Notre Dame Football: Irish join ACC for 2020 season

The Notre Dame Football program is going to officially be a part of the ACC for the 2020 season.

The Notre Dame Football team isn’t normally part of a conference. They do play a lot of their games against the ACC teams, but this year it is official. Notre Dame is going to be a part of their conference. It is going to be an 11-game schedule for the Irish that has 10 ACC opponents and one non-conference opponent. Each ACC team’s one non-conference opponent is going to reside in the same home state.

There will be no divisions in the ACC this year so the top two teams in the conference standings will play in the ACC Championship game at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Notre Dame is eligible to play in this game as a temporary 15th member of the conference. As of right now, this only applies to the 2020 season.

A lot of fans have been calling for Notre Dame to join a conference anyway. They play one less game than a lot of the teams that play in a championship game so if they go undefeated, they are pretty much a lock to make the College Football Playoff without having to win a conference title.

The schedule is not out yet but the ACC claims that it will be done soon. It is going to be interesting to see who they draw and who their one non-conference game is. If they are able to have a good team this year, they could be one of the teams playing in the ACC title game with a chance to go to the college football playoff on the line.

The crazy part of all of this is the fact that Notre Dame has agreed to share its revenue from it’s NBC TV deal with the rest of the ACC. That applies to this season as they will be a part of the conference. On the other hand, Notre Dame is eligible to play in the Orange Bowl if it doesn’t make the playoff and is eligible for selection. This is certainly something that changes the outlook of the season for the Irish. It is going to be interesting to see what this schedule looks like when it does come out.