As conference carousel spins, don't expect Notre Dame football to join that circus

South Bend Tribune SOUTH BEND — You had to have seen the GIF, either on X, which once was Twitter, or Meta, the former Facebook. Conference affiliation in college athletics is rolling again, and the GIF illustrates where Notre Dame sits in this mess. The clip is of someone — a boy or a girl, a child or young adult — gliding back and forth on a swing.

Over their shoulder, what looks like an apartment complex burns seemingly out of control. The flames are everywhere. The fire is (again) conference affiliation.

The individual on the swing is Notre Dame. Hey, nothing to see here. Chaos recently returned to what formerly was known as amateur (college) athletics.

You wake up every morning and wonder, who’s moved where? Who might be next to go? Where’s it all going? Noie:Make it another social media touchdown for Notre Dame football On Thursday, the Pac-12 seems destined to tumble off the Pacific Coast Highway and into the ocean. It was done. On Friday, there was reportedly new hope that something could be salvaged.

They’re done, uh, no they’re not. Oh, wait, maybe they are. Colorado has jumped to the Big 12 and Arizona eventually might follow.

If that happened, it would create a league that stretches from the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia to the Grand Canyon. Just call it the Big Toll. Meanwhile, one of the Goliaths on the conference block, the Big Ten, kind of/sort positioned itself to potentially pick over the Pac-12 carcass and bring aboard Oregon and Washington.

Maybe snag California and Stanford and go to 20 teams. But, hey, wait, the Big Ten also reportedly didn’t want to be seen as the league that tossed the final shovel of dirt on the Pac-12 coffin. Hey, it’s not our fault.

. . Hypocrites.

Notre Dame played Clemson in the 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. Don't expect a repeat anytime soon - Notre Dame isn't looking to join a conference in football despite the recent moves within college athletics. Who swooped in last summer and grabbed league heavyweights USC and UCLA? Oh, yeah, the Big Ten.

That move marked the beginning of the end of the Pac-12 as we’d known it. The damage was done; the fatal wound inflicted. Subtract the Los Angeles market from a league and eventually that league dies.

It’s just as messy on the other side of the country, where the dreaded seismic shift seems to be gaining steam in the sleepy/stodgy Atlantic Coast Conference where Florida State now is fed up. Early last week, folks down Tallahassee way kicked up their heels and the rhetoric about what the ACC is — or in this case — isn't. It’s not making anywhere near the amount of money (annually about $30 million less) from its media rights deal as the Big Ten or the Southeastern Conference.

That stings those Seminoles, who’ve made it known that it’s not a matter of if but when it decides it time to Tomahawk chop its way out of the ACC. Somewhere, the late Bobby Bowden mutters a dadgumit. Like that scruffy schnauzer behind the fence, Florida State is all bark and no bite.

If you want to go, then go. Don’t talk about it, be about it. Or try to.

The ACC’s Grant of Rights makes it clear — if a program seeks to leave the league before that agreement expires in 2036, it will pay a major financial penalty. How major? How about nine figures major? Hundreds of millions major. Florida State wants a new home to make more money, but getting free of its old one will cost a lot of it.

Any divorce won’t be convenient. It will get legal messy. Oh, and there’s this — schools that have landing spots often parachute out under a cover of quiet.

Suddenly, you look up and see USC is gone to the Big Ten, Colorado’s in the Big 12. Schools with no clear path to somewhere scream and stomp their feet and claim that everything about the current financial state of college athletics is unfair. That’s Florida State.

Sit down and shut up or make a move. Take the ACC to court. Prove that the Grant of Rights isn’t escape-proof.

Do something, but please stop squawking. It’s likely that every team in the ACC is just as salty. They’re just not saying it, but you know they’re thinking, if this falls apart, what’s our move? Clemson’s thinking it.

Miami (Fla. ) is set to scramble for its escape hatch. If the Big Ten really wanted to flex its expansion muscle, North Carolina and Virginia would be extended invitations today.

Losing any combination of those teams would cripple the ACC, but would it crush it? Uh … several like-minded schools to Notre Dame — Boston College, Duke, Wake Forest — still would need a home. Not everyone can go somewhere — there aren’t enough seats at whatever conference’s table. Notre Dame’s basketball programs, its Olympic Sports programs would be all right whatever that arrangement might look like.

As long as independence continues, that’s all that matters. Preserve Notre Dame football, figure out the rest. If this really gets messy, a league that Notre Dame once called home, a league built on basketball, would look pretty good.

Let’s not start that. Not yet. Notre Dame is not joining any league anytime soon.

If/when its road to the College Football playoff becomes blocked, it might consider joining the Big Ten, but not if SEC commissioner Greg Sankey can help it. The two bullies on the college athletics block are the Big Ten and the SEC. Expect Sankey and the SEC to do all it can to keep Notre Dame content.

It doesn’t want to see the Big Ten strengthened by adding Notre Dame. Hey, Irish, you need anything, what can we do to help? Everything OK up South Bend way? One day when college athletics looks nothing like college athletics, we’ll look back on this crazy carousel and wonder if all this was worth it. Conference affiliations and the traditions and the rivalries are all gone.

What’s left? What matters? Anything besides money? It’s become one big game of Survivor — outwit, outlast and outplay. Find an immunity idol or two to ensure you get to play for one more day. Keep chasing those all-important dollars.

Notre Dame likely won’t sweat out conference Tribal Council anytime soon. It will keep watching what’s burning over there and keep swinging and believing everything’s fine over here. .