Yes.
This is not about adding just 2 teams to the membership. This is about stabilizing and finalizing the ACC. At present the ACC has 14 and a half teams in football and 15 teams in basketball. Going to 16 is the only way to move forward because the ACC is not going to ditch Notre Dame and drop to 14 in all sports.
Notre Dame on the football schedules does not benefit Notre Dame or the ACC all that much. I think, however, if you asked the "other" sports how they feel about playing Notre Dame, their opinion will vary from yours and the effect of Notre Dame in those sports does benefit both the ACC and Notre Dame.
As for Notre Dame having a tougher time to get in the playoff in your opinion...so what? That is Notre Dame's problem, not your problem nor is it the ACC's problem. Every conference would love two teams in the play off and that means what? The SEC 'earns' their slots. I don't think they are the super conference that they are portrayed as and I would hard limit access to one member per conference but I don't run the play off and everyone that votes seems to think the SEC is all that.
Again, you are worried about a school that should not move your needle. Notre Dame is not an ACC football member. You need to understand that, but you don't seem too. Notre Dame is an independent football school that by contract for being allowed to play non-football sports as a full member, plays 5 games per year as an OOC game. Why you care what happens to ND is a bit odd. Let Notre Dame worry about Notre Dame.
Fortunately, people that make these decisions see the entire scope of a relationship and Notre Dame's connection to the ACC goes beyond athletics. Letting Notre Dame out of the 5 game portion of the contract is not give them anything, in fact it makes their life a bit tougher. What it does do is let the ACC focus on 15 and 16, which is needed to solidify the conference. Notre Dame has made a profession over the almost but not quit football membership with the Big East and the ACC. In the 90's when this bait and switch started, Notre Dame was something of a marquee. That marquee has faded over the last 2 decades. It still has a lot of worth, but if this were 2003 I have my doubts Notre Dame would get the deal with the ACC it has now.
I could see them dumping their sports into the American and being completely free on the football side. But, again there is too much talk of Notre Dame in these debates. Notre Dame is not the problem and is thus not the solution.
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In response to this post by EDGEMAN)
Posted: 04/25/2021 at 10:21PM