University of Notre Dame: Should This Private Institution Stay Independent?

Notre Dame is a Catholic private school. It's affiliation with the NCAA is that all of their sports except for football participate in the program and compete against others in the conference. The football program has opted to remain independent however they are allowed to participate in the bowls. Notre Dame is a very large school that brings a lot of attention to it, which is why they signed a $9 million per year contract with NBC. Although Notre Dame has thought about joining a conference for years they always come to the conclusion that they are better independent.

There are a few benefits of Notre Dame staying an independent team and not joining a conference. One of the major ones is that right now they have the $9 million contract with NBC, therefore until 2010 it just would not make any sense for them to join anywhere. Notre Dame's football team bring in over $28 million just by themselves, and they do not have to share it with other conference members during post-season bowls. Also by staying independent they can schedule their games the way they want to and not have to worry about meeting conference standards. Also if Notre Dame were to join the ACC it would make it awkward amount of teams and by adding another team would be bringing in more trouble.

When pursuing which conference to enter they should look for one with the best geographical location. This is particularly important so that fans still come to the games. They should look for one with the best benefits, like what the conferences rules are, how many games they have to schedule and when, whether or not there are rules they are just not used to. It would also matter who already is in the conference and who might be joining. Another factor would be the finances, would they be gaining money or losing money. These are very important things to contemplate.