I hate ND specifically because of all the special treatment they receive, in everything from bowl tie-ins to the BCS to licensing to TV deals. It makes me sick that the ACC is perpetuating the preferential treatment that this perpetually overrated and borderline irrelevant football program receives.
The part of the ESPN story that concerns me the most is the bowl stuff:
"Notre Dame also will have access to the Orange Bowl and the ACC's non-BCS bowl tie-ins. The Fighting Irish have played in the Sun Bowl and Champs Sports Bowl over the last two seasons under coach Brian Kelly."
So ND isn't actually playing in the ACC, but apparently they can take our AQ bid to the Orange Bowl if the math works out right? And now we're all competing against ND for bowl tie-ins? That's nothing but bad for a team like GT that struggles with getting the bowl shaft anyway. (Of our tie-ins, the Peach, Charlotte, and Nashville bowls don't seem to want us, and we really don't particularly want the Shreveport or El Paso bowls. But now we've been knocked down one more slot in the pecking order by Notre Frickin' Dame. That really sucks.
This other quote from the ESPN article bugs me, too:
"The ACC in turn cements a relationship with one of the nation's most storied football programs, adding to a group that already includes Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson. That would also seem to position the ACC as the easy choice if Notre Dame ever decides to give up its football independence."
Since when is VPI (trophy case: still empty) a "storied football program"? For that matter, what's Miami historically or recently, outside of their cocaine-and-cheating-fueled blip in the 80/90s? WTF?
JRjr