Notre Dame Needs to Join the Big Ten: Make College Football More Special

It's time for Notre Dame and the Big Ten to finally figure out how to join forces and make college football even more special.

Sep 23, 2023; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Audric Estime (7) carries the ball against Ohio State Buckeyes during the second quarter of their game at Notre Dame Stadium. / Kyle Robertson/Columbus Dispatch / USA

It’s time for Notre Dame to join the Big Ten.

After all of the insanity over the last few years, this is the one expansion play that would make sense. It's the college football move that would feel like it's what college football should do.

The two have done this dance for decades, and we all know the barriers.

The Big Ten can’t give Notre Dame anything significantly more than what its current members receive - no chance Michigan or Ohio State take a back seat when it comes to preferential treatment - and Notre Dame has always feared of being thought of as just another school in the bunch.

On that second part, not a chance. Notre Dame, of course, is special.

It’s a special school, made even more special with a mythical college football program, beloved by a special international fan base, occupying a special niche in American society and culture.

My grandma loved a school in South Bend, Indiana that she had no direct ties to and never visited.

The University of Michigan is special, too, with a special iconic football program.

That goes for The Ohio State University. And the University of Southern California. And the same goes for every school in the Big Ten Conference - they all have their special feel, their brand, their fans, their traditions, and all of it goes well beyond a sport that takes on an outsized importance.

Penn State University has a special football program that enjoyed independent status for most of its history before joining a conference in 1993, and it stayed big, popular, unique, and … special. And why?

The Big Ten is a special club to join.

Was Notre Dame any less special when the football program took its Friends With Benefits deal with the ACC to another level for a year in 2020?

Mass death, sadness, and global pandemic destruction aside, that was a blast of a season for the Irish - and for college football - even with the losses in the ACC Championship and College Football Playoff.

Do people think anything less of the University of Notre Dame because the basketball programs live and work within the ACC, or because its football bowl ties are mostly rooted in the conference pecking order? Of course not - the affiliation raises up the Irish, but they’re a big star on a decent-sized stage.

Notre Dame has already acknowledged that it isn’t really independent in football, and not to conference shame, but it needs to come to grips with its fears and desires and make the career move from TV to movies. And the Big Ten needs to make it all happen.

(BTW, yes, Notre Dame is sort of under the same draconian grant of rights media deal that has all the other ACC schools locked down hard, but no, it's not nearly as much to leave - the school can afford to get out if it wants to.)

There’s a difference between playing five games a year against ACC teams and nine games a season in the Big Ten, and …

USC is a Big Ten school now - the historic rivalry date with the Irish goes up a few notches if it’s an annual conference meeting.

The showdowns blend in way too easily. Notre Dame played Ohio State the last two seasons and gets Purdue this year. Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Michigan State - all should be on a Notre Dame football schedule.

It’s a moral imperative that Michigan and Notre Dame play each other in college football on a regular basis.

Throw in occasional dates with an Oregon, or a Rutgers, or a UCLA, and the Big Ten coast-to-coast reach assures there will never be a drop-off in the national spotlight.

But this isn’t about football, and it isn’t even about sports. It’s about revenue, exposure, and status. Being independent has worked just fine for Notre Dame in every way, but going forward, the money is too massive to ignore. That, and the Big Ten will be more important than ever.

Combine the Big Ten’s media deal - which would jack up even further if Notre Dame got on board - and forget it when it comes to which conference owns the business side.

(I’ll keep throwing out this warning - when it comes to media deals, even without Notre Dame, just wait until everything kicks in and stuff becomes real when Alabama and Georgia realize how much Purdue and Minnesota will take home.)

And no - I’ve already taken up too much of your time - I won’t get into the importance of affiliations when it comes to all the lawsuits and changes when it comes to potential collective bargaining ideas and player rights deals, and zzzzzzzzzz.

It’ll be fun for the fans, it’ll be fun for the schools, and in this unholy new world of college athletics, the Big Ten combining Notre Dame and Notre Dame combining with the Big Ten would actually feel right.

It would feel … special.

And everything would be okay.

Notre Dame and the Expanded College Football Playoff: No Bye? No Problem