Your last paragraph will be exactly how they spin it

The press release will read something like this:

"We've always valued independence. But as college football and the world at large both evolve, so must we. The ACC has been a great partner, from all other sports to emergency COVID scheduling for our football program. By joining the ACC full-time, our schedules will have more built-in protection. And we'll have access to better bowls and the chance to compete for conference championships that will improve our odds of making the playoffs. And we cannot overlook the profitability angle and how this move will strengthen our program."

I believe Swarbrick and his bosses would love to be the ones who finally overcome the old guard and pull ND kicking and screaming into a football conference. They'd view that as the ultimate feather in their cap.

If we had a healthy program and good, trustworthy leaders in charge, like we did 30 years ago, I wouldn't worry. But given the folks we have in charge now, this ACC trial has "never let a good crisis go to waste" written all over it.

So, what’s your 2020 schedule?

I don’t see the segue between playing this schedule under the current circumstances and being in the ACC for football a year or two or three from now .... with the existence of the 2020 schedule effectively having served as a prerequisite for the transition.

And when I read Swarbrick’s periodic comments on scheduling and actual announcements — series against Arkansas, Wisconsin, Ohio St, A&M, Michigan St, Alabama, additional SEC foes In the works, Big 12 foes In the works, Michigan — I do not perceive any near-term move to a conference.

Do you have an alternate schedule? Or do you simply assume the season won’t be able to proceed, so there’s no point in constructing a new schedule as all our scheduled opponents opt out of their games with us? This could actually be sound logic, but is a terrible risk to take if the season is able to proceed.

Schedule other independents

BYU and Army for sure. For this season, I'd consider playing low tier independents, too.

Keep Navy, Western MI, and anyone else like Arkansas who will play us.

Try to keep the ACC agreement (5 games), and offer to bump up to 6 or 7 games this season. We could probably swing that if we don't ask for extra revenue sharing or bowl access.

Contact other teams in the SEC and Big 12. One or two extra games may be all we need.

And yes, I'm willing to sacrifice this odd season to protect our independence, if necessary. It's that important.

This decision itself is much less concerning to me than the people implementing it. If this was Moose Krause trying to figure out how to build a schedule for Lou Holtz due to COVID, I'd be fine with a conference season.

But I don't trust the folks in charge one bit. Time and again, they've made bad decisions for ND Football.

I think the PTB would rather passively take 80 cents than work for a hard-earned dollar. And because of their 25+ years of neglect, the program has lost a lot of value. Now, as a full-time member of the ACC, they could passively earn a dollar and change for less effort than it would take to properly fix and run a strong, independent football program.

Once they see the money, and how easy it is to just be a conference member, I think they'll opt in and it will be too late.

We already had six ACC teams this season

Playing them OOC would have been problematic, however, given the requirement that the +1 game be played in-state, unless, of course, we were willing to play all those games on the road. And depending on what the SEC does, it's also a possibility that we would have lost some of the ACC opponents we were scheduled to play this season (Clemson, Georgia Tech and Louisville).