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http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/...-accs-difficult-balancing-act-with-notre-dame
>>Everything about the ACC’s relationship with Notre Dame is a tenuous dance. It needs the Irish to win in order to get high-profile matchups and build the league’s strength of schedule. It needs the Irish to lose when they play key games against the ACC’s supposed elite. It needs Notre Dame’s audience to care about ACC football, but it needs to ensure the success of its own brand, too, because the bottom line for the foreseeable future is that the ACC needs Notre Dame a lot more than Notre Dame needs the ACC.<<
>>This is life under the ACC’s agreement with Notre Dame. The Irish have full membership in all sports except football, but remain in more of a “friends with benefits” relationship in the sport that matters most. If Notre Dame excels on the football field, the Irish enjoy the fruits of their own victories -- wins that will come, almost certainly, at the expense of an ACC contender. And if Notre Dame struggles, any wins for Clemson or Florida State or others down the road will do little to amplify the résumés for those programs.<<
>>In the meantime, the balancing act continues. Notre Dame heads to Clemson in less than two weeks, and if the Irish magic continues just a little longer, it might all but assure the ACC’s absence from this year’s playoff. If it doesn’t, the Tigers will have a marquee win for now, and they’ll need to root for Notre Dame for the next two months in hopes they can keep it.
Or perhaps, if we're writing potential scripts for the future, Clemson beats the Irish, then both win out. And then maybe Georgia Tech finds its way to the ACC title game, where it beats Clemson. And then at year's end, it comes down to this: Notre Dame or Georgia Tech for the final playoff bid. If that happens, rest assured, Notre Dame is definitely in the playoff and not the ACC.<<
>>Everything about the ACC’s relationship with Notre Dame is a tenuous dance. It needs the Irish to win in order to get high-profile matchups and build the league’s strength of schedule. It needs the Irish to lose when they play key games against the ACC’s supposed elite. It needs Notre Dame’s audience to care about ACC football, but it needs to ensure the success of its own brand, too, because the bottom line for the foreseeable future is that the ACC needs Notre Dame a lot more than Notre Dame needs the ACC.<<
>>This is life under the ACC’s agreement with Notre Dame. The Irish have full membership in all sports except football, but remain in more of a “friends with benefits” relationship in the sport that matters most. If Notre Dame excels on the football field, the Irish enjoy the fruits of their own victories -- wins that will come, almost certainly, at the expense of an ACC contender. And if Notre Dame struggles, any wins for Clemson or Florida State or others down the road will do little to amplify the résumés for those programs.<<
>>In the meantime, the balancing act continues. Notre Dame heads to Clemson in less than two weeks, and if the Irish magic continues just a little longer, it might all but assure the ACC’s absence from this year’s playoff. If it doesn’t, the Tigers will have a marquee win for now, and they’ll need to root for Notre Dame for the next two months in hopes they can keep it.
Or perhaps, if we're writing potential scripts for the future, Clemson beats the Irish, then both win out. And then maybe Georgia Tech finds its way to the ACC title game, where it beats Clemson. And then at year's end, it comes down to this: Notre Dame or Georgia Tech for the final playoff bid. If that happens, rest assured, Notre Dame is definitely in the playoff and not the ACC.<<
