Notre Dame Should Join the ACC for Football, with West Virginia

As a lifelong Notre Dame fan, I never wanted them to join a conference for football. That changed on Nov. 2, 2019.

After I came home from celebrating your World Champion Washington Nationals, I caught the end of Notre Dame’s thrilling victory over Virginia Tech. There was just one problem — it meant absolutely nothing. Despite winning 10 games, Notre Dame’s fate was sealed following its loss to Michigan the week prior. It was playing in Orlando, in the Camping World or Citrus Bowl, and nothing was going to change.

Even Notre Dame’s spectacular beatdown of a very, very good Navy team changed nothing. It ended up as the most depressing 11-win season I could ever remember from any team, and it was due precisely to the fact that Notre Dame is not in a conference.

Where independence was once a huge advantage, especially when it came to bowl games, everything in the college football playoff era is predicated on conferences. Look at the Orange Bowl, for example, where an inferior Virginia team played because of its ACC membership.

Even though Notre Dame’s goal will always be to win the national championship, even that would be aided greatly by a conference championship. Currently, they have to win every games to make the playoff. That’s a high bar to clear. But a…