Notre Dame Football: Should the Fighting Irish Be Forced to Join the Big East?

As the 2009-10 college football season nears, the talk is beginning.

Whether it's regarding predictions on the BCS, regular-season upsets, or coaches on the hot seat, we all know that Notre Dame is involved in these conversations.

Speaking of those Irish, the negativity of head coach Charlie Weis has put pressure on the program, but he slowly is putting a team together again that is respected across the nation.

Switching gears, the basketball team has gotten great hype by playing the Big East conference and being top players in March Madness.

Wait a minute, Notre Dame in the Big East? Since when is this news?

Notre Dame is one of the more respectable programs in the country, and it does the best it can academically, which gives an advantage to its athletic programs.

The debating has begun within the president and executives of the Big East Conference, with the simple question on their hands: With the Notre Dame basketball program being allowed in the conference, should the football team be forced to join the conference as well?

Notre Dame football is an independent program, allowing it to schedule with any teams it wishes from any conference during any point in the season.

Being a supporter of the Big East Conference, Notre Dame coming to the Big East would be a great publicity booster for the football side of things.

Even though the conference does show competitiveness with all the teams, the respect is not there for a powerhouse program since the departure of Miami and company to the ACC.

Some would love the idea, seeing that Notre Dame would bring more energy and excitement to the games around the conference.

On the other hand, why should something be fixed when it isn't broken?

Over the past few seasons, many have questioned Notre Dame's schedule, believing that many of these programs are not worthy opponents as they were in the past. The Big Ten and the Pac-10 have shown the most consistency within Notre Dame's schedule.

Big East teams have also scheduled games with the storied program, with Pitt and Syracuse facing the Fighting Irish last year and Rutgers and others playing them in the future.

You have witnessed competitive games over the past few years with the Irish against Navy, along with brutal losses against the USC Trojans.

Many feel that if Notre Dame joined the Big East, many of these games would be lost due to conference schedule.

Though the schedule could be worked out where the Fighting Irish would play Navy, UCLA, and USC during the normal time period, some believe that the program would not benefit from this because it would also be playing schools that haven't had much success in football, and in some cases, any of the sports.

From this perspective, Big East fans feel cheated and taken advantage of by the program for benefiting in basketball while not bringing the more marketable sport to the table.

Though it would surely make our needs complete, Notre Dame Football in the Big East may not be the best decision at the moment.

Should the idea still be considered in the future? Yes, as the Big East could make a splash with the acquisition.

In the end, keeping Notre Dame independent could be the best option for now while it is still trying to climb back to the top of the rankings via recruiting and become one of the more dominant programs once again.

Matt Miselis is a writer for BleacherReport.com