Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1547006
8 OCT. 10, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME It's Hardly Marital Bliss, But The Union Still Works By Eric Hansen We all know about the seven-year itch, but what about the 13-year wan- dering eye? For all the bickering, posturing and declarations of "permanent damage" in the past year — not to mention Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi's chronic carping — Notre Dame's marriage of convenience with the ACC still kind of works. The 13th season of Notre Dame's ACC scheduling agree- ment began Oct. 3 with a road game against Bill Belich- ick's North Carolina Tar Heels (2-1), the circus value of which can't be over- stated. Notre Dame actually plays six ACC teams this season, two of which figure to give Notre Dame some needed November strength-of-schedule octane: fourth-ranked Miami and No. 21 SMU. While the value of Notre Dame's access to the ACC's bowl package in years when it didn't make the playoff feels completely irrelevant in 2026, the overwhelmingly huge selling point is still in play: It allows the Irish to remain a football independent. It does so by giving the Irish's basketball teams and most of its Olympic sports a home, preserving a path for the Irish to play for a national championship, and providing some significant revenue — $18.1 million in 2024-25 — that, when added to the NBC contract, puts the Irish in the same financial stratosphere as the Big Ten and the SEC and well ahead of the Big 12 and, ironically, the ACC. The modifications Notre Dame has made in the agreement — the stand- alone series with Clemson — and the ones it's pondering — more Miami and Florida State — could make it a more palatable pairing going forward. That's not to say "never say never" if a better offer were to come from the Big Ten or the SEC down the line in the next iteration of college football musi- cal chairs. But for now, it's something Notre Dame can and should live with. ACC Destroys Notre Dame's Strength Of Schedule By Jack Soble One of the key tenets of Notre Dame's independence is a home for non- football sports. And because the ACC provides that, it would be extremely difficult for the Irish to actually leave the conference. The marriage between Notre Dame and the ACC is func- tional and probably necessary. But that doesn't mean the Irish have to like it. The main problem with the ACC is not the offseason bickering, the scorn Notre Dame receives from its coaches or the campaign to exclude the 2025 Irish from the College Football Playoff, which athletics director Pete Bevacqua justifiably thought was over the top. It's the reality that the ACC, by and large, stinks at football. Miami is an outstanding football team and program under Mario Cristobal. Want to guess the next-highest-ranked ACC team in ESPN's FPI entering Week 5? It was Narduzzi's Pitt Panthers at No. 22. Even Clemson, previously a powerhouse under head coach Dabo Swinney, has fallen off a cliff. In both results and investment in football, the ACC has fallen so far behind the Big Ten and SEC in recent years. This separation existed but was not nearly as pronounced when Notre Dame joined the ACC as a partial member in 2013. And because of that, the Irish consistently rank on the low end of national title contenders in strength of schedule, which gives them little-to- no margin for error against rare quality opponents. That predicament, of course, reared its ugly head in 2025. But beyond the playoff implications, Irish fans aren't being treated to marquee home games as frequently as they were back in the day. That's not an existential issue, but with the exception of one Saturday night in early November, it turns the regular season into "just get us to January." That's not, and never has been, what college football is supposed to be. Point ✦ Counterpoint: IS THE NOTRE DAME-ACC MARRIAGE STILL FUNCTIONAL? Drayk Bowen played through a lot of pain as a junior linebacker for Notre Dame last season. Not only did Bowen play through a torn labrum in his right hip, but the doctors also discovered a bone impingement that required shaving down the bone during surgery. The surgery, which occurred in January, changed the shape of his offseason, but it's allowed him to play pain-free in his se- nior season. Blue & Gold Illustrated caught up with Bowen four games into the 2026 slate to discuss his health and his big mo- ments in a 49-10 win over Purdue. BGI: How much better do you feel now than you did last year? Bowen: "Ten times better. I'm able to move. It's not really stiff. I'd wake up on Sundays, and I wouldn't be able to sit up very well. I had to come in and get treat- ment for an hour, two hours. And then I just had to do a bunch of stuff on my own to try and get it back for each game." BGI: How satisfying is it to make a big hit for a pass breakup like you did against Purdue? Bowen: "It was amazing. I didn't feel him, and it's one of those when you don't feel him, you know it was a good one. I've been waiting for one like that all year and finally got one." BGI: To make a big hit like that, you have to worry about targeting, too. Did you know in the moment that was clean? Bowen: "The first thought kind of went through my mind like, did I get him high? And then I didn't really see anything, didn't see any of the team- mates throw their hands up or anything, so I was like, all right, I thought it was clean. … "But that definitely flashed through your mind, especially if you're running and you're not really going low, you're not loaded up low. You're just kind of running to hit him. Because if it had been a low ball, that's when you worry about those." BGI: How did it feel to score your first college touchdown? Bowen: "Amazing. I felt like a running back again. I got it. I was just hoping I wasn't going to get caught. Don't fumble and don't get caught. Those were the two things going through my mind." BGI: How much have the defensive tack- les made life easier in defending the run? Bowen: "I couldn't say enough about them. It's been amazing. Just all the guys that come in there, they take on double teams. They allow us to make run-through plays. They don't let linemen come up to you. Then if a lineman wants to try to come up, they just go make the play. "When you see that, it really makes you have to really stay down on double teams. It really makes offenses have to stay on them and not really climb, which means your backers get to flow and get to go. It really makes it hard for offenses when you have tackles that good and ends that good. It's been great for us." — Tyler James Five Questions With …SENIOR LINEBACKER DRAYK BOWEN Bowen scored his first career touchdown for Notre Dame at Purdue Sept. 26 and said, "I felt like a running back again." PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER