Paul Finebaum sends strong message about Notre Dame joining conference in the future

Paul Finebaum believes the Notre Dame football program will cease to be a college football independent in the future, with the Fighting Irish eventually giving in and joining a conference sometime years down the road for their own good.

"I ultimately believe that Notre Dame has gotten away with this for a long time," Finebaum said during his appearance on WJOX in Birmingham (h/t College Football HQ). "I can't imagine, long term, that they will, and I'm talking five, six, seven years down the road. At some point, they're going to have to make a decision.

"Five to 10 years from now, I'm not sure the exact number. I strongly believe that Notre Dame will finally say, 'Enough is enough. We're getting into a conference.'"

Texas A&M and Notre Dame football 'very likely' to join Big Ten

College football analyst and radio host Greg Swaim believes that Texas A&M and Notre Dame are "very likely" to be the next two teams to join the Big Ten.

"Who are the next two teams to join the B1G and make it the Big 20? Our terrific Chicago source tells us that he's hearing it'll very likely be Notre Dame (who has a perpetual invite) and TAMU, as the B1G wants to get into Texas and the Aggies are very unhappy with the addition of the Longhorns (duh?)," Swaim prefaced before saying, "Once again he reiterates there will not be any invites to non-AAU member teams, so doesn't believe FSU nor Clemson will get invitations.

While the Fighting Irish currently resides in the ACC for men's and women's basketball, there is an existing partnership with the Big Ten in hockey. The door, as Swaim claims, is perpetually open, and eventually, the money may be too good to ignore in order to remain an independent.