There is definitely some consensus among ACC coaches that they’d gladly welcome Notre Dame to the conference as a full member. However, the current arrangement isn’t working for one coach.
Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi harshly criticized Notre Dame’s current standing as a single-year ACC member, saying the Irish should either join permanently or not get help from the conference.
“To me, it’s either you play with us or you don’t play with us, you know?” Narduzzi said, via John McGonigal of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “You’d almost like to boycott them. But if you want to play in the ACC, come play in the ACC. I’m not the commissioner. So that’s John Swofford’s job to help out there. But to me, it’s either play or don’t play. And if you don’t want to play, let’s not give them five games. Let them go play BYU or whoever else they want to play. We shouldn’t be giving them games. But they’re talented, and we’d love to have them in the ACC for sure.”
Narduzzi’s stance essentially seems to be that the ACC shouldn’t help Notre Dame out while getting little in return. The Fighting Irish are playing an ACC schedule this year when they’d have been in a huge bind without that offer. However, it does not sound like the school wants to join the conference permanently.
There’s definitely support within the conference to see Notre Dame join permanently. Narduzzi is taking it a step further by saying the ACC shouldn’t have helped the Irish out unless they do join permanently. That may be a minority view.
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