Notre Dame Football: 3 Reasons Irish Are Smart for Remaining Independent

The departure of Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East to the ACC was just the latest move in a September full of conference musical chairs. One team that has held steady in its non-affiliation in the face of all this movement, though, has been the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The Irish have been courted by both the ACC and Big Ten, but intend to remain Independent in football and in the Big East in basketball. Notre Dame is receiving plenty of pressure to join a conference in football, but the program, and head coach Brian Kelly in particular, have no desire to do so according Notre Dame football blogger Matt Fortuna of ESPN.com.

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"Football independence at Notre Dame, I think it's schedule and recruiting," Kelly said during his Sunday teleconference of the advantages. "Those are the two things. You can put together a schedule that gets you from the East Coast to the West Coast, and in recruiting it allows you to have that large sampling."

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Here are three reasons why Kelly and the Irish are smart for fighting for their football independence.

More Recruiting Opportunities

As Brian Kelly mentioned, being an Independent program gives the Irish a significantly broader recruiting pool. Teams that are attached to conferences often have to rely on getting most of their recruits from a specific geographical area. Because of that, there is an incredible amount of competition to sign those particular players.

Notre Dame's independence allows the program to play against whomever it chooses and this is certainly something that is attractive to recruits. Recruits that want to travel the country and play in different locales are much more likely to choose Notre Dame over a school like Alabama that rarely crosses the Mason/Dixon Line to play games.

This gives the Irish a advantage over essentially every other team in the nation and it would be moronic to give that up so easily.

Freedom of Scheduling

One of the greatest advantages to being an Independent team is that you're able to create your schedule to your liking without any restrictions. This allows the Irish to craft a schedule that is on par with the top teams in the nation in terms of competition. Even their "easy" games feature tricky teams such as Navy, Army and Air Force on a yearly basis.

If the Irish joined a conference like the ACC or Big Ten, then it would severely limit what they could do with their schedule. There would be few spots to fill due to conference play. Both the ACC and Big Ten feature quality teams, but they both have their fair share of cupcakes as well.

The Irish have been able to build rivalries with elite programs like USC and Michigan despite not playing in either of their conferences. There are very few teams in the nation who can say that they have a significant rivalry with a team outside of their conference. Due to Notre Dame's independence, they have several of them.

BCS Billing Without Being Tied Down By BCS Conference

The main advantage to playing in a BCS conference is that a Conference Championship guarantees a berth in a BCS Bowl. While this is true, Notre Dame controls its own destiny in terms of making a BCS Bowl each and every year. If the Irish lose two or less games during the regular season, then they're a virtual lock for an at-large BCS bid.

The Irish enjoy the billing of being a BCS team without having to be tied down by a BCS conference. They're able to build a difficult schedule and are sure to be rewarded if they excel against that schedule.

Being an Independent essentially allows Notre Dame to be a larger-thanlife program. That would still be true if they joined a conference, but they could easily be lost in the shuffle if they aren't having a particularly good season.

The Irish are in a very envious position as far as other teams should be concerned, so there is no real reason to rush to join a conference when they have it made where they are currently.