Notre Dame to join the ACC

The ACC put out an official release, so it's done.

The Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept the University of Notre Dame as a new member. The Irish will compete as full members in all conference sponsored sports with the exception of football which will play five games annually against league programs.

Buried at the bottom of a lot of fluff is this.

In addition to extending an invitation to Notre Dame, the Council of Presidents voted to increase the conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. Currently this would equate to an exit fee of over $50 million.

FSU and Clemson probably aren't going to the Big 12 anytime soon.

It looks like the Irish won't pick and choose who they want to play either.

Original forum post:

Well, nothing like some huge news on a Wednesday morning.

Do you like the move? Do you think it'll lead to Notre Dame becoming full ACC members? Do you want Virginia Tech to play Notre Dame immediately? Who do you have as the 16th ACC school?


If it leads to full membership, it's OK.

If it doesn't, eff that.


My thinking exactly

Translate for me...

Pardon my ignorance; I know ND is a money/tradition/large fanbase pull, but what does this mean for the ACC exactly? And how will they fit in the existing divisions for the non-football sports?

Hokies Respect!
... no one


the ACC viable with a 50 million exit fee F$U and Clemson are not going anywhere. Once the playoff starts then the Acc can worry about getting them in all the way along with one more team

UVA: Jefferson's biggest mistake


if they do fully join, we are uneven...this might start another round of realignment war.

Big east is slowly walking away with it's tail between its legs.

I am always drunk when I make my videos.

And if we do go to war, having ND gives us a little more leverage than we might have otherwise had to do some cherry picking.

Declare me.

We'll have to see what the deal is with TV rights for the 5 ACC football games. My gut is ND keeps them under its NBC contract and the ACC gets screwed. Regardless, with the exception of BC, all of ND's valuable games (USC, Navy, Michigan, Michigan State) will not benefit the ACC. Yet another basketball-focused move.

I highly doubt it will lead to full membership because ND's motivation is precisely not to lose those valuable traditional rivalry games. That is where all their TV value comes from.

This is a home run for ND; they get all the benefits of being independent and of being in a stable conference. Swofford is now going to be on ND's side of the table when it's time to negotiate playoff inclusion. Though if they are forced to become a full conference member to participate in the football postseason I would still expect them to go to the Big 10 because that's the only way they can preserve most of their rivalry games.


But we can be patient, can't we?
It's not like the ACC tv deal will be renegotiated before ND goes full ACC

Are we to assume...

that ND will fully join once the NBC contract dries up?

Personally I like the move. At least 5 FB games guaranteed for the foreseeable future just brings potential for more marquee games (primetime slots) and good exposure. Plus I would love the VT-ND matchups. (And ND-FSU and the return of Convicts vs Catholics.)

Always looking for the next great piece of Hokie memorabilia for the collection.

Am I wrong?

Notre Dame is an independent in football and currently have a pretty good deal with Big East Conference through their bowl agreements and an automatic bid by finishing in the top 8.

If the ACC gives ND a similar bowl agreement, then what would be the advantage to ND to join the ACC in football?

It's a great day to be a Hokie!

It's a power play and regardless of whether ND joins fully at some point, it strengthened the ACC's position. Considering the Big12 contract that was inked recently, it was time to make some kind of move. With a $50 million exit fee, no one is going anywhere. A basketball move? Nah -- more like a move to protect the conference. From what I've read, ND will be included in the ACC's NON-BCS bowl deal ... NON-BCS

The dilemma now is locking in an opponent for the Orange Bowl that has teeth. Maybe lock in #2 B1G, #2 Big-12, or #2 SEC -- sucks to get the scraps but it is what it is

Also look at this in the context of what we've passed over to get it. We could have had Rutgers and WVU and a much bigger TV contract, forced the other 3 power conferences to go to 16 and excluded everyone else from the postseason. Instead we get 5 irrelevant games.


The year(s) I hope we play both OSU and Norte Dame in the same season. Result= my head asplode.

Trapped in a Conference

It looks like the idea was to effectively trap ND in the ACC, so if they realize they need a conference, it will be the ACC.

Not thrilled about sharing bowl tie-ins, but at least it's non-BCS.

The one thing I cannot wrap my head around is this; could this lead to an ACC/ND Orange Bowl? Or does this agreement scratch that idea? A BCS bowl vs. a pseudo-conference opponent seems weird.

OK, so like a lot of you I like this move. I think it shows some forward thinking from Swofford and the ACC. Remember, at ACC kickoff Swofford softened a hardline on partial membership. I don't think Notre Dame will be able to survive as an independent in college football's new regime. The Irish realize it, and so does the ACC. Ultimately, I think this is the first step in a transition that will lead to them being the 15th member of the ACC.

