Membership, and stuff

Maybe the ACC honchos will let Notre Dame in the club this week. I don't know. The whole business frankly has me addled.

OK, more addled.

It's got me that way because Notre Dame is already in the club. Mostly. I mean, basketball's in the club and golf and soccer and baseball and even fencing, but not football. Football is not.

This is because Notre Dame has a thing about being an independent in football. It's kinda their deal. So fencing can do what it wants -- I mean, they are all armed -- but way back when, Rockne or the Four Horsemen or Fair Catch Corby said uh-uh, we're not joinin' any group that would have us as a member (OK, that's not what they said, but you get the idea). And so Notre Dame football has gone its own solitary way to this day.

Except ...

Well, except it hasn't, really.

See, the thing is, Notre Dame football's not in the club officially, but it kind of is unofficially. Last season the Irish played almost half their schedule -- five games -- against ACC opponents. This season they were scheduled to play six. They're not eligible for the conference title or the Orange Bowl berth that comes with it, but Notre Dame football's a huge draw and so the ACC welcomes its quasi-presence.

Which means the Irish are that guy who's not a club member but who gets to hang around because he always springs for drinks.

Of course, then the Bastard Plague showed up.

And conferences decided to limit fall sports to conference games only.

And suddenly it wasn't so cool to be an independent anymore.

In a twinkle, Notre Dame lost the Wisconsin game and the Arkansas game and the USC game and the Stanford game. But it still has those six ACC games, and maybe more if the ACC decides to allow Notre Dame to be a full-fledged conference member for at least one season.

That's what everyone's voting on this week. And if they make the Irish a member of the club for 2020, with full rights and privileges and the club beanie and everything, some people will raise almighty heck that here we go again, Notre Dame's getting preferential treatment just because they're Notre Dame.

Well, you know what?

Those people are absolutely right.

This will be Notre Dame getting preferential treatment just because they're Notre Dame. And that's inevitable because big-ticket college football is as corporate as a Windsor knot in a boardroom.

It's guided by the same prerogatives as Microsoft or Amazon or ExxonMobil or General Electric. It is the SEC Inc., the Big Ten Inc., the Big 12 Inc.

And, yes, the ACC Inc.

They're all in it to generate revenue, and revenue is more crucial than ever now in the time of the Bastard Plague. So they all need more TV deals, more apparel deals, more "student-athletes" to use as unpaid billboards for their apparel deals. And more Notre Dame football.

Which is why Notre Dame football will likely get preferential treatment from the ACC this week.

It will happen because Notre Dame football is Notre Dame Football Inc., a mighty engine of commerce. The more ACC games it plays, the more financially beneficial it is for those ACC opponents. And for the conference in general.

And so the choice is between revenue and principle -- the principle being, Notre Dame made this independent bed and needs to lie in it. You can't put that in the wind now because it's not working out for you this season. You have to stick with it and muddle through.

If you don't -- if the ACC lets ND in because, let's face it, revenue's going to win here -- then ND's principle isn't a principle anymore. And the ACC can use that as leverage to finally haul Notre Dame football into the club for keeps.

This is not to say the ACC will do that. But that particular ball is definitely on its racquet now.

In the meantime, keep the screaming to a minimum if the ACC votes to let Notre Dame football in as a temporary member this fall.

It's just bidness, folks. And smart bidness at that.