Time for The Irish To Head East

Notre Dame football isn't special anymore. There I said it, now let's work off this premise for the basis of the following column...

For the past decade plus, Notre Dame football has had their own set of rules. They choose to remain independent, rather than be affiliated with a conference. They have their own television contract with NBC, and have their own set of rules to earn an automatic bid for a BCS bowl game (must finish in the top 8 of the BCS standings). All that being said, for the past decade plus, Notre Dame football has been irrelevant.

Aside from their yearly rivalry games with Michigan and USC, Notre Dame isn't exactly tackling an imposing schedule year after year. Each season appears to be a mix-mash of random opponents, who more often than not, aren't even ranked in the top25. This year it was Nevada, Purdue, Washington State among others. Next year it's Tulsa, Western Michigan and a few service academy schools as always.

I'm sure the NBC contract is a nice cash cow for the university, however, being part of a conference isn't so terrible when you gain a share of it's television revenue and access to bowl games that agree to take teams from certain conferences. If you are lucky enough to be in a conference that sends two teams to a BCS bowl game, your university just doubled it's postseason football earnings.

So, isn't it time for Notre Dame football to join a conference? Since their basketball program is part of the BigEast, let's start there. Big East football is a BCS affiliated conference and most of the marquee teams end up on an ESPN at some point throughout the week. Is the competition good enough for Notre Dame? Hmmmm...let's see. Notre Dame played Pittsburgh this year and lost. Notre Dame played UCONN this year and lost. As for Cincinnati, well, Notre Dame football doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Cincinnati football right now. Throw in games versus West Virginia and Rutgers, on top of their yearly traditional games with USC and Michigan and suddenly Notre Dame's schedule is looking respectable. Guess what, Notre Dame could lose to USC and Michigan every year and still earn a BCS bid by winning their conference title in the BigEast. This proposition sounds more logical and perhaps an easier hill to climb versus their current "special rules."

Notre Dame football needs a makeover in a big way. They need to re-brand themselves and be part of something special again. Removing the 'independent' tag is a great place to start.