Wolverine Convert

September 12th, 2012 at 10:20 AM ^

This is ridiculous - They should have joined the B1G a long time ago. It is a better fit geographically and educationally and they have already been playing 3 B1G teams in football every year. They could also play in the new B1G hockey conference. Now that they are going to play 5 ACC teams in football every year, who are they going to not play? I am sure they will feel better playing 5 ACC teams rather than 5 B1G teams.

(sorry for the crappy cut and paste from my Facebook post- I am lazy)

CRex

September 12th, 2012 at 10:24 AM ^

They will feel better playing ACC teams and beating up Wake Forest or whoever.  I mean they almost lost to Purdue in Kelly's third year and MSU is likely going to put up 200+ yards rushing on them.  ND was also one of two teams to post a losing record to RR coaching Michigan teams.

If they join the B1G, they're sitting at the same table as the Little 9.  In the ACC they can feel like a big man, right up till VT rips their heart out and Bud Foster devours it raw.  

johnvand

September 12th, 2012 at 10:25 AM ^

Congrats ACC, you're the Big East 2.0.

Enjoy your mediocre at best football league, and your overrated basketball league that will beat each other up so bad during the regular season and conference tournament that only once a decade will a team win the tourney.

triangle_M

September 12th, 2012 at 10:28 AM ^

This makes the who do you root for Saturday thread kind of moot.  I hope Sparty crushes them for their arrogance, followed by us crushing them for their arrogance.  What's that joke?  Why did the chicken cross the road?  To join the ACC.

friendlyNeighb…

September 12th, 2012 at 1:26 PM ^

i'm always fascinated by the perception that nd's every move is arrogant. 

putting aside the argument about whether nd is arrogant in general...where is the arrogance here? nd wanted a tie in with a conference for scheduling security to avoid getting left out in the cold if the super conference thing reemerged. it wanted a home for its non-football sports. the acc wanted the revenue that nd brings to the table and they offered them a deal. nd took the deal. what about that is arrogrant? 

triangle_M

September 12th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^

The arrogance is their insistance on not being a full member.  Father Jenkins at the press conference, "We are all in for the ACC, er, derp, except for football, where our identity (fanslated, greed) is about being independent."  Ok Father, whatever you say.    They were all in for the Big East too, IIRC, well, except for football.

friendlyNeighb…

September 13th, 2012 at 7:17 AM ^

so, arrogance = maintaining independence? for nd, independence is the football tradition, just as the b1g is tradition for michigan. from a pure monetary perspective, why should michigan remain in the b1g and continue to subsidize the dregs of the conference? michigan could make more money on their own, right? it wouldn't be quite as stable a revenue stream, but it'd still be there. msu and osu would still schedule you, because they couldn't NOT schedule you. part of the reason, i suspect, is tradition. the b1g is part of what michigan is about. independence is part of what nd is about.

its also important ot point out, that as a fan, independence is great. forget delaney dictating terms...forget playing 9 teams out of an 11 team sample every year...

you get to play everybody, home and home, no less. the only major college football power that nd hasn't played in the last 20 years is alabama. every year, we get to play the B1G, the big east, the acc, the pac 12, the big 12...and every now and again the sec. its not a question of whether we'll get one novel out-of-conference game a year. and when you get tired of playing pitt, you drop them and play byu or somebody else. its really quite lovely.

 

triangle_M

September 13th, 2012 at 8:52 AM ^

For ND its a great deal.  I don't think anyone is arguing that.  I was doing some thinking about this last night and there is a lot of BCS politics here, thus I answered my own question above about the "Its really about postseason play" quote.  The ACC gets to play an overated ND team, ND gets a bunch of ACC cupcakes (the only teams that are perennially worth a damn are Clemson and VT), and everyone can say that their SOS got tougher (nudge nudge, wink wink).  Maybe more importantly is  now Swafford and ND can get each others backs at the BCS rankings/bowl negotiation table.  

Wolverine Devotee

September 12th, 2012 at 10:34 AM ^

Bon voyage.

Hope they have fun getting their heads kicked in by duke, NC and others in basketball. 

Bunch of bitches. Michigan, purdue and state should stop scheduling them. Period. 

We'll see how they enjoy their new football rivalries with mighty duke, maryland and wake forest.

Hannibal.

September 12th, 2012 at 10:34 AM ^

Breaking news -- ND joins the ACC in sports where nobody follows ND or gives a shit.  Also, ND will rotate Duke, Florida State, Wake Forest, and Clemson, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia onto the schedule, in place of rotating other various non Midwestern teams onto the schedule.

Blue Durham

September 12th, 2012 at 10:35 AM ^

1. With 5 games against ACC opponents, will it alternate years between 3 home and 2 away games and 2 home and 3 away games? I am guessing that they will get 3 home/2 away every year.

2. What team(s)on the schedule are most likely to be dropped? Of the 3 Big Ten teams, Michigan is probably the most likely. I do not see them alternating MSU and Michigan in years. Notre Dame has played both MSU and Purdue every year for about a thousand years. Since the Michigan-Notre Dame series resumed in 1978, there has been a lot of contention between the two schools, often resulting in breaks in the series.

If this is really true, I think the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry is put on a Hiatus. I think that is a damn shame.

3. What about others like Air Force and BYU? Even less frequent.

mgowill

September 12th, 2012 at 10:42 AM ^

What some folks in the media are saying is that ND would like an East Coast and West Coast presence.  The Midwest will be the one who probably gets dropped.

