Notre Dame has a reason to be sore, independently.
The Fighting Irish had opportunities to join power football conferences – the Big Ten twice and the ACC more than that. Their eventual compromise was mutually beneficial.
They joined in 2014 for all sports except football because the Notre Dame hierarchy, most alumni and especially its Board of Trustees, valued football independence for tradition and the lucrative home-game contract with NBC.
Their deal with the ACC included playing five teams from our league each season, and Carolina is in the rotation next year on October 3, the second straight time the game will be played in Chapel Hill. The Irish crushed Mack Brown’s 2022 team that started the season 9-1 before losing the last four games.
Those Tar Heels were hurt by a very soft start with a home blowout of Florida A&M and one-score wins at App State and Georgia State before they lost to ND at Kenan Stadium in a game that wasn’t as close as 45-32 indicates with Carolina scoring the last 12 points.
Bill Belichick’s second UNC team needs to be much stronger than his first, opening the season against TCU in Dublin followed by East Tennessee State at home and a trip to UConn before the Irish arrive. And Notre Dame will be playing its entire schedule with a vengeance after being snubbed by the CFP committee in favor of Miami, which had received similar treatment last year.
Carolina’s ACC schedule is far tougher than in Belichick’s debut, with home dates against Louisville, Miami, N.C. State and Syracuse and road games at Clemson, Duke, Pitt and Virginia – with six of those opponents having been in contention for a playoff berth before Miami got it and sent the college football world into a frenzy.
TCU used the motivation of Belichick’s college debut getting all the attention before their nationally televised Labor Day opener on ESPN, which carried no other games and sent its Game Day crew here that fawned the Hoodie before the 48-14 slaughter.
With the Horned Frogs fading to an 8-4 record and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12, they will be juiced to trample the Tar Heels again in the Aer Lingus College Football Class on a neutral field. TCU’s star quarterback Josh Hoover will likely return for his senior year; who will Carolina have under center to avoid an across-the-sea repeat?
UConn beat Duke and UNC over the last two years, helping coach Jim Mora flee dour Connecticut for scenic Colorado State and be replaced by Jason Candle, who never had a losing season at Toledo.
The Heels have an open date after returning from Ireland so will likely play their ACC opener before facing the Irish, who will be very active in the transfer portal that opens on January 2, with multiple players replacing multiple departures.
So Carolina could get a double dose of Irish.
Featured image via Associated Press/Paul Beaty
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
