Notre Dame's increasingly limited bowl options

A poster on the forums linked an interesting article about Notre Dame moving closer to BCS irrelevance.

My response is - As the all the bowls are going to conference tie-ins, it is getting harder for ND to find a place to play in January.

Right now they have a tie in with the Big East so they can take a spot from one of their schools if Notre Dame isn't in the BCS (which is pretty much every year). That makes the Big East a more attractive sell but its not enough to move the needle much. Now that the Big East has lost all the schools that travel well, their options are going to get worse as contracts expire.


It makes sense for the bowls as who would you rather have -- the 7th place B1G vs 7th place SEC - Iowa vs Auburn or the #2s from the Big East and C-USA - Louisville vs Tulsa. It's about filling the stadium and turning on TVs and the Big East/CUSA doesn't do it. With bowls stuck with their guarantees it is only a matter of time before the only choices Notre Dame will have is to make the top 4 in the BCS or find that even with a 10-2 season they can't go anywhere but the Potato Bowl.

I look forward to the day when the Irish come crawling to the Big Ten for entry because it is going to happen. It's their only logical choice. Sure they could join the Big East but I think they are smart enough to realize that doing this will put them on the same path as Army/Navy football (i.e. - dominant powers back in the day). The interesting question is if/when the Irish come calling, how will the B1G respond.  FWIW, my personal preference would be to "encourage" Penn State to join the ACC but that won't happen for financial reasons. I'm sure they will take Notre Dame as they do add value.


Of course this is all specualation but one thing is certain - Notre Dame fans have a lot of crow to eat over the next few years until they join a conference.