Rarely has mediocrity been so treated like gold.

The sports world cheered yesterday at the news that Notre Dame would be leaving the Big East to join the ACC. You’d think based on the multiple press conferences given by giddy ACC schools and the ACC itself that this is the greatest thing to ever happen to college sports. But, at the center of the news is one of those odd exceptions that usually betrays greater interests at work: while almost every Irish team will be a full-fledged ACC member, the football team will remain an independent.

This is quite an exception. ACC rules stipulate (at least they did up until yesterday) that, for a school to join the conference, all of their teams must compete in the ACC. (Unless it’s Notre Dame.) And as for leaving the Big East, schools are required to give 27 months notice. (Unless it’s Notre Dame; several sources claimed they’ll leave sooner than that.) And what about the $7.5MM exit fee the Big East charges for leaving the conference, which was recently billed to departing schools Syracuse and Pitt? (Notre Dame got away for just $5MM.)

Man, that’s quite a lot of special treatment. And with this new arrangement, Notre Dame’s football program gets the sweetest deal in the country. They’ll play five ACC teams each year, to make the conference happy, while getting to schedule any other high-profile games they choose. And, when it comes to consideration for bowl games, they get to double dip. They’ll be treated as both an independent AND, as a quasi-ACC team, they can represent the league in the Orange Bowl.

So when exactly did we all become so vested in Notre Dame football? Why the obsession to help them succeed?  This is a program that, over the past 10 years, has won all of 2 bowl games and generated only 2 ten-win seasons. And if you’re thinking, “Oh, but they USED to be good!” just take a look at the PREVIOUS 10 year span and you’ll find the exact same level of lameness: 2 bowl wins, 2 ten-win seasons. Their last national championship was in 1988. And no, we really don’t need to win another one for the Gipper.  That was 19-friggin-28.

Oh well, perhaps all this high-powered manipulation will result in a renaissance for Irish football. Or, then again, maybe not.  Maybe this is a start of a NEW tradition.  One in which the Irish get perennially trounced by, say, the Hokies, as badly as they have been by the Trojans (they’ve beaten USC only once in the last 10 meetings).

But if so, golden-domers can take heart. They’ve got a really great lacrosse team.