JotCast | Notre Dame Football Live Chat | Dec. 23, 2025

Notre Dame Football Live Chat | Dec. 23, 2025

Prev Page View Full Chat

Eric Hansen

12:23

As long as there is college football and as long as Notre Dame is a football independent, there will be individuals who perceive ND as being the rich kid with the silver spoon sticking out of his mouth. And flaunting it. And there will be whining about it. But from a collusion standpoint of people actually in power, what would be the benefit of forcing full conference membership? Especially if Notre Dame were to fully join someone else's conference, not the power broker doing the forcing. The pause/end in the USC series is a consequence of USC's decision to join the Big Ten and a CFP system that doesn't appear to reward teams for playing aggressive non-conference schedules.

12:18

From Notre Dame's standpoint, there are three pillars that support independence in football. If any of them start to crumble, then football independence is no longer a given necessarily. Those three are: 1) Access to playing for the national championship. 2) A competitive media rights deal that keeps the Irish in the same neighborhood financially as the Big Ten and SEC. 3) A place to house Notre Dame's Olympic sports and basketball teams. All three of those boxes remain checked. Now could there be a better arrangement for Notre Dame than its current one with the ACC, I think AD Pete Bevacqua should and will mull that this offseason. Now as far as other teams conspiring to FORCE Notre Dame to join a conference ... (more)

12:14

Happy Holidays to you, Roger and thanks for the compliments and the flattering preamble. And I will answer the Marcus Freeman Xmas wish question, but let me start with the "joining a conference" theme. I have been doing this chat since the Weis Era, so roughly 20 years. That question has been a constant during those 20 years and for different reasons. Given how things went down in the College Football Playoff selection process, I understand why you might extrapolate collusion to this area. Let's look at this pragmatically. (more)

Roger from Peoria

12:09

Eric: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Seasons Greetings to you and your loyal readers of all persuasions, but all being Irish fans!! In the context of Notre Dame football, what present under the 2025 tree do you think Marcus would ask for from Santa? While the Live Chat format does not lend itself to the next question, I wonder what each of the ND assistant coaches would ask Santa for, it would be interesting to consider. Unfortunately, there will be no Irish-Trojan game next season. Do you wonder if this is just another step in the effort to get the Irish to join a conference? In any (and all) event(s), thanks for the continuing Live Chats which now has populated a Tuesday!! GO IRISH!!!!!

Eric Hansen

OK, off we go ...