Will Conference Expansion Force Notre Dame from Their Independent Ways?

Notre Dame has had it easy—able to make whatever schedule they wanted to make. However easy or however hard, it was always their decision.

Not only that, they were the only independent that had an automatic BCS berth if they finished in the top eight.

Basically, the Irish controlled their own destiny each and every year.

But with all the talk of conferences expanding, could the independent days be over for Notre Dame?

There has been a lot of talk about both the Big Ten and Pac-10 expanding to add anywhere between four and six teams each. More than likely Notre Dame would choose the Big Ten, though with their ongoing rivalry with USC, it's not far-fetched that the Pac-10 could also be a landing spot for the Irish.

Undoubtedly, Notre Dame would have more success if they played against teams like Washington State, UCLA, Arizona, and the rest of the Pac-10. While the Irish are competitive, I don't see how they would have an easy time having to play Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa year in and year out.

The question isn't "Will the Irish move to a conference?" but more, "Which conference will they go to, and when will that day come?"

According to most reports, certain conferences are just in the beginning stage of the expansion conversations. There's an expectation that we'll see the moving and shaking begin by the end of the 2011 season.

Congratulations to Brian Kelly for landing the job at Notre Dame and turning his back on a Cincinnati team that looked more than flat against Florida.

Though there's no doubt that he can coach, I'm not all that confident that he's the answer in South Bend. The Irish won't deny that Kelly wasn't their first choice, especially when you have guys like Jim Harbaugh, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp, and you might throw Boise State's Chris Petersen in there as well.

Though Kelly says this his dream job, I'm convinced that coaches say that just to make Notre Dame feel better about their lack of winning. Don't you have to wonder if Kelly will be any better than Charlie Weis? After a 19-6 start to his first two seasons, the Irish were 16-21 over Weis' final three seasons before he got the "golden" ax.

While I respect the Big East, they're a basketball conference. It's what they're known for. Not to say the conference hasn't become respectable in football, but the only three teams that challenge the top of the conference are West Virginia, Pitt, and a mixture of the aforementioned Cincinnati and maybe South Florida in any given year. 

You go from that kind of a conference to now having to play a mixture of the Big Ten, with games against Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue, and the Pac-10 with Stanford and USC. Where Notre Dame lucks out—apparently there is such a thing as the luck of the Irish—is only having to play four of their 12 games away from Touchdown Jesus. That's what I call favorable scheduling.

With a mixture of the Big Ten and Pac-10 in Notre Dame's 2010 schedule, we will get a glimpse of possible things to come and how they'll handle games against the top teams in those conferences.

If they go 1-2 against Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue and drop both against Stanford and USC, maybe the Irish will re-think that expanding thing after all.