework after football practice and he'd still be studying film. "I just think that at a young age I un- derstood that this business, while it's awesome in so many ways, it's work too and you better be willing to put it in or somebody else will be." BGI: When did you know that this was the career path you wanted to follow? Collinsworth: "It was early. I want to say like freshman year of high school. The class was called introduc- tion to film making. "They gave us a camera and they gave us editing software and basically told us to go hit the hallways in the school and get outside of the hallways of the school, go film stuff and turn it into something. I wanted to be a camera- man. I loved it." BGI: So, what was your evolution of moving from behind the camera to in front of it? Collinsworth: " They made all of us in high school take a turn in front of the camera and I just completely sucked, I was nervous as heck. But they made me do it again, and they made me do it again, and eventually we took it live every day for about five minutes to the whole student body. "And when you're a freshman, in front or your peers and in front of your teachers, it may as well have been 20 million people I was talking to." BGI: What does it mean returning to campus and being such an im- portant part of Notre Dame football coverage? Collinsworth: "It means a lot be- cause it is a miracle that we even made it to week one with the pan- demic. It feels like a miracle to me that they want me to be even a small part of this broadcast. "It's surreal to be honest with you and I just hope I can do a good job." BGI: How good can this Notre Dame football team be? Collinsworth: "I think damn good. This offen- sive line, these guys are beasts, and then Ian Book coming back for a fifth year. "If you gave me two positions to have locked down, it would be offensive line and quarterback and they have those all the way locked down. I think this team is going to be awesome." — Todd D. Burlage Five Questions With … 2017 NOTRE DAME GRADUATE AND NBC HOST JAC COLLINSWORTH JAC COLLINSWORTH