Wednesday's news of Notre Dame switching conference alignments from the Big East to the ACC in all sports but football may not have had a huge impact on he world of college football, but it was rather significant. The new conference alignment will ensure that Notre Dame plays at least five ACC opponents every fall, which is good for Notre Dame's schedule stability and a perk for ACC schools who will be guaranteed at least one Notre Dame game every three years.
| A perfect match, or did Swofford let Swarbrick call the shots? |
The Irish will also play in to the ACC's potential bowl bids as well, which really makes things interesting. The ACC champion will still get Orange Bowl dibs, but Notre Dame is not ruled out of the Orange Bowl's selection process as an opponent. More importantly, when it comes time to sort through the selection process bowl by bowl, Notre Dame will be eligible for ACC bowl spots as long as they are within one win of the top ACC team eligible for a particular bowl slot. In other words, a 7-5 Notre Dame team could replace an 8-4 Georgia Tech team for a bowl game required to take the best available ACC team. Got it? Yeah, neither do we.
Many people yesterday were openly questioning whether or not Notre Dame even matters in the big sports world yesterday. Well, of course they do, Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg suggests. Also from Sports Illustrated, Andy Staples thinks ACC commissioner John Swofford struck gold with adding the Irish and Stewart Mandel discusses the impact this move has on the Big Ten in his mailbag. The Business of College Sports says Notre Dame and the ACC are a logical relationship.
Jim Delany also made sure to be heard yesterday, and not to be outdone Delany's Dozen took a look at the future of some Big Ten-Notre Dame rivalries. But did the Big Ten lose with Notre Dame going to the ACC in all sports but football (and hockey)? Some seem to think that is the case, but not Dan Wetzel. Wetzel doesn't think the Big East, Big Ten or BYU lost in this scenario.
Also, Crystal Ball Run co-managing editor Allen Kenney says on Blatant Homerism that he tried to warn the Big 12 about the possibility of missing out on some potential expansion plans.
Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com is known to have an anger-filed slant on a number of hot sports topics, but every now and then he shares a story that is so genuine and remarkable. This story of how a Tulsa doctor stayed calm to possibly save Tulane's Devon Walker's life is a great story.
Pat Forde's weekly Forde-Yard Dash takes a look at where coaching changes are already paying off, and not surprisingly they are working in the Pac 12.
Oklahoma has launched their own, school-specific network with help form the folks at FOX Sports. Sooner Sports TV is already available in about 9 million homes through the existing FOX Sports Networks.
USC banned a reporter from practice. Then they let him back. Tennessee didn't issue Every Day Should Be Saturday a credential. Fools. Speaking of USC, quarterback Matt Barkley is one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy this season, but Michael Felder asks if receiver Marqise Lee could steal some Heisman votes from his quarterback.
Which Pac-12 school is more dangerous, Arizona or UCLA? We discuss.
One former Miami Hurricane is not so happy about the status of The U.
Curious how those Missouri helmets were put together?
Hey Longhorns fans. You are not loud enough.
Nebraska is losing a starting defensive tackle due to personal differences with the team.
Academic scandals can happen anywhere, even at Harvard.
On TV Tonight
There are a couple of college football games on TV tonight, for your viewing pleasure. A pretty interesting Big East match-up takes place in South Florida with the Bulls hosting Rutgers at 7 pm on ESPN. Rutgers and South Florida started the season with some lofty expectations and figure to compete for second place behind Louisville this season.
On commercials you can flip over to ESPNU and check out some FCS action between Mississippi Valley State at Southern, starting at 8 pm. Of course, tonight also marks the start of the weekly Thursday night NFL games, with the Chicago Bears visiting the Green Bay Packers, thus stealing the stage from college football Thursday nights through September and October.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter as we will be following the college football action, as we do every game day.
Tweet of the Day
College athletics realignment is always a confusing topic as we try to figure out what school is in what conference on a daily basis. One day last week I was looking up some Texas A&M stats and, out of habit, clicked on a Big 12 link and was stumped when I didn't see the Aggies listed anywhere.
Yesterday the Russel Athletic Bowl took some time to map out the recent realignment changes only to later learn things had changed…
hey guys we just finished explaining realignment to our interns and we are glad to have that cleared up wait what happened aww fiddlesticks
— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) September 12, 2012
Video of the Day
I'm a sucker for short time lapse videos, so today I wanted to share this one of Washington State's stadium renovation that took place between last November and this month.
