Notre Dame Football: The Pros and Cons of the Big Ten, ACC and Independence

The conference realignment mess continues with every day a new team popping up and trying to leave for a different conference. This time it involves the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and where they should end up.

Notre Dame's football program has been independent since it first started and takes pride on the tradition. Coaches and the Notre Dame athletic director have already said they plan on staying independent rather than joining the ACC or the Big Ten conference.

Are they making the right decision?

Here are the pros and cons to joining both conferences.

Pros for Joining Either the Big Ten or the ACC

Pros

By joining a conference would be the quickest way to make more money off of the conference television deals. Just in the Big Ten alone last year each school made between $18 and $20 million dollars. I'm sure Notre Dame could make even more just off of negotiations.

Joining a conference would also make it easier to succeed as a team. It would be a lot easier to qualify for postseason play and participate in bigger bowl games. We all know how much those games pay out as well, which means even more money for the program.

There would be no more reaching for the stars, and if you don't hit them, your season is a failure. By joining a conference, the Irish would be able to be successful just by winning the conference or making the conference championship game. Rather than trying to make a BCS bowl game and coming up short years at a time.

Cons for Joining Either the Big Ten or the ACC

Cons

It goes against tradition and pretty much the only thing that keeps the Notre Dame brand alive is its independence. If it decides to go ahead and join a conference, it would not only ruin the tradition but also it would just become another team in the conference. Notre Dame would no longer be looked at the way it is now.

Notre Dame would also have to split the revenue from their bowl games with everybody in their conference. Rather than keeping all the money to themselves like they would if they remain independent.

Pros for Remaining Independent

Pros

In the NFL you have the Cowboys, in the NBA you have the Lakers, in baseball it's the Yankees. Well, in college football, it's the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. All of those teams are going to be talked about regardless of what their record is or what division/conference they're in. Joining the ACC or the Big Ten won't help the Irish get more exposure; they're already as big as it gets.

The Irish would also stay out of all of the speculation as everything is currently unknown. Nobody knows for sure how these "super-conferences" are going to turn out. Why take the risk and jump on board with something when you don't know how it will turn out? Especially when you're already in a good situation.

The money is already there for the Irish. They have a television deal with NBC that pays them millions and has all of their home games televised. Although the deal ends in 2015, it will likely be renewed by either NBC or any other station. They also get $4.5 million just to play in a BCS bowl game and $1.3 million when they don't. Joining a conference wouldn't be about the money for the Irish, they already have that.

Last but not least, staying independent keeps the Notre Dame brand alive. These conferences are chasing Notre Dame, it's not the other way around. The reason is because of how big this program is. Being unique is what makes Notre Dame valuable and staying independent keeps that value.

Cons for Remaining Independent

Cons

If Notre Dame does decide to stay independent, they could miss their chance to join a conference and be the last team standing. Every team is currently running around trying to find a place to call home, and Notre Dame could be stuck without one. Sure, the football program will survive, but what about the other sports?