Welcome to the latest episode of the Shamrock. I'm Pete Sampson, joined by Matt Petunas.

We're recording this roughly 48 hours, 72 hours away from the start of Notre Dame's preseason,

which we will get to and talk at length about on future podcasts as well.

But since our last podcast, Matt, there's a little bit like college football news.

It might trickle down to Notre Dame because it's trickling down to everybody else.

But you've been, I think, more invested in the realignment, Texas, Oklahoma.

What does it all mean space?

And I'm grateful that you wrote the Notre Dame piece while I was on vacation.

But what, I was curious how you sort of process that because you were more in the weeds with

this cataclysmic college football story than I am.

I was literally at ACC Media Days in a room with Jim Phillips, a new commissioner, as a story broke. And I didn't look at my phone because I didn't want to be that guy. And the minute I get out, someone else goes in with him, and I'm like, what? And I'm like, I just wish I could have, like, looked at my phone then and read it to him to see his, like, real-time reaction as the world turns, burns, whatever you want to call it in the college carousel right now. I mean, it's, it's crazy. I mean, that was, I think, two weeks ago from today. And I remember that initial report from the Houston Chronicle saying, like, they could be members of the SEC and is, you know, it could be approved within two weeks. And I'm thinking, all right, nothing moves this fast. College football, sure enough, here we are. It's been pretty crazy. And it's, you know, Notre Dame is the elephant in the room, as we've both read in multiple times. And I get why there's so much chatter around them. But for me, at least, like in the moment right now, and I saw Jack Swarwick when I was in Charlotte,

we talked for a little bit, not so much about this.

But it, I wouldn't say it fortifies your independence, but it's also like, now's the time

where you really appreciate it.

Because like, everyone else right now has so much anxiety because no one knows what's going to happen. And Notre Dame is just like, oh, all we got to worry about is people being mad at us. We're putting a game on Peacock right now, and we could do whatever we want because we basically own our home football games in a way that no one else knows. What is the boots on the ground feeling atmosphere in south end of that? don't know, I went to Lowe's and they're all out of like pitchforks and torches, so I'm not, I'm not sure what to make of that. But yeah, every time there's like some conference ridiculousness, I think Jack Swargerber has to look at it. It's like, you know what? I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that.

Like the Longhorn Network doesn't have anything to do with me.

You know, Pact 12 media rights, you know, irrelevant.

You know, the ACC media deal, while noteworthy for Notre Dame and important for the rest of the league,

Notre Dame is just sort of operating in its own sort of party one mindset there, as much as

their partners with the ACC and certainly were last year.

But independence is not just a football schedule.

It's a culture.

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