Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/83107
The Fifth Quarter Scheduling, Recruiting Balance Remain Intact By Lou Somogyi Notre Dame’s recent alliance with the Atlantic Coast Conference made it easy again to see why the private, Catholic school in northern Indiana elicits some emotions of envy, if not disdain. Just when you think its football program that had been stumbling with greater frequency along the gridiron for nearly two decades can no longer survive on the perfume of a vanished flower, it ends up smelling like a rose again. The move to the ACC, while retaining football independence, asserted that the Notre Dame brand still wields influence. Inevitable conference affiliation for Notre Dame beyond the Big East was supposed to mean no more of its own television revenue, no more counting BCS bowl money (all three years of it since 1998) just for itself, and no more of its own private luxury suites in college football’s more communal living quarters. Above all, it would give Notre Dame the dreaded “provincial” label, taking away its reputation as America’s School with its broad-based national recruiting. Lo and behold, not much has changed. Yes, five ACC teams are required to be on the football schedule beginning in 2014, but schools such as Pitt and Boston College already have been mainstays, with Syracuse on the future docket as well. That takes cares of the Eastern corridor, which has included the premier recruits from usually unheralded New York in 2011 (outside linebacker Ishaq Williams) and 2012 (defensive lineman Jarron Jones). However, with this new affiliation the Irish also get to dig deeper roots into particularly fertile recruiting grounds in Georgia (defensive end Stephon Tuitt, etc.) and, above all, Florida, which features eight scholarship players on the 2012 Irish roster. Furthermore, the state of North Carolina has been growing into one of the premier states for football talent. The Irish signed junior linebackers Prince Shembo and Kendall Moore in 2010, safety Matthias Farley and outside linebacker Ben Councell in 2011, and outside linebacker Romeo Okwara and center Mark Harrell in 2012. “That Eastern seaboard has been great to us,” head coach Brian Kelly said of the ACC alliance. “For us in recruiting, we couldn’t have been more pleased. It just continues to build in some of the geographic areas that have the demographics for Division I football players.” Now, what about the West Coast or Southwest? As Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick pointed out, there are certain mandatory fixtures in the schedule. Keeping Navy, which is contracted through 2027 — the year the 100th straight game between the two schools is supposed to be played — is one of them, but there are several more pertinent objectives: 1. The yearly November trip to California is imperative. That means visiting USC in even-numbered years and Stanford in odd, and vice-versa with their trips to Notre Dame. 2. A presence in the Southwest — specifically Texas — is extremely significant. That’s why the 2009 Washington State game was in San Antonio, the 2013 Arizona State game is in Arlington, and Oklahoma is on the docket in 2012-13. There is a home-and-home with Texas in 2015-16 and 2019-20. “We will meet our mission of playing everywhere in the country,” Swarbrick said. 3. The goal also is to keep the off-site game — and that can be achieved by possibly scheduling ACC teams there. This year it’s Miami (Chicago) and last year it was Maryland (near Washington, D.C.). Maybe in the future there can be games in Orlando, Fla., against Florida State, Atlanta versus Clemson, or New York City again for Syracuse. “It’s certainly a strong preference of ours to continue those,” Swarbrick said. “We continue to be very pleased with what that does for the university program foremost; and secondly, yes, I think it could be an opportunity to fill some of the scheduling with the ACC. I think there will be some places we will go where it would be very logical.” The one part of the schedule that will be sacrificed some is the Midwest. Playing both Michigan and Michigan State in the same year likely will occur less — the Wolverines and Irish take a break from each other in 2018-19 — and maybe even Purdue could take a respite. Yet it’s not like Notre Dame would lose its Midwestern base. Indiana (10 scholarship players on the 2012 roster), Ohio (nine) and Illinois (six) remain the foremost base. Even the bowl options will be much more crystallized starting in 2014. Joining a conference that academically fit Notre Dame and was willing to make the concession that the Irish football program can remain independent overall was the prime objective, and the ACC turned out to be the ideal partner. Just when you thought Notre Dame’s hand might be forced, it found a way to get a leg up.