Notre Dame Beats Pittsburgh: 5 Reasons Why Irish Should Join Panthers in ACC

After starting off the season in disappointing fashion, Notre Dame is slowly inching back to respectability with a big win over Pittsburgh today.

The victory helped the Irish even out at 2-2 and it cooled off some of the heat that coach Brian Kelly has been facing over the past few weeks.

The big brewing story, however, seems to be what’s going on off the field.

Even though the realignment talk has slowed down now that the Pac-12 has made it clear that it won’t be expanding at this time, there is still a great debate about whether or not Notre Dame should give up on independence and join a conference.

If the Irish did go looking for a new conference home, the ACC and the Big Ten would likely be at the top of their list.

The ACC has already stolen away Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East, and there are now rumors that Notre Dame and either Connecticut or Rutgers could be the next in line.

Would it make sense for Notre Dame to join the ACC?

Here are five reasons the Irish should at least consider it.

Future Stability

Notre Dame may love being an independent, but in these tumultuous times of college football expansion, the wise move would be to find a home.

Yes, that would mean sacrificing some short-term revenue by giving up the NBC television deal, but it could be the best move for long-term viability.

Nobody knows what the college football landscape will look like in three years, but with the way things are trending now, it doesn’t look like you would want to be left waiting out in the cold after everything goes down.

Make the ACC the First Super Conference

After adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the ACC now has the most members of any other conference in the country. The question is, will they stop at 14?

If the ACC expands to 16 schools by adding Notre Dame and either Connecticut or Rutgers, it would become the first bona fide super conference in college football.

That would give the conference, which annually ranks fourth or fifth in the BCS pecking order, a lot more national credibility.

Being one of the power programs in one of college football’s deepest conferences would help Notre Dame earn some much-needed respect.

New Rivalries

Notre Dame already has some established rivalries with schools like USC, Michigan, Purdue and a few others.

Maybe it's time to find some new rivals, though.

We know the history between Notre Dame and Miami, and the Irish also have had some good battles with schools like Boston College and Pittsburgh over the years, but what about starting up new rivalries with other notable ACC schools?

It would be a treat to watch the Irish match up with big-name schools like Virgina Tech and Florida State on a yearly basis.

The Prestige Is Wearing off

This is not your father’s Notre Dame team.

The days of Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz are long gone.

The Irish love to talk about their history and tradition, and while you have to give the program a great deal  of credit for accomplishing so much over the years, the fact is, it’s time to start living in the now.

Since the turn of the millennium, Notre Dame has been an average team that has annually fallen short of expectations.

It’s time for the Irish to come to their senses and realize that the history and tradition of being a football independent is great and all, but it has no bearing on the team’s current quest for success.

Recruiting

Even though the school is located in Indiana, a state not known for producing a high amount of blue chip prospects, Notre Dame has managed to remain one of the few programs that can recruit on a national level.

You have to give Brian Kelly some props for reeling in a top 10 recruiting class back in February and picking up some big commitments for the 2012 class.

Still, if you look at a lot of the talent hot beds around the country, you’ll see that a large amount of the top kids are coming out of the ACC area, most notably in states like Florida, Georgia and the Carolina's.

It wouldn’t hurt to establish a bigger presence down in the southeastern region of the country.