With its recent decision to join the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for all sports except football, Notre Dame finally put to bed speculation surrounding its athletics programs and the independent status of its football program. Courted by other conferences such as the Big 12, Notre Dame has joined the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse in their recent defection from the Big East conference, of which the latter two schools were founding members.

Over the past couple of years, many argue that conference realignment has been influenced heavily by big money television contracts, as collegiate conferences negotiate long term contracts with networks on behalf of their member schools. The exceptions to the rule are Notre Dame, Army, Navy, and more recently, Brigham Young University. Notre Dame has such a following for its football program that it has maintained for years an independent status and currently has a contract with NBC to air its football games on national television. In college sports, Notre Dame is about as big a brand as they come.Continue reading...

That little leprechaun mascot of the University of Notre Dame may seem cute, but he means business when it comes to his trademark. 

Chapman High School, located in a small town in northeastern Kansas, was destroyed in a 2008 tornado and re-opened earlier this year. Now it has to give up its Fighting Irish mascot because the Catholic University in Notre Dame, Indiana, thought the logo and mascot too closely resembled its own, according to the Kansas City Star. 

“Chapman school superintendent Lacee Sell said Notre Dame told school officials that the leprechaun is a federally registered trademark the district is not allowed to use,” the paper reports, and a school district attorney “suggested” that the high school not try to make a stand. So if you’ve got any ideas for a mascot and logo for Chapman, the school is having a contest now to find a new one.

The high school doesn’t need to give up the name “Fighting Irish,” the Star notes, which is good because the Irish theme has been part of Chapman for some time, with a four-leaf clover prominently displayed on its website, which coincidentally is chapmanirish.net. Still, "Fighting Irish" has an even longer history at UND.

“I think we’ll get something bigger and better, and it’ll be all ours,” said Betty Ryan, a teacher at Chapman, to the Star. “We’ll always be the Fighting Irish, whether we can say it or not.”

We all know college athletics is big business, sometimes too big.

Now the Big Ten university athletic conference wants its share of the business to be bigger, and it plans to accomplish this goal by adding another team. But does bigger necessarily mean better for a college football conference?

The Big Ten conference is already comprised of more than 10 teams, so the brand doesn't need to worry (anymore) about its name not technically representing its contents. Adding another team would bring the conference to 12 teams. More importantly, the addition of another school will allow the conference to host more games in two divisions longer into the season.Continue reading...