Especially in the area of recruiting a national schedule and appeal carry more weight

A negative with this approach is that it will become problematic for Notre Dame to continue scheduling its rivalry games outside of the Big Ten. Some may argue that the three of four non-conference games available would be ample, but over time it would make it increasingly harder for the Irish to schedule USC, Boston College, Stanford, Navy, and Pitt with the shackles of conference games in play. Also, Notre Dame would be tempted to follow in the footsteps of so many other member schools and schedule terribly weak opponents out of conference. And don't act like Notre Dame's schedule isn't tough enough to have an undefeated Irish team in the national championship game. If Texas got in this year, then Notre Dame would not usually have a problem given the teams it consistently schedules. So while the addition of a big name school or two may be appealing, the problems associated with keeping rivalry games, the fear of scheduling weak non-rivalry OOC games and the fact that many "boring" games against the likes of Indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota will be played every year, appear to be convincing arguments against joining the Big Ten..

The topic of national appeal goes hand in hand with the scheduling debate as Notre Dame does not want to be tied down to only a regional impact. The Irish have always taken pride and survived as a program with mass national appeal and joining the Big Ten would be a tremendous blow to this livelihood. Especially in the area of recruiting, a national schedule and appeal carry more weight. Right now Notre Dame can sell recruits on playing all over the country, in places like the Coliseum, Cowboys Stadium, and Yankee Stadium. It is a huge disadvantage to remove this and sell a recruit on a schedule that is mostly the same as every other Big Ten program.

What's more, tying itself down to playing nine games or more in one regionalized location will slowly erode the national fan base that so eagerly follows the Fighting Irish from New York and Orlando, to Dallas and Los Angeles. Joining the Big Ten might not shrink Notre Dame's national appeal in the short term, but over time, as the decades pass, it will certainly ruin the school's popularity nationally from coast to coast.. Another talking point from many who wish to see Notre Dame in the Big Ten is that the program needs to have a goal besides winning a national championship. Whether or not having two early losses affects the effort of Irish players is debatable and almost a matter of pure opinion. If this does happen for Notre Dame, it usually would occur after a third or fourth loss, in which case, winning a Big Ten title would most likely be out of the question, even if the Irish were a member.

True, if the Big Ten were to expand to twelve teams and institute a conference championship game, a three of four loss Notre Dame team could still be potentially alive for "something to play for" in the form of a conference title and a trip to a BCS bowl. But is this not just needlessly rewarding mediocrity Should Notre Dame fans be excited that a 9-4 Notre Dame team was able to win a conference title in a watered down Big Ten and reach a BCS bowl Will we always remember that season because the team showed they had "something to play for" and won a conference title Should we be proud of that This doesn't mean that Irish fans think we're too good for conference titles or that Brian Kelly is automatically going to have the program competing for national championships, but rather, it is something we don't feel we need to find legitimacy. The same is true for Notre Dame, where in 2005 and 2006, Notre Dame played in two BCS bowls with two losses. Until the day comes when a two-loss Notre Dame team misses out on a BCS bowl or an undefeated Notre Dame team misses out on a national championship, then joining the Big Ten won't matter a lick when it comes to winning in today's college football landscape. What people have to remember is that Irish fans don't believe a 9-4 Notre Dame even deserves a whiff of a BCS game and its no consolation to be able to go to one just because they happened to win their conference. And anyway, how would all of those Notre Dame haters feel about a 9-4 Irish club in a BCS game. But what isn't talked about is how the entire college football landscape is tilted heavily in favor of teams like Michigan, Texas, and LSU because they receive special treatment in the form of their conference affiliation.