Should Notre Dame join the Big Ten?

Ok I get it, the school likes its independence, but at some point they are going to have to have their football program join a conference or risk losing all of the National Prominence it once had. I understand the Notre Dame has its very own TV contract with NBC, and that they have a sweetheart deal with the BCS that gives them an automatic bid if they win nine games. The first thing about that is it ruins the integrity of the BCS (if it really has any) and the second if the Big Ten were smart they would freeze the school out and force their hand. In the end it seems likely that Notre Dame is going to have to fully join a conference sooner rather than later.

All of the other sports programs play as a member of the Big East conference, so I don’t really buy their stance on independence. On top of that their current deal with NBC expires in 2015, and if they continue to play patty cake schedules every year, their national cache will not be what it once was and NBC could, and probably will drop them.

On top of that their 2010 schedule contains games with three Big Ten teams, and just two Big East teams. They also have four games that are kind of silly including Western Michigan, Navy, Tulsa, and Army. If they win nine of those games they will be a BCS team, and that is a joke considering that Boise State is probably going to undefeated and get screwed in the BCS yet again.

It seems pretty clear that Notre Dame is going to have to join a conference in football, and that conference should be the Big Ten. They would still have a non conference schedule to build and they could continue their annual game with Navy if they choose to.

Related Links:

•The Business of College Football
•Notre Dame Fighting Irish news and notes
•MTR College Sports.com