As we cross the halfway point of the 2024 calendar year, life in a strange new world begins in college athletics.
The ACC today officially welcomed California, Southern Methodist and Stanford as new members because nothing screams “Atlantic Coast” like institutions based in California and Dallas.
Big Ten welcome cards are being distributed to Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington. I know I’m not the only one who’s excited to see what the Big Ten’s updated announcement looks like.
Meanwhile, in the SEC, greetings were sent to Oklahoma and Texas and literal parties were thrown to celebrate the moves.
I can’t imagine what my mine would go through if I went into a coma about a dozen years ago and woke up today:
This isn’t just a college football playoff, but one with 12 teams.
A Big Ten conference that stretches from New Jersey, to Southern California, to the Pacific Northwest and, perhaps soon, to Florida and/or North Carolina.
An SEC that has grown to 16 teams in recent years and may not be finished yet.
It seems like a lifetime ago I grew up watching Penn State and Miami join conferences, while the old Southwest Conference met its creator.
We had no idea then how radical the change would be approximately three decades later.
However, despite all this change, one thing remains the same:
Notre Dame’s football independence.
This is to the chagrin of some, who would like Notre Dame to be like all the others, to set fire to its history and participate in a conference.
Let’s forget the fact that they tried for years and were denied time and time again. Or that they built their own brand and a powerful football program on their own, going anywhere to play anyone, to achieve and create what they aspired to be.
Forget the fact that they adapted accordingly over time and innovated again and again to maintain their independence.
What some call arrogance is actually doing it alone because they have no other choice.
Chip Kelly (now Ohio State’s offensive coordinator) talked about Notre Dame’s independence about a year ago while he was head coach at UCLA.
“Notre Dame is independent in football, but in everything else it’s in a conference,” Kelly said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Why aren’t we all independent in football?”
That certainly won’t happen while I’m alive.
However, with all the changes that have occurred, it is worth celebrating the fact that Notre Dame has been able to remain independent in this ever-changing world of college sports.
They have been able to maintain a national schedule with powerhouses like Ohio State, Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida all on recent or upcoming schedules.
In a world where traditional rivalries fade into the background every day, Notre Dame’s ability to remain independent keeps us connected to the world of college football that once existed.
When Notre Dame comes to town, regardless of where it is located, it will likely bring a lot of fans and will not be welcomed by the local crowd. That has always been the case and would be significantly affected if independence were to end.
As Terence Mann says in Field of Dreams: “This field, this game: it’s part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of everything that was once good and could be good again.”
Substitute Notre Dame and independence for field and game and think about how it maintains that link to the past, and you’ll realize there’s something there that every college football fan feels a connection to, whether they’re a Notre Dame fan or not.
Keynote USA
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