Notre Dame is just fine with being an independent, so says AD Jack Swarbrick (via ESPN)…

“Our strong preference is to remain the way we are,” Swarbrick said, according to the report. “Independence is a big part of the tradition of the program and our identity. We’d sure like to try to maintain it.”

Swarbrick acknowledged that the major football conferences make even more money from their own media contracts than the $9 million Notre Dame is paid annually by NBC for the football rights. In the Big Ten, TV and radio rights fees generate $20 million a year for the schools.

But Swarbrick said the football program considers factors other than revenue, according to the Tribune.

“All of this has a lot more to do with our priorities than it does with business issues,” Swarbrick said, according to the Tribune. “Our independence is tied up in a lot of the rivalries we have. We play Navy every year and have the tradition of USC weekends. Frankly, it works pretty well to play USC in October at home and in November at their place.”

It’s the rivalries…really? The Big Ten couldn’t work around the annual home-and-home with USC? I don’t buy it.

It wouldn’t make much sense for the Notre Dame basketball team to play in the Big East while the football team plays in the Big Ten, but it doesn’t make much sense to stay independent either. Notre Dame would be a fine addition to the Big Ten Big Midwest, in both basketball and football.

It seems like a perfect fit, though Notre Dame seems to think otherwise.

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