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When your Notre Dame-hating friends and enemies blab on and on about how Notre Dame should join a conference tell them this this true story…

In the early part of the 20th century Notre Dame applied four times to become a member of the conference that would become known as the Big Ten. And all four times their applications were denied. And that was largely due to one person – Fielding Yost – who was at that time the athletic director at the University of Michigan.

Yost was a rabid anti-Catholic and did not want a Catholic school in “his” conference. He couldn’t say too loudly that he was anti-Catholic, so he used the excuse of saying that Notre was “not up to the academic standards” of the schools in “his” conference, and that was enough to deny Notre Dame’s applications to become a member four times.

So, Notre Dame and head coach Knute Rockne decided that, instead of trying to tie themselves to a regional conference they would, instead, travel around the entire country and play teams from every part of the U.S…. California, Texas, the Northeast, the South, etc. (hence the early nickname of Notre Dame’s football team was “Rockne’s Ramblers”).

What Yost and those like him didn’t realize was that, denying Notre Dame admission to the Big Ten was the biggest favor they could have ever done them. Instead of Notre Dame football only appealing to small regional audiences of a conference, they began to appeal to a much, much larger national audience. And it wasn’t long before everyone in America knew about, and became fans of, Notre Dame football and their now well-known coach, Knute Rockne.

Moreover, because Notre Dame stopped trying to align themselves with a regional conference, the money they received for broadcast rights and such didn’t have to be shared with all the other schools in a conference (as is still the case with conference-affiliated schools today). The money Notre Dame makes belongs to Notre Dame, and no one else!!! And that money has, during the past century, helped Notre Dame build a beautiful campus and world-class academic programs.

The upshot of anti-Catholic attitudes and the early snubbing of Notre Dame was, ironically, the very thing that propelled Notre Dame to become the most prestigious, and wealthiest college football program in America.

So, when your hear people say Notre Dame should join a conference just tell that we were snubbed for a long time, and now we don’t want to be, or need to be, a part of your conference, or give you any of our money.

And say so with a “middle-finger-to-you” attitude!