ACC’s nine-game conference schedule means asking the Notre Dame question — again

N.C. State’s visit to Notre Dame last Saturday did not end well for the Wolfpack. It’s harder to reach a full assessment of the 11-plus seasons of the ACC’s odd football accommodation with the Irish.

Five games a year is not the same as Notre Dame being a full member, the faint possibility of which seemed to come and go during COVID when the Irish actually played for an ACC football championship before returning to independence. And Notre Dame still holds way too much power in a league it won’t even fully join, pushing for the addition of Cal and Stanford during the summer of 2023 even though it didn’t have to deal with the ramifications in football.

Still, the scheduling arrangement has put meaningful games on ACC schedules that might not have been there otherwise and juices TV ratings now that they are a measurable commodity, even if that has meant a consistent cleaning of ACC clocks, with the Irish winning 38 of the past 41 regular-season games.

“It’s incredibly valuable,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. “Notre Dame is one of our conference members, with the exception of football. First of all, they’re one of our schools. They’re all in, with the asterisk of football.”

Phillips was aware, as he said that, of the considerable size of that asterisk. He does genuinely believe, however, the five-game annual agreement with Notre Dame has been a net benefit for the ACC at large.

Still, with the ACC going to a nine-game conference schedule next fall with a mandatory 10th game against a Power 4 opponent, it’s time for a reassessment. Things are going to get pretty heavy pretty fast for programs that traditionally haven’t taken on the most difficult of nonconference games, with much less room to maneuver for teams that have traditional SEC rivalries in years that Notre Dame lands on their schedules. That includes Clemson and Florida State, both of whom play Notre Dame more often under the adjusted rotation. (Miami does as well.)

Clemson, undeterred, announced a 12-year arrangement of its own with Notre Dame, supplementing its ACC-assigned games to ensure it plays the Irish every season through 2038. That was before the nine-game schedule was finalized, but Clemson knew it was a likely possibility when it signed the deal in May. Clemson is also 3-2 against Notre Dame since 2014, while the rest of the league is 10-49.

“Even in just the last decade, matchups between Clemson and Notre Dame have produced incredibly memorable moments and games,” Clemson athletic director Graham Neff said at the time. “We have immense excitement for the creation of this 12-year series between these two premier programs.”

But for a school like, say, Georgia Tech, playing nine ACC games plus Georgia plus Notre Dame in some years — that may be good for ratings and very lucrative under the ACC’s new compensation structure, but daunting from a competitive standpoint.

“We believe with time and the ability to look ahead that we’ll be able to handle it in an easier fashion,” Phillips said. “Because we’ve compressed them immediately by declaring that we’re going to do it beginning next year. Now, next year, we’re not going to have all 17 schools at nine-and-one. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s now or in the future, we have an odd number of schools, so one’s always going to have to play eight (ACC games). It’s put pressure on the series in the near term, but it won’t in the longer term.”

It’s also hard on those that don’t have SEC rivals. The Triangle schools may lack rivalry opponents outside each other, but Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State have lost 10 straight against Notre Dame since the Blue Devils won in South Bend and the Wolfpack won at home in a hurricane in 2016. Even if Notre Dame counts as their Power 4 opponent for that season, that’s not the same as a more winnable game against a Power 4 opponent … although the trio is a combined 0-4 against the Big 12, Big Ten and Notre Dame this season anyway.

The better question may be, in a nine-plus-one model, does the ACC really need Notre Dame to beef up its strength of schedule? After all, it’s not like the ACC has been holding its own in the series. The conference might be better off playing more winnable games against Power 4 opponents than getting repeatedly trampled by tiny leprechaun feet.

“It’s very helpful because of the quality of the program,” Phillips said. “When you look at your overall resume in the CFP, having Notre Dame integrated with five games — and they may play more than the five that are contractually been agreed upon, that’s their decision — that’s a really good positive for Notre Dame and a really good positive for the ACC.”

There’s no doubt it’s a really good positive for Notre Dame, which also pushed to get Stanford into a league it won’t join itself to ensure one of its traditional rivals remained a Power 4 opponent. As always, it’s hard to blame the Irish for doing what is in its best interest, and Notre Dame clearly needs the ACC to fill out its schedule at this time of conference consolidation.

It’s a fair question just how badly the ACC needs Notre Dame football going forward, though. For a school like Clemson, it makes a lot of sense — more than a decade of sense. For everyone else, it’s harder to say the same. There are pluses and minuses. N.C. State has played one memorable game against Notre Dame since the ACC deal started. Saturday was anything but another.

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