3 reasons why Notre Dame should join Greg Sankey's SEC expansion in 2024
The irish-football" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">Notre Dame Fighting Irish have been an independent program since its inception. But joining the SEC expansion by commissioner Greg Sankey could be the best thing for the school and the program going forward.
The SEC has been expanding. They have added the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns heading into the 2024 college football season. This was the first addition in the conference in more than a decade.
While there are some benefits of not being associated with a conference, there are difficulties also.
Let's take a deeper dive into why the Notre Dame Fighting Irish should forego their independence and join the SEC expansion.
Reasons why Notre Dame should join SEC expansion
They make more money
The SEC has been one of the richest conferences that we have ever seen. The school handed out $51.3 million per school last year, which is the largest payout that they have seen. That is also larger than what Notre Dame gets as an independent football program as well as being a partial member of the ACC.
They get more respect in CFP
The 12-team College Football Playoff is going to be favoring teams that are not independent and instead are part of the Power Four conferences.
The conference champions that are the highest ranked are going to be automatically in the College Football Playoff. They will get an automatic bye in the first round.
The highest that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish can get is fifth, as a result of remaining independent, and that could be a killer going forward.
They compete with the best
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish typically have some scheduling prowess as they are competing against top teams.
However, joining the SEC expansion could benefit them because they will still be playing in elite competition with teams such as the Crimson Tide, Longhorns, LSU Tigers, etc.
This would take a major stress off of the university's plate and they would not be responsible for scheduling games.