What ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said about Notre Dame at 2023 Media Days
Another year, another question about Notre Dame at Atlantic Coast Conference Media Days. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips was asked Tuesday if the Fighting Irish are any closer to becoming a full-time member of the league in football than they were before.
This is everything Phillips said.
“Another really good question. We’ve had a lot of conversations, let me put it bluntly, with Notre Dame, and they’ve been very clear. They value their independence, and I think they feel strongly that it will continue well into the future.
“If they ever have the desire of joining the conference, they know that we would welcome them with open arms, but I think — I can’t speak for Jack [Swarbrick] right now and Pete [Bevacqua] in the future or Father John [Jenkins], but I think it’s been a healthy relationship both ways for the ACC and for Notre Dame.
“Their sports, other than football, I think have thrived in the ACC. I think they really enjoy the academic prowess that the ACC brings as well, but they’ve been pretty clear about their desire to stay independent. So I don’t see that changing any time soon.”
Every Notre Dame sport other than football and hockey compete in the ACC. That’s been the case since Swarbrick struck a groundbreaking deal with the league in 2014. There were rumblings Notre Dame’s best path forward in a new landscape of college football that will have Texas and Oklahoma in the Southeastern Conference and USC and UCLA in the Big Ten starting in 2024 was joining a conference, but Swarbrick told Blue & Gold in June that isn’t reality.
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Independence is.
Notre Dame football has been independent for well over 100 years outside of the one year in which the Irish had to compete in the ACC during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Notre Dame went 10-0 in the regular season that year and won the regular season conference championship. The Irish lost to Clemson in a rematch in the league title game.
Like Phillips said, Notre Dame has had success in the ACC. The men’s lacrosse team just won its first ever national championship by beating conference rival Virginia in the title game. The Irish’s women’s basketball team has repeatedly been one of the best teams in conference, winning seven regular season crowns and five tournament titles since 2014. Those are just two examples of Notre Dame being the cream of the crop in the ACC.
Notre Dame football beat North Carolina and Clemson, the two teams that played in the ACC championship game last season, during the 2022 regular season. The Irish have won 28 consecutive games against ACC opponents in the regular season. They’d instantly become a headliner of the conference if they were to join it, but that’s not happening anytime soon.
Phillips and Swarbrick said so themselves.
