SOUTH BEND -- Several University of Notre Dame students interviewed Wednesday said they like the school's move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, but opinions differed on the football team remaining independent.

Junior Calie Mohamed of Brawley, Calif., said while she understands it was a positive move for Notre Dame athletics overall, the football team should join the ACC as well.

"I mean it's a good decision because we were dominating all the Big East teams," she said. "But it's kind of giving a stigma to football by excluding it. You're separating it from all other sports at the school."

Mohamed said the exclusion also provides football teams at other schools with a reason to dislike Notre Dame football.

But junior Ryan Gerspach, of Larchmont, N.Y., said the most crucial aspect of the move was allowing the football team to remain independent.

He welcomes the change, saying it will give the Notre Dame athletic teams an opportunity to play more challenging teams than they had been playing in the Big East.

"I think the future is much brighter for the ACC than for the Big East, so it was time for us to get out," he said. "(The Big East) was just getting all over the place with pretty mediocre athletic and academic talent."

Some students were glad Notre Dame made an athletic decision that wasn't based entirely on the football team.

"I think it's a great move because the decision isn't just about football," senior Colin Slaggert, of South Bend, said. "It puts our basketball, soccer and lacrosse in the best conference in the country. Those are the teams that have been performing the best recently."

Staff writer Melissa Flanagan: