Good discussion. I disagree with the undervaluing of the ND men and women's basketball programs.
I think that the men's basketball and baseball programs will struggle at first a bit in the ACC, but that the recruiting bonus of ACC affiliation will help improve those programs. We shall see about ND men's basketball in the ACC starting next year.
Nobody in America really cares about women's basketball, but as a UConn fan I would hope that you would acknowledge that ND's women's program is a bit more than "marginal" (which is how some poster in this thread characterized it.).
ND academics are pretty good. People disagree over the metrics used, but U.S. News has ND around #18 in the country. Its Mendoza School of Business is rated #1 in the country.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-20/notre-dames-mendoza-takes-no-dot-1-ranking-again
But, to your main point (football).
ND football was clearly down/mediocre from 1996-2010 when it hired two guys without previous college coaching experience (Davie, Weis) and a guy who didn't really coach or recruit and who nearly destroyed ND's and Washington's football programs (Willingham).
Brian Kelly had ND football go 12-1 last year. They have gone 24-6 in their last 30 games against pretty good competition (no FCS schools and games against teams like USC, Michigan, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Stanford, etc..).
I think that Kelly has ND heading back to where ND was under Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine and Lou Holtz.
If Kelly leaves, ND has learned finally that its next hire has to have extensive previous college head coaching experience. I don't think you will find guys like Gerry Faust or Charlie Weis roaming the ND sideline in the future.
Looking at ND's record under Davie, Willingham and Weis is simply not relevant towards predicting future ND results any more than looking at Alabama under Mike Shula, LSU under Gerry Dinardo or Oklahoma under John Blake.
That 24-6 record catches my eye. It is not a small sample size. Brian Kelly has taken two different schools (Cincy, ND) to 12-0 regular season records the past four years. He was 34-6 with the Bearcats. He is 28-11 (after a 4-5 start) at ND.
He took two schools (Grand Valley State, ND) to their national championship games. He has won big everywhere he has coached.
My point? ND has decided to be ND again. It has decided to swing the pendulum back. It happens regularly with ND, they de-emphasize and re-emphasize football in cycles. They fear at times that athletics overshadows academics and make "corrections" by forcing guys like Frank Leahy and Lou Holtz out.
Old timers will recall the "ND is dead" talk from 1954-64 until Ara was hired.
Bottom line: ND is entering another good/great era and will remain relevant in the playoff races despite what blowhards like Steve Spurrier think or like.
NBC just re-signed ND until 2025. ND's status will remain the same (football independent, NBC contracts for football and hockey, ACC member in 24 sports, hockey in the Hockey East, ACC scheduling/bowl alliance) for the foreseeable future.
I know that few, if any, agree with me here. That is ok.