Their tradition adds football credibility to the ACC, and yes I know they've done squat recently, but that's how college football works. I'm most interested in seeing how this plays out with the TV networks. Does ESPN land Notre Dame full time, or does NBC/Notre Dame/ACC strike a deal?


Joe, you pretty much nailed my exact thoughts. I think it's a very pragmatic and forward-looking move. The fact that this was kept so quiet tells me there's a whole lot more to this story than meets the eye, and I think it will ultimately lead to ND ending up as a football member, too.

$50 million

In career, relationships, and football...if you aren't happy, leave. I was the biggest fan of moving to the SEC earlier this summer, contingent upon Clemson and FSU leaving that is. The instability of the landscape was too much for my tastes. This is a good thing.

Any ideas on what exit fee would apply to Notre Dame? Reason I ask is would it be financially feasible to even consider bolting to the B1G for any reason if they had the same fee looming? I thought you could be an independent in football and conference member in other sports, but then their only option is to join ACC in football, stay independent, or leave the ACC altogether for another conference...which has to result in some financial penalty for them, but I can't see ND agreeing to a full exit fee of $50 million.

And, there we go.

Bling, bling. (Hopefully.)

The question is how are the rights to the 5 games divided between the ACC or ND, ESPN or NBC, and how will the revenue be split? It's not going to be a proportional split, or else ND may as well have joined as a full member. It's also questionable how much value there is to ND-Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland, UVA, etc. I see a very marginal gain for the conferece. Something like 2.5 million per year split betwen 14 schools after Notre Dame takes their slice.

To me it's just sad to think about how much better off we could have been financially and competitively in the SEC. Why wasn't VT more aggressive? TAMU, Mizzou and even WVU are better off than we are right now and we started in a more powerful position.

Good move overall

Solidifies that FSU or Clemson won't jump ship and sets up the ACC to have 16 teams at some point in the future.

Conspicuously absent from the announcement is what the process is for determining the venue for ND vs ACC football games. Having to cycle through 14 teams every 3 years means we aren't getting the home and home series we get with our cross-divisional games, and you can bet ND will try to get as many of those five ACC games in South Bend as it possibly can.

Declare me.

Would absolutely love to see VT-ND in Lane...

...but, it would be sweet if some of these games were done primetime in a major media market (Charlotte, DC, NYC, etc.)

I was thinking about this too.

How much do you want to bet that many of these games are held at neutral sites. VT-ND at FedEx was a rumored matchup a few years ago.


ND doesnt want to come to Lane...ever



My reaction upon seeing the news this morning on Twitter:

I'm reserved...

Yeah this is a step in the right direction, but the whole exceptions thing is one of the main reasons I think that the Big East went bad. Hockey I understand fully, but we shoulda got ND in for football. Now the 1% chance we had of maybe snagging PSU has just been reduced to about 0.00000000001% if ND won't be in for football.

Logan 3:16

Swofford's motivation here was clearly mainly to get the exit fee increased to reduce the probability of the conference falling apart. This was not done to benefit the stronger schools in the conference- VT, FSU and Clemson. The monetary gains will be marginal and our flexibility to improve our situation has decreased. As a benefit we get to see ND in lane maybe once a decade. Is that really better than having some combo of Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, TAMU, etc every year? I really don't get why VT fans would support this.

I think that was part of it, and it's a benefit, but I still think the end goal was to get ND into the ACC as full fledged members at some point in the future.

I was a strong supporter of #VT4SEC, and I'd still jump at the chance to go. However, if you choose believe the rumors, Tech had an opportunity to join before Mizzou did. Our brass never wanted to be the ones who killed the conference. If FSU and Clemson had left, it might have happened, but now that the $50M has solidified the league, it won't.

One thing to remember, college football is cyclical. Yes, the SEC is running the show now, but it always won't be that way.


I actually believe this is the first time in six years that the SEC does not, repeat does NOT, win the National Championship... Bold statement, I know. But I have a gut feeling about this one.

Also, I was going to post about this as soon as I saw it around 11 but you guys are already on top of it like clockwork! Nice work!

Jarvis is my co-pilot.

I think like the economy there are cycles and then there are long term trends. The SEC is on top of the current cycle but they are using their position to drive the long term trend in their favor too. They are consolidating money and power and competition in their league to ensure that they will always be at the top of the heap. With VT and one more good western school we could have been the dominant force in football for 100 years. I am actually getting physiologically upset at the missed opportunity there. And now this deal is the payoff for our misplaced loyalty. I am not a fan of Jim Weaver right now, to put it lightly.