5 ACC Teams

USC and Stanford

Navy and BYU

Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue

 

Scheduling all those teams leaves no room for an Oklahoma or Air Force type game every once in a while.

 

turd ferguson

September 12th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^

Don't most ND fans regard Michigan as their second-biggest rival (after USC)?  I don't think they'll want to shed us casually.

My guess is that you see Michigan and one or both of MSU and Purdue cutting back from yearly games to games every couple of years.  I'd be fine with that.  I like playing them - and they're a good rival - but when you play them every year, it starts to feel like it's just a conference game (and makes your non-conference schedule feel boring).

triangle_M

September 12th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^

Seriously though, this does nothing but detract from their SOS unless they play VT, Miami (YTM), FSU and Clemson every year.  

UNC/NCSU are middling teams.  BC, Wake, Duke, Maryland, Pitt, Syracuse =  Indiana/Minnesota level squads.  

Way to go ND, you just established lingering mediocrity and confounded the playoff picture for the ACC.

 

5th and Long

September 12th, 2012 at 2:26 PM ^

Maybe that's exactly why they did it. With a playoff coming you want good SOS but not killer. This year they have what's considered the toughest schedule (UM, MSU, Oklahoma, Miami, USC, Stanford, BYU). Why not downshift and take some easier "conference" wins, have a shot at a great record and still have a couple of quality games you can point to for SOS? Instead of 7 killer games you schedule 4 and have a better shot of being a 1 loss team in the playoffs.

friendlyNeighb…

September 12th, 2012 at 1:21 PM ^

its all about what they do with the 7 non-acc games.

let's assume that its basically: usc, stanford, navy, msu, purdue. and then 2 more fliers. if those fliers are michigan and texas, that's still a plenty tough schedule. if its air force and army then not so much.

given that nd's recent trend has been to beef up the schedule, i doubt this is about trying ot make it easier. it is plenty easy to dumb a schedule down and nd has resisted that recently. 

GunnersApe

September 12th, 2012 at 10:36 AM ^

I would think they would keep Purdue and maybe MSU, but UM/ND will be dropped. I was surprised that they have only played Stanford 26 times so losing them would not be big.

MSU times played 75
Purdue times played 83
USC times played 83
Navy times played 85
Pit times played 67
Army times played 50
Stanford times played 26
Michigan times played 39
NW times played 47
GT times played 34

Elmer

September 12th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^

I thought Michigan would have been one of their three non-ACC priorities along with USC and Navy.  Sad that they make it a marketing decision and include Stanford for more west coast exposure.

Maybe that UTL loss was just too painful.

 

Wolverine Devotee

September 12th, 2012 at 10:45 AM ^

CNN says that the earliest they could leave the Big lEast is 2015. Lets assume they do leave then. Here is Michigan's 2015 & 2016 schedules

 

9/3 at Utah
9/12 OPEN (Formerly ND)
9/19 vs Oregon State
9/26 vs UNLV
10/3 at State
10/10 vs Wisconsin
10/17 vs Minnesota
10/24 at Illinois
10/31 Bye Week
11/7 vs Nebraska
11/14 at Northwestern
11/21 at Iowa
11/28 vs Ohio
12/5 B1G Championship Game
 
 
9/3 OPEN DATE
9/10 OPEN (Formerly at ND)
9/17 vs Colorado
9/24 OPEN DATE
10/1 vs State
10/8 at Minnesota
10/15 vs Northwestern
10/22 Bye Week
10/29 at Wisconsin
11/5 vs Illinois
11/12 at Nebraska
11/19 vs Iowa
11/26 at Ohio
12/3 B1G Championship Game

Don

September 12th, 2012 at 10:47 AM ^

IF Brandon replaces ND with home-and-aways with top-echelon programs in other conferences. If he replaces ND with MAC/Sunbelt body-bag games at home, then losing ND would suck.

Wolverine Devotee

September 12th, 2012 at 11:15 AM ^

HA! wisconsin wouldn't have dared to schedule utah. Especially on the road at night to open up the season. 

I also know they won't be scheduling PAC-12 teams anymore. They tried to play it safe and schedule a crap team, but it FINALLY bit them in the ass. I love it. 

They may start scheduling Division 2 teams since they've been spooked twice at home by FCS teams (Cal Poly & Northern Iowa). Someone call ferris.

M-Dog

September 12th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^

I don't see what's in it for the ACC to be Notre Dame's sloppy seconds.  Five hookups, er football games, per year I guess.  ACC is being used hard.

The good news for the B1G is that now maybe we can stop waiting around for Notre Dame to join and get on with our lives.

 

FrankMurphy

September 12th, 2012 at 6:19 PM ^

I think we've all stopped waiting, but that's because Notre Dame has sucked too much for too long and because we added Nebraska instead, not because of any moves that Notre Dame has made. I'll take Nebraska over Notre Dame any day of the week.

I can't say it enough: to hell with Notre Dame. 

mgowill

September 12th, 2012 at 11:27 AM ^

 

The school has signed contracts for a home-and-home series with West Virginia in 2014 and 2015, and a home-and-home series with Alabama in 2016 and 2017. Michigan State extended its annual series with Notre Dame through the 2025 season but will have breaks in 2014-15 and 2020-21.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4105867