LSU coach Brian Kelly addresses Notre Dame, conference realignment at SEC Media Days
LSU coach Brian Kelly addressed Notre Dame’s position in conference realignment at SEC Media Days on Monday. He spoke of the program he led for 12 years in an admirable manner.
Kelly likened conference realignment to a game of musical chairs. Programs are running around in circles trying to find a place to sit. If they’re not quick enough, they won’t ever find an empty seat. But if there is one athletic department in the country who can afford to wait and still somehow not lose, it’s Notre Dame.
“Certainly, Notre Dame is still a coveted university in terms of, ‘What conference wouldn’t want them?'” Kelly said. “(Director of athletics) Jack Swarbrick knows what he’s doing. He’s got his ear to the ground. They’re going to land into a good position no matter what they do, whether they stay independent or if they go into one of the other conferences. Notre Dame can carry itself pretty good.”
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Two and a half weeks after USC and UCLA sent the college football landscape into a tizzy by announcing a move to the Big Ten, much in the same way Texas and Oklahoma did last summer when that duo announced it would join the SEC, the dust has settled a bit as it pertains to conference realignment.
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From a Notre Dame perspective, anyway.
The Big Ten would reportedly still like to add more programs. Notre Dame is at the top of the list. But Swarbrick and the Irish seem content to stand pat, at least for now. They’re in no rush because unlike everyone else fighting for a chair, the Irish have always sat on their own throne outside of the chaos of other conferences’ domains.
That could obviously change in the future. Is the future two years, five years, 10 years? Swarbrick and his fellow Notre Dame administrators are the only ones who know what the timeline will be. And that timeline could change in response to more seismic shifts. Kelly was in South Bend for a dozen years. He knows how Notre Dame operates. So if he feels confident the Irish will land on their feet — or land in an empty seat — then he’s probably right.
They’re going to fare just fine.
“Maybe they’re in a better position than some,” Kelly said.
