Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/145833
that I've ever had in 22 years of coaching. He was just special to coach." 2. Conference Call Another busy offseason of change in college sports was seemingly yielding for action on the field in September when Notre Dame shook things up again. On Sept. 12, the Irish announced plans to send almost all of their sports to the Atlantic Coast Conference. "We have monitored the changing conference landscape for many months and have concluded that moving to the ACC is the best course of action for us," Swarbrick said. The deal brokered by Swarbrick and company would be hard to improve from Notre Dame's perspective. Notre Dame found a new home for all of its varsity sports save hockey, fencing and football. It gave the Irish football team a much stronger menu of postseason options. Notre Dame is eligible to play in any ACC-affiliated bowl game without having to share the revenue with the rest of the conference. And, most importantly for most Irish followers, it maintained the football program's independence. In exchange, Notre Dame agreed to play five games each season against ACC opponents — an arrangement that will allow them to play other member schools during a three-year span. Months later, the traditional Catholic basketball schools of the Big East seceded, setting off another round of dominoes among second-tier athletic programs. That shift was another reminder that Notre Dame's timing was ideal. Swarbrick was able to get the school into a promising conference before losing another big stack of bargaining chips when the Big East crumbled. 3. Back On Top Hours after a 38-0 blowout of Wake Forest gave No. 3 Notre Dame the style points it had lacked in its first 10 wins, the gates to the nation's top ranking sprung wide open. Kelly said he watched with a dozen friends from his home Nov. 17, when No. 2 Oregon fell to Stanford in overtime and No. 1 Kansas State was blown away by Baylor. He told reporters the next day that he was cheering as loud as anyone in the room when the Cardinal kicked its game-winning field goal. Without those two upsets, Notre Dame ran the risk of missing out on a BCS title shot even with an undefeated record. The losses meant the Irish had a spot in the championship game as long as they beat USC the following week. It also gave campus a chance to light the giant No. 1 sign on top of Grace Hall for the first time since Nov. 19, 1993. 4. Golson Is Gone A case of "poor academic judgment" flipped junior Everett Golson from the focal point of Notre Dame's offense to a quarterback-in-limbo on Memorial Day weekend. The university dismissed Golson for academic reasons after the spring semester, and while he can eventually return to school in South Bend, it won't be until after the 2013 football season. Golson's folly leaves Kelly and his