Is It Time for Notre Dame to Fully Join a Football Conference?

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A week after SEC football media days in Alabama, the ACC held its Football Kickoff in North Carolina. While the Nick Sabans and Jimbo Fishers of college football held court with the media, Notre Dame football head coach Brian Kelly was finishing up at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship Tournament.

Kelly eschewed the microphone for a 9-iron while Notre Dame readies for the 2015 season as, of course, an independent.

But Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel caused a stir Monday with his comments, via ESPN’s Brett McMurphy:

Pinkel later clarified his comments, saying, “I think all independents should join a conference, as a general rule,” per ESPN’s Heather Dinich. “I didn’t say Notre Dame in particular—everybody. You don’t have independents in the NFL. Leagues are leagues. I just think it’s difficult to assess a team that’s not in a league. It’s nothing against Notre Dame, it’s just my opinion.”

So is it time for Notre Dame to fully join a football conference, beyond its limited agreement with the ACC?

In short, no.

When laying out Notre Dame’s 2014, ’15 and ’16 schedules in December 2013, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick broke down his scheduling goals. Notre Dame’s first objective is to maintain a 6-5-1 scheduling model, in which the Irish host six true home games, five road games and one home game played away from South Bend, Indiana.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

“Our independence uniquely assists us in that regard,” Swarbrick said at the time. “As conferences go to nine-game schedules, in the years in which you have five away games, if you’re a conference member, it’s much harder to maintain the unbalanced schedule. This, of course, is the convention of the industry.”

Swarbrick also stressed a desire to “control the calendar”—targeting Saturday games rather than increasingly prevalent matchups on Thursday or Friday—preserve Notre Dame’s rivalries, maximize geographic reach, play in “special places” and maintain strength of schedule.

Clearly, for Notre Dame to achieve these goals, independence is the best route.

Pinkel’s main claim, though, seems to be that it’s challenging to assess a team outside the context of a conference. But isn't it difficult to assess a team that battles juggernauts like Southeast Missouri State University and Arkansas State in the season’s opening weeks?

Isn’t it difficult to assess teams that face opponents from outside their own divisions?

At the risk of inflaming the masses with SEC talk, let’s look at Pinkel’s own conference. Thirteen of the 14 SEC teams face at least one opponent from outside the FBS level.

SEC Team	Non-FBS Opponent(s)
Florida	None
Georgia	Southern
Kentucky	Eastern Kentucky, Charlotte
Missouri	Southeast Missouri State
South Carolina	The Citadel
Tennessee	Western Carolina
Vanderbilt	Austin Peay
Alabama	Charleston Southern
Arkansas	UT Martin
Auburn	Jacksonville State
LSU	McNeese State
Mississippi State	Northwestern State
Ole Miss	UT Martin
Texas A&M	Western Carolina

Notre Dame, meanwhile, is one of three FBS schools—along with USC and UCLA—to have never faced a non-FBS opponent, dating to 1978, when the current arrangement was formed.

It seems it’s more difficult to derive meaning from an FCS beatdown than from the slew of reasonable opponents dotting Notre Dame’s schedule.

Independence allows Notre Dame relative freedom to control its schedule, and the Irish welcome that opportunity with a slate typically devoid of gimmes. This year, the Irish face Texas, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Navy, USC, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Boston College and Stanford, while also indulging with UMass and Temple. It may not scream "world-class gauntlet," but Notre Dame’s schedule hardly allows for more than one week “off.”

Michael Conroy/Associated Press

And, in the end, strong schedules and compelling matchups should be the goals.

Independence may make for more difficult decisions when we near the College Football Playoff and compare teams with and without the chance to play in a conference championship. But as Swarbrick said in April regarding a 13th game, via Dinich, “One year’s worth of experience with this system is way too small to draw any conclusions about how it will play out over time.”

Carry on, Notre Dame.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Mike Monaco is the lead Notre Dame writer for Bleacher Report. Follow @MikeMonaco_ on Twitter.