I wasn't necessarily thinking that Notre Dame would be interested
in joining the Big Ten. If anything, I was thinking that Notre Dame might want to remain an DI-FBS Independent in football and become a full member in another eastern conference that either doesn't sponsor football (i.e. Big East, Atlantic 10, etc) or the conference doesn't sponsor DI-FBS football (i.e. CAA). It is even possible this conference, regardless whether it sponsors football or not, may not even exist at this moment in time.
Also, I am assuming that Notre Dame's decision to leave the ACC could be triggered by the ACC's desire to expand 1-2 members (depending on what Notre Dame does) because of movement going on in the other power conferences. The ACC realizes it can't add only 1 full member because it would violate the bylaws. Mathematically the ACC couldn't play the same number of conference games and a round robin division schedule with unbalanced divisions (1 division with 8 teams and 1 division with 7 teams) in a 12 game schedule. So if the ACC wants to expand, then it must add a minimum of 2 teams at the same time.
Let's say discussion that for whatever reason the ACC has the opportunity to add Penn State and WVU at some point in the future. The ACC knows it can't add both with Notre Dame as a non-football member because mathematically 17 teams can't play a 20 game conference schedule in basketball. So the ACC either has to add 1 more non-football member or reduce the basketball members to 16 teams. If the ACC doesn't have enough votes to add another non-football member, then 16 basketball members would be the only option. In that scenario the ACC is left with 2 options.
Option 1 - add Notre Dame as a football member and add either Penn State or WVU as a full member.
or
Option 2 - drop Notre Dame as a non-football member and add both Penn State and WVU as full members.
If Notre Dame is not ready to become a full member in the ACC because the Playoff is not a champion-only format, then I could see Notre Dame deciding to walk. Instead of allowing the ACC to kick out Notre Dame (a la Temple in the Big East Football Conference days), Notre Dame could pay the exit fee as a way of saving face.
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In response to this post by TerryD)
Posted: 10/11/2018 at 09:51AM