![]() And they will still get an opportunity to host a playoff game. However, the benefit of not playing a conference championship game means their players will still have played the same number of games as their playoff opponent. The proposed College Football Playoff expansion rewards the top four conference champions with a bye, so they won’t get that benefit. Of course, they could pay upward of $100 million with the best lawyers on the case to facilitate a way to the Big Ten or Pac-12 or SEC. In fact, if they wanted to join any other conference besides the ACC, they couldn’t do so until after 2036. So, no, Notre Dame will not be joining the Big Ten. That shows you how much Notre Dame values being an Independent. It literally took a global pandemic and the threat of no college football season for Notre Dame to kinda join a conference. Notre Dame joined the ACC for the 2020 season due to COVID. The ACC has Notre Dame as a member in sports outside football and partial membership in football. They would all fall over themselves to add them, especially the Big Ten which has long coveted the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame could make more money in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 or Big 12 if they wanted to join those leagues, but they don’t want to join those leagues. While Texas and Oklahoma are divorcing the Big 12 to cash in with the SEC, they aren’t concerned with getting every last dollar. Notre Dame values their independence above all else. However, in the wake of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC and a proposed College Football Playoff that rewards conference champions, could that long-held belief be changing? Notre Dame conference realignment rumors heating up They aren’t interested in joining a conference. And for decades the answer has been the same. That’s been the question asked for decades among college football fans. The Sun Belt is one of the few G5 conferences that can say that.Ĭory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network.With Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, does this mean Notre Dame will finally join a conference too? One of the reasons why we’ve worked so hard for CFP expansion, we really do think opening that up just a little bit would give us room to get there,” he said. However that arrives - if it does - Gill believes the Sun Belt is in position to to earn spots in a 12-team or bigger field. With the talk of super conferences in the near future for college football, playoff expansion would surely follow suit. That was a good thing because it got us positioned for what could come next.” ![]() “We’re well-positioned for this next round of realignment that’s going to result from the USC-UCLA ripple effect. But it’s a matter of, is there an opportunity for us to grow in ways that make sense?” Gill said. “I think for us, it’s really about, 'Is there an opportunity there?' We feel really stable, really good with our 14 teams. For the Sun Belt, how well it emerged from the last round of major moves gives it flexibility. With the conference now sitting at 14 members, Gill said there’s no number he has in mind for possible further expansion. The Sun Belt was the only Group of Five league that didn’t lose any football members from 2021. No conference has been safe from some form of movement over the past calendar year. “It’s going to be a good springboard for us, the future is going to be bright for us. “We take pride that we’re so attractive that our 10 schools wanted to say and help us build this conference into what it is today. “We take pride in that fact that we were so attractive for four great schools wanted to join us,” Gill told The Daily Advertiser in a one-on-one interview Wednesday. The healthier-than-ever conference has placed itself among the top seven conferences in college football, finding a seat at the table as realignment continues. Media Days marked the first step into the spotlight for the league after Gill and the universities’ athletic directors and presidents were proactive from the news of Texas and Oklahoma inquiring last summer about joining the SEC. Keith Gill, commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference, announces that Southern Miss will join the Sun Belt Conference at the Southern Miss Trent Lott Center in Hattiesburg, Miss.
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