ESPN’s Paul Finebaum has been carefully monitoring the situation with Notre Dame seemingly courting offers to finally join a football conference.
In a recent appearance on Always College Football with Greg McElroy, Finebaum predicted that Notre Dame will ultimately wind up in the Big Ten. He said that it makes “too much sense” given some of Notre Dame’s historic rivalry with Michigan.
“I think Notre Dame will end up in the Big Ten if they go somewhere because it makes too much sense,” Finebaum said. “I don’t know what the history is with Knute Rockne and Fielding Yost and things that happened even before I was born. We’re talking 100 years ago, more than 100 years ago. But it’s time.”
Finebaum said that while he’d like to see Notre Dame in the SEC (because of course he would), he doesn’t believe the SEC administration would be able to convince Notre Dame’s athletic department that they really matter to the conference.
“And I love them in the SEC, but I don’t think they’re going to be able to convince the people that really matter at Notre Dame – and that’s the administration – that this is where they should be,” he added. “It would wreak to some people up there as just a pure money grab, and Notre Dame, even though everything it does football wise is about money, doesn’t want anybody else to know that.”
Notre Dame has been conference independent for the entirety of their 135-year history in college football. But with the massive dollars being doled out to the major conferences, it’s becoming too tempting for the Fighting Irish to put off joining one.
The school already has conference ties to the ACC and Big Ten through other sports. But their football program is one of the crown jewels of the sport.
Is Finebaum right? Will Notre Dame join the Big Ten?