Is Notre Dame a top-five conference realignment addition among all Power Five schools?

On3 imageby:Tyler Horka07/15/22

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Among college football “free agents,” Notre Dame is the most desirable currently on the market. The Big Ten has reportedly made that clear. The Fighting Irish joining the ACC would save the conference from potential peril, meanwhile. And the Irish getting up with the SEC would spell game over for every other league in the country.

But what if every school was in Notre Dame’s position?

What if there were no conferences? What if things started from scratch? Who are the true power brokers in collegiate athletics? Pat Forde and Sports Illustrated attempted to figure that out with the outlet’s “Power 5 Desirability Ratings.”

“This is an attempt to apply some metrics to the debate,” Forde wrote. “We ranked all 69 schools (currently in the Power 5 or ticketed to arrive in 2023) against one another in five areas, some of which we know move the needle in terms of adding value to a conference, and some of which get a lot of lip service by leaders.”

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Here are the five categories. Descriptions and a scoring system for the different categories can be found in the link to Forde’s rankings.

  • Football ranking
  • Academic ranking
  • All-sports ranking
  • Football attendance
  • Broadcast viewership

And here are the rankings. Ties are represented in bold. The second team in a bolded pairing had the same number of points as the first. In essence, those two schools have the same “desirability.”

  1. Ohio State
  2. Michigan
  3. Notre Dame
  4. Texas
  5. Georgia
  6. Florida
  7. Wisconsin
  8. Oklahoma
  9. USC
  10. Alabama
  11. Penn State
  12. Texas A&M
  13. Auburn
  14. LSU
  15. Washington
  16. Clemson
  17. Stanford
  18. UCLA
  19. Florida State
  20. Michigan State
  21. Iowa
  22. North Carolina
  23. Oregon
  24. Tennessee
  25. Oklahoma State
  26. Miami
  27. Iowa State
  28. Ole Miss
  29. Northwestern
  30. NC State
  31. Arizona State
  32. Virginia
  33. Nebraska
  34. Arkansas
  35. Virginia Tech
  36. Utah
  37. TCU
  38. Minnesota
  39. Kentucky
  40. BYU
  41. Purdue
  42. South Carolina
  43. Mississippi State
  44. Baylor
  45. California
  46. Pittsburgh
  47. Wake Forest
  48. West Virginia
  49. Indiana
  50. Duke
  51. Texas Tech
  52. Maryland
  53. Missouri
  54. Georgia Tech
  55. Louisville
  56. UCF
  57. Colorado
  58. Kansas State
  59. Illinois
  60. Syracuse
  61. Arizona
  62. Boston College
  63. Vanderbilt
  64. Washington State
  65. Rutgers
  66. Cincinnati
  67. Oregon State
  68. Kansas
  69. Houston

So, yes. Notre Dame is one of the five most desirable schools in the country all things considered. It’s No. 3. Notre Dame ranked sixth in the football category, fifth in academics, eighth in all sports, 16th in attendance and tied for second in viewership. You could make the case that if Notre Dame had a 100,000-seat stadium and sold it out regularly, the Fighting Irish would be No. 1 in the poll.

There is a bit of irony in the Big Ten’s pursuit of Notre Dame considering would-be conference rivals Ohio State and Michigan rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the poll. The Irish open the 2022 season at Ohio State on Sept. 3, and they have a long history of contentious head-to-head games against Michigan. Maybe it’s meant to be. Just don’t hold your breath.

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