It's all a marriage of convenience.

The ACC gets a slate of games that help boost its television deals. It's one less marquee opponent schools like Tech need to schedule over a four or five year period. It might help incrementally with bowl tie-ins.

ND gets a handful of marquee ACC opponents and a set of bowl tie-ins. But more importantly, it becomes easier for ND (and NBC) to schedule watchable games in late October through November now that most other conferences are dedicating those weekends to conference tilts. Otherwise, it would be more challenging and expensive for ND to schedule home games during that period. The alternative would be a greater diet of service academies, BYU and schools like Tulsa and Western Michigan during the late season when general interest in the sport is peaking.

To me, the ND-must-join-the-ACC-if-anyone is less about ND actually joining the ACC and more about the ACC being able to inhibit ND's ability to join the Big Ten or some sort of super league, which would further marginalize ACC football schools. Personally, I am more interested in stripping the ACC of schools that do not move the football needle than adding yet another conference member that Tech probably would play less often. But that's probably not happening either.

[Post edited by Tailgate Guru at 04/26/2021 1:09PM]