ACC including Notre Dame for 2020, getting cut of NBC television deal

Naturally, the biggest news of the day is the ACC has decided on an 11-game schedule and including Notre Dame into the chase for that league’s championship.

But no word about the scheduled Sept. 12 matchup with Arkansas.

Of course that’s primarily because nobody in the SEC really knows what they’re going to do although reports are starting to filter out that the league is now looking at a 10-game conference-only schedule along the lines of the Big 10 and Pac 12.

Maybe the most important thing for the future is the ACC getting a cut of Notre Dame’s lucrative television deal with NBC … and it’s not getting much attention now. That’s the desperation for something to be decided.

There is no announcement about that game with the Razorbacks from the Irish, but the guess is now the ACC has put the political pressure directly on the SEC as there are four non-conference games scheduled between the two leagues.

So here’s the deal with the SEC-ACC thing.

The ACC can always lop off the non-conference game if the SEC decides to go conference-only.

But everyone will know who backed out, and there are four SEC schools that probably would rather not deal with the local political fallout.

— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) July 29, 2020

As the reports mounted Wednesday afternoon about the SEC set to announce a 10-game conference-only schedule this week all that blew up with the ACC’s announcement.

The ACC worded it where there teams would play 10 conference games plus one non-conference opponent that could only be played in the league’s home state.

That created a window for the Notre Dame-Arkansas matchup, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State, South Carolina-Clemson, Mississippi State at North Carolina State, Auburn at North Carolina (instead of Atlanta) and there may be others.

Even that is probably going to remain subject to change.

Maybe on a weekly basis.