Notre Dame to join the ACC on partial basis, will play five football games a year in league
The ACC landed the big one … sort of. Notre Dame will move all of its sports except football into the ACC at a date yet to be determined, the conference announced today.
The ACC’s presidents voted unanimously to accept the school as a new member. The Irish will compete as full members in all conference sports except football, where they’ll remain an independent – as they have since 1887. But as part of the agreement, Notre Dame will play five football games each year against ACC opponents.
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“The ACC was founded on the cornerstones of balancing academics, athletics and integrity,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “Our partnership with Notre Dame only strengthens this long-standing commitment. Notre Dame enhances the league’s unique blend of public and private institutions that are international in scope. … This is a terrific milestone in the evolution of the ACC and showcases tremendous solidarity and vision by our Council of Presidents.”
In addition to adding Notre Dame, the presidents also voted to increase conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. Right now, that would equate to an exit fee of over $50 million.
Notre Dame has long been courted by conferences around the country but has clung to its football independence. The school joined the Big East on a partial basis in 1995, housing their non-football sports there. But with that league on shaky footing in the latest realignment craze, the Irish explored their options.
The Big East has a 27-month notice for leaving the conference, although both Syracuse and Pittsburgh negotiated earlier exits to join the ACC next year.
Notre Dame said in its press release that it will play every ACC school at least once every three years.
The Irish’s future schedules already include the following ACC or future ACC opponents:
- 2013: at Pittsburgh
- 2014: vs. Syracuse, vs. Pittsburgh
- 2015: vs. Wake Forest, at Pittsburgh, at Syracuse
- 2016: vs. Miami, vs. Pittsburgh, vs. Boston College, vs. Syracuse
- 2017: at Miami, vs. Syracuse
- 2018: vs. Boston College
- 2019: at Boston College
September 12, 2012 - 10:13 AM
I have a big question – Namely playing ND would be quite a treat each year but how will those games be factored into who plays in the ACC championship? Will a loss against ND count against the record or will that game be considered like a non-conference game?
Thanks,
A 1969 Proud Hokie grad
It’s not explicitly mentioned in the release, but I have to think it’s no, Notre Dame’s games will not count in ACC standings.
For starters, ND would only play five games against ACC teams, so it’d be uneven in the standings. Second, that’s how the Big East agreement worked. They’d play plenty of Big East teams but it never counted in the standings.
So, how will this all play into BCS bowl-revenue sharing? Will ND get an equal slice of the pie?
Sounds like Notre Dame will still have its BCS autonomy. This might be addressed at the ACC press conference this afternoon.
With an ND fan for a brother-in-law, I have been waiting for a VT-ND match-up for years! Congratulations to the ACC leadership for putting this together. This is a quality team that increases our exposure when we play them, and we might win the majority of the games.
Whether or not Pitt or SU eventually pan out, I think this shows that the expansion decision was worth it. Now, if we could bring in a quality 16th, could we possibly encourage ND to join revenue-sharing?
Not Bob H- I am a VT fan and alum.
I’d have told them “Either bring ALL your sports or no deal. Notre Dame gets their way again. Oh how they bow to the holy Notre Dame…
Will this mean a return to 8 conf games a year?
Hearing that every ACC school will play ND at least every 3 years. Who will play them more often?
Will ND games be played home-home or at neutral sites?
If recent history is an indication, it seems to me that Hokie season ticket holders shouldn’t get their hopes up about Notre Dame and Lane Stadium magic.
Not if Jim Weaver has his way.
Can you say FedEx field?
I am Bob H and I am a VT fan and alum!
I think the time is ripe to pressure Penn State to join the ACC. They need to be the 16th team, and not UConn or Rutgers and certainly not WVU.
I don’t think is more of a football move since ND keeps their football independence, but a basketball move, something the ACC seem on destroying the Big East over. That leaves UConn as the sole powerhouse in a very, very watered down Big East. I imagine this isn’t sitting very well with non-football schools.
But I’m quite excited to see a future Hokies/Fighting Irish match up. That’s going to be heckuva a game to watch.
Why would the ACC agree to such a lame deal? In my humble opinion it should be an All or Nothing scenario for ND to join the ACC. They should not to get to have the benefits of being in a league for all sports but get to keep all the revenue for football (including NBC deal) all to themselves. This is a terrible deal for the ACC and I cannot beleive they agreed to this.
Poor decision by the ACC. All or nothing. ND can take a non-BCS bowl game from an ACC football team. How can that make any sense at all? The bowl tie-ins are with the ACC football teams, not an independent football team. What a cave in by the ACC.
I can assure you, WVU has no intention of joining the ACC. They despise the ACC and have no respect for the league, especially after hammering Clemson in the bowl. They are where they want to be.
I agree Tom L, WVU fans seem to be awfully excited to be part of Texas and the 11 dwarves… I mean Big 12.
WVU would have jumped on the chance to be in the ACC. Just like they reneged on the deal they had with VT and Temple to not join the Big East for all sports unless the invitation was made to all of them.
Their nearest “rival” now is, what, 600 miles away?
Oh no, WVU has no intention of joining the ACC. Unless offered……
ND has never been on a level playing field and it continues. They are not “special” anymore. I hope this benefits the ACC. Only time will tell.
The ACC already has one too many private Catholic schools.
I don’t get this deal at all. Unless we have a lot of the bowl contracts coming up why would the ACC give up a spot to all those non-BCS bowls when the bowls now get a huge draw with Noter Dame? Seems like we should demand more money from those bowls now.
Also, this is really going to hurt each year as true ACC teams will always get passed over for the ACC Gater and Peach bowl bids that they have earned by boys in gold.
Remember that the bowl contracts aren’t permanent. With a more attractive roster to chose from, the ACC might be able to sign some contracts with better bowls in the future. It might (gasp!) have more than one on New Year’s Day sometime.
I have been a staunch ‘all or nothing’ advocate re: Notre Dame joining the ACC, but this arrangement sounds acceptable. They will be the ‘preferred OOC opponent’, if you will, for football.
The ACC adds a lot of potential cable customers, and the ACC has been playing the ‘basketball too’ angle ever since adding Pitt & Syracuse. Think about the value for a cable subscriber – 12 weeks of football in the fall, followed by little else? Or football & basketball for 9 months of the year, as well as the non-revenue sports? We know which is the easier sell. The ACC has the east coast pretty well wrapped up, and Notre Dame is much more of an east coast team than even a Midwest team, excluding Chicago.
Five football games a year means one neutral, two home & two away games for Notre Dame. They can still alternate their west coast opponents – Stanford & USC, and their east coast games – Army/Navy. That leaves them three games a season to play and promote their brand. I can see Notre Dame playing neutral games at the Meadowlands, FedEx, Charlotte, and Orlando when they play their ACC opposition.
Hokie fans can count on playing ND twice every six years, once home & once away. That means one visit by the Irish to Lane every six years or so. If that happens, it won’t be so bad…
If they are not part of the conference in football they shouldn’t be able to share in the non BCS bowls period, end of story.
Tom L, WVU has no interest in joining the ACC like I have no interest in dating Erin Andrews. Certainly, the other party’s unwillingness plays no role whatsoever. NONE!