ACC move: Little impact for ND

It doesn't, IMO. It does give Notre Dame an better record with an easier schedule and assures that ACC of being able to keep their bowl tie-ins at least where they are at the moment.

Kind of a stop-gap loss, IMO.

The one interesting move this does though is that it makes staying in the ACC a little more interesting for teams like FSU and Clemson that want out.

I don't think so. Notre Dame is located where it's located. Example- I don't think that it is going to hurt Texas A&M being the SEC and not playing Texas every year.

Yes. I also think that it helps the rest of the ACC more than it helps Notre Dame. It's a good selling point to say that Notre Dame will be on the schedule, particularly for BC/Pitt/Syracuse.

I see one potential drawback. Right now ND generally plays the mediocre ACC/BE teams (PITT, MD, SYR, WF, BC). Going forward, it also will have to play Clemson, VaTech and FSU on a regular basis. If ND starts losing to those teams (like it has to Michigan, MSU, USC and Stanford), it's possible this could actually hurt ND's recruiting in the Southeast. If I grew in South Carolina, for example, I might be swayed to go OOS to a storied school with a good pitch about tradition and history. But if that team is regularly coming into my home state and losing to Clemson, some of the luster and mystique behind the ND pitch will disappear. IMO it's not going to be good enough for ND to just split games with VaTech and FSU and Clemson 50/50. ND needs to clearly establish itself as the best program in the ACC. Otherwise, the ACC will prove to be one more major conference whose top teams are generally as good or better than ND every year.

This is an absolute joke! Come play with the big boys in the Midwest! When are they going to stop dodging the big ten. I used to be a fan but not anymore.

Problem is that it is an easy win that gets you a lot of press. A team like Cincy or USF are probably tougher opponents, but wouldn't get you near the pub.

couldn't disagree more. mom wants to see her boy play, and if she can see him play 4-8 more times over his time in college, that's one on the plus side for nd in the recruiting battle.

Much ado about nothing imo, as far as ND is concerned. They go from playing 5 Big 10 schools a year,(something like that) to playing 5 ACC schools. Won't change the on field results or the recruiting landscape for them.

The bigger impact to me is that this pretty much sews up the ACC as one of the major conferences for football in the future when conferences get bigger and more inclusive. Most, including myself, felt the ACC was going all out to be the premier basketball conference, football be damned, and while they still will be, they should be able to maintain a football foothold.

The big losers in this are the Big 12 and Texas. People always mention the Big 10 in regards to ND but that wasn't happening as long as football wasn't a part of the conference move(full membership). The last 2 years, Texas in particular, Big 12 as a whole, have courted ND with a lot of intensity. ND was the linchpin in the future planning of Texas and the Big 12. At this point they return back to being the conference likely left out or dismembered when the dominoes of superconferences start falling. Though they likely willl not admit it publically, at the very least spin it as I've already begun to see, this is a bad day for the University of Texas and their future plans. ND was the centerpiece of their future strength in being able to fully control the direction of the program's conference affiliation. I fully believe in the strength of Texas and that in the long haul they'll be fine,they're easily the prettiest girl on the block, but this takes the future a little out of their control, which if you pay attention to the Longhorns, is a major deal.

ND's ACC and BE regular season matchups (2004-2012):

Wake Forest: 2
Maryland: 1
Boston College: 7
North Carolina: 2
Georgia Tech: 2
Duke: 1
USF: 1
Pitt: 7
UConn: 1
Syracuse: 2
Miami: 1

http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/confres.pl?start=2004&end=2011&team=Notre+Dame&limit=50

Agree. I will add on more piece. I believe UT thought regular matchups with ND in hoops and non-revenue sports would help them grow LHN. Remember, LHN is limited to two UT football games a year. Appealing non-football content is needed to carry the network the remaining 50 weeks of the year. The UT and ND brands together on a regular basis would have been pretty appealing.

I wish the Big Ten schools would stop playing Notre Dame--let them look east and go all the way and join the ACC. It would probably hurt their Midwest recruiting, although with their South Bend location, they would likely continue to attract good Midwest players. But, any decrease in their footprint in the Midwest will help Big Ten schools. They are smart for not joining the Big Ten, because they would do less well than Penn State has over the years. Although the conference is down this year, its alleged lack of quality has been greatly exaggerated in recent years. The conference has done quite well against the SEC in bowl games over the recent years, and most of the teams are quite physical. Penn State joined expecting to dominate, but was relegated to a place below Ohio State and Michigan well before the scandal. I think ND's new affiliation is a recognition that they would be, if not an also ran, certainly not a first tier school in the Big Ten. If they were truly a nationally dominant team, they would have no reason to refrain from joining the BigTen.

You're right. What was I thinking? ND has been running the gauntlet of ACC and BE powerhouses Pitt, Syracuse, BC, GT and Wake Forest for years. How could I not see that?