Welcome to the latest episode of the Shamrock. I'm Pete Sampson, joined, as always,

who I'm co-coist, Matt Fortuna. Today's special guest, as Notre Dame gets into the

interesting part of its ACC schedule, David Hale from ESPN,

who Matt, you were very familiar with in a previous life at ESPN when you were both ACC

insiders together. I think that it was about the time Notre Dame was moving over to the ACC,

and I think that might be an interesting place to

start, David, like, because I mean, you cover college football from a different perspective than I,

than I do on the ground here in South Bend. And I'm, we're talking to Marcus Freeman and some players

this week about, you know, do you watch the ACC? Do you sort of follow the ACC? And they're like,

not really. They're not. they're in it, but not in it. How over the years, how has sort of the

view of Notre Dame within that league changed, evolved, adjusted in any way from your point

of view?

I mean, it never seemed like the most logical cultural fit.

You know, it was, you look at the rivalries that Notre Dame has traditionally, and they're largely in the Big Ten and the Pac-12.

There's not like this great history between Notre Dame and the ACC, but it worked because the ACC was sort of

desperate, and Notre Dame needed a place for its other sports. And so I think what you get,

unquestionably, this relationship has been good, probably for both sides, but definitely for the

ACC. I mean, Syracuse and Notre Dame are going to play a game that matters a whole hell of a lot more this week than it would be if Syracuse was playing almost anybody else.

So these games are good for the league. They draw interest for the league. They help TV ratings for the league.

They make the league more attractive without question. But I think inside the

league, if you talk to coaches and a lot of ADs, there's sort of a frustration like they feel like

they're being used a little bit. I think there was a lot of frustration in 2020 when John Swoffer

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