than the third wheel in the Alliance. Also, this could be an example of where the ACC's deal with Notre Dame hurts the ACC. I don't disagree that it is highly unlikely that Notre Dame dictated any terms and that the 2 conferences made this decision with or without the ACC's blessing. If the 3 conferences were on truly equal footing in the Alliance, then this announcement should have never happened.

If anything, it seems to be very similar to the power conferences making announcements where non-power conference schools would be considered a "P5 opponent" simply because they are on a power conference school's future schedule. I say that because it appears that the Big Ten and Pac-12 want to keep Notre Dame on their future schedule without being "required" to play a second Alliance opponent that year. It is possible some may decide to go ahead and play a second Alliance opponent that year, but I suspect those examples will be few and far between.