Does anyone know if ND would be subject to the full $50M exit fee if they were to do this again in a couple years? I would be interested to see if ND pulled some contract tenant that only subjects them to a partial amount because they didn't lock into football.

I ask because, despite this recent development, I still believe ND and the Big10 are destined to be together.

Somewhere along the line, the B10 really hurt ND's feelings.

This is a deal the B10 could have had ages ago. The 5 games isn't even necessary with the B10, ND could play a 9 game B10 schedule + USC, Navy and Stanford and be perfectly happy. The only concession would be that ND could have their homes games covered by NBC and keep the money.

But ND chose the ACC instead. ND and the B10 don't see eye to eye on something really significant or they would have been married long before now.

ND didn't "choose us;" This is not the bachelorette. ND saw the ACC as the only option where they could get their football independence but still be attached to a major conference. My guess is that the Big 10 wouldn't have taken this deal now, even with everything that's going on among some of their member schools. This is not a "deal;" this is ND's only option for getting what they believe to be the "best of both worlds."

While I like the idea of actually being able to play ND in football (for once) I don't really believe this is benefiting the ACC all that much. Football is still the major revenue source and ND is not part of ACC football. IF that changes in the next couple years, then I will change my outlook. However, given the fact that ND basically bolted their previous neighborhood (big east) for better land (us) I still think this isn't their ultimate settling spot. I still believe that spot to be the Big 10 and while I hope that the ND ends up staying here for football, I wouldn't be shocked if they bolted us in a few years like they are bolting the big east today.

This is not the same deal

B1G/ND deals have always been full membership or nothing. ND is just positioning itself so I doesn't get screwed at playoff time. Swafford gets to have ND in his corner when they negotiate BCS rankings for bowl games or whatever. In terms of basketball, its diluting the conference.

You guys do get the benefit of lurking on the ND boards after a loss to an "inferior opponent" though. BTW, everyone is an inferior opponent. Enjoy, there's a years supply of schadenfreude in every bite.

Good luck gents!


I've been spewing the whole "college football is cyclical" thing for years. It's science, people's memories just only work in 3-year bits. We're like friggin fish.


38-0 bro

Cincinnati and UCONN

Let the scramble begin to be the 16th member of the ACC. Who would you guys like to see as the 16th member?

Virginia Tech Alum '12 Marketing Management
Twitter: @cybrooks11

We don't actually have a 15th member for football. UConn would be a good non-football member but I don't see how that benefits them.

ND CBS Contract

I believe the ND CBS Contract expires in 2015. IF Notre Dame joins for football in 2016 it gives us time to find a 16th member. It would probably be a Big East team to be #16 once ND joins fully.

Virginia Tech Alum '12 Marketing Management
Twitter: @cybrooks11

Well I highly doubt that will be the outcome as explained in my post at the top, but in that situation I think Rutgers would make the most financial sense. They are struggling in football right now but they have the resources to be a solid program if they get into a stable conference and they are the most popular CFB team in the largest TV market in the country.

Its NBC.

They also have a CBS one I believe, because that's what channel the ND/Navy game was on.

Jarvis is my co-pilot.

No, CBS just picked up that game because it was technically a Navy "home game." NBC has had exclusive rights to all of the ND home games for years through said deal.

The thought has to be once the playoff system gets going (and possibly expanded), that automatic tie in's from the major conferences would force ND to join one. It feels like more of a transition than anything. The 5 ACC games feels like the end goal is to be full in with football. Until that happen's a new member isn't needed for balance.

Still though, I'm ready to start going down the list of possible applicants for the ACC!

I am always drunk when I make my videos.

I love how SportsCenter keeps reiterating that they're joining "in ALL sports, except football" but yet every time they go to commercial or talk about it in depth, they show clips of the football team.

It would be confusing to a viewer who isn't fully paying attention.

Jarvis is my co-pilot.

One more team to beat... that is all.


If you think about it, weak teams = more win's for your top teams and more recruiting territories for your top teams.

Since it is apparent that your conference is only as good as your top couple teams...

Not saying this is the best approach...just how CFB is right now.

I am always drunk when I make my videos.

Exactly... beating ND in South Bend would be satisfying

Satisfying, except for the fact that the team would have to travel to South Bend. I was there a few months ago, they need to fire the maid.

There's got to be more to the story here.

I'm definitely not a fan of this if there is no future changes, but the timing makes me think there is more to this.

If the Big East holds ND to the 27 month exit, then ND would more than likely begin ACC play in the 2015 season - coincidentally, the same year that NBC's contract ends. As a football independent, ND doesn't necessarily have to give a heads up before it joins a conference, so it could be that they're just easing their way into the conference so as not to upset their relationship with NBC. And with a $50 million exit fee, that's a lot of scratch to pay - even for the Domers - so they must have a long-term plan in place with the ACC. Either way, there has to be much more going on behind the scenes than we know.


From what I've seen, we get screwed outta of television dollars. Swofford messed up royally.

It's all about The VPISU

Where have you seen that?

Nothing I have seen indicates the ACC is losing out on TV money from this deal. For football, ND keeps its NBC contract and the ACC keeps theirs. Notre Dame is getting 1/15 of the remaining 20% (eg: hoops revenue). Bowl revenue from the non-BCS bowls is shared with ND. Revenue from BCS bowl(s) is not shared with ND.

How exactly is the ACC getting screwed on this deal?

According to McMurphy...

It'll be a good deal for all involved.

Those figures are laughable. $2 mil per school is $28 million annually after ND takes its cut, which could be half. That's more than $10 mil per game, most of which won't even be picked up nationally.

I wondering if the ACC is going to scheme up some sort of funky scheduling. It seems as if ND will rotate among ACC schools. As it stands now, schools like FSU, Clemson, GT would end up playing 9 conference games, SEC, and ND in a single season. They'd only be able to schedule a single non-conference game. I wonder if the ACC will make ND part of the cross-divisional rotation. So every three years teams will play their permanent rival, the next opponent in their cross divisional rotation (just one, not two), and Notre Dame which would count as an ACC game. Something like like would ensure schools have more scheduling flexibility.

ND Scheduling

Yeah the scheduling here only gets more difficult.

I really don't see Notre Dame joining as a football member. To them, this agreement is the best of both worlds. Their non-football sports are in a great spot with schools that fit their academic mentality and the geographic footprint that they love.

Their AD has said that the 4 team playoff has made it difficult to fill a 12 game schedule, this agreement eases that tremendously. They'll play 5 games vs. a lot of schools that they would love to play anyway (BC, Wake Forest, Miami, GT, FSU), they’ll get some new competition (VT, Clemson) plus they will still have the flexibility to play Michigan, USC, Navy, etc, as well as the one offs they love so much (like playing in Cowboys Stadium, the Meadowlands, Ireland, etc). They’ll get to keep their NBC deal and scheduling freedom.

For the rest of the ACC, this becomes difficult in how does FSU schedule Florida (which alternates home and away), a 9 game conference schedule, Notre Dame, some cupcakes, plus ensure that they still have7 home games on the schedule to fill their athletic departments bank account up.

I think they will seriously revisit an 8 game conference schedule, with 5 teams per year getting to play ND (either at 3 ACC stadiums and 2 in Indiana or the other way, probably going back and forth). So 5 teams will have three non-conference games to play with plus ND, and the others will have four.

In the end it is good for the ACC becuase 1) it locks in the conference teams from joining the Big 12 or SEC and 2) It creates a new interesting matchup for a lot of the ACC teams schedules which can only enhance strength of schedule for getting into the playoff plus the attractiveness of the schedule to TV $$ / fans

Hurts SEC, B1G and Big12

if the Mega 16 team conferences become a reality. With the ACC members not able to be poached, where do they turn to fill up to 16. The best choices will be Louisville, Cincinnati, Boise, etc. It is a move that lacks pizzazz, but has a lot of power behind it. VT is here to stay in the ACC. The #VT4SEC hashtag has officially retired.

Cautious Optimism?

I am cautiously optimistic... Gets ND foot in the door, test the waters with the new playoff, and POSSIBLY pull in Penn State to the ACC in 5-6 years for full membership (they may want a clean start post-sanctions)

But next summer FSU will threaten to join the PAC-14, and Swofford offers SDSU to both troll the Big East again and "shore up" the league while raising exit fees to 1 Billion dollars.

One thing I love about this

I can't wait to celebrate a Hokie victory in the shadows of Touchdown Jesus. All will be right with the world on that day.

No pressure, no diamonds.

Notre Dame will be Texas of the ACC...

What I mean by that is Texas and Notre Dame both have their own TV network deal. The only difference is that Notre Dame is not a "football" member in the ACC, but Texas is in the Big 12. Notre Dame still playing 5 ACC schools in football. I don't like it, but oh well we still need to get one of those top 4 spots to have a chance to fill that empty national championship trophy case, so it doesn't really matter.

Hokies fan since 1998