Okay but I have to think part of the ESPN/ACC network deal had more to do with Notre Dame than is being made public. John Swofford had ND sign a contract that states if they join a conference it must be the ACC. Read what Tim Brando said about why he thinks Notre Dame will become a full ACC member in three years. I believe he said it before the ACC contract was done. Nothing is for sure but to me as I have said the ACC, Network and Notre Dame becoming a full member can only be good for UCONN. If the B12 comes a calling beforehand it's a moot point. If the ACC wants UCONN bad enough, then perhaps the B12 expansion news will help to facilitate matters in some way.
On
The Audible with Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel, FS1's Tim Brando explained why he thinks Notre Dame will eventually end up joining the ACC:
"I believe it will happen when Notre Dame understands it's in their financial best interests to be in a conference, because they cannot command the same dollar from NBC or any other network by simply having seven home games televised. If you look at the revenues generated by both the Big Ten and the SEC and the ACC without a network, as a conference member full-time [Notre Dame] would do much better than they are doing with their current arrangement ... In three years, I believe you'll be looking right down the pike at an ACC Network, and I think the reason will be Notre Dame elected to become a full-time member.
"Talk to the coaches about preparing for a schedule that is off-the-charts as theirs is year in and year out. I don't think there's any doubt [head coach Brian Kelly] would prefer being in a conference. Both publicly and privately I've spoken to him about it, and that's his true belief. But the major reason why you do it, fellas, is not because the coach wants it. It's because it makes economic sense. It will make even more sense as these [TV] rights fees continue to move upward. A lot of things about the television business are being compressed, but rights fees are not.
"Notre Dame as an individual institution, maybe a few years ago a deal like the one they have with NBC was a seminal moment in broadcasting and sports for a school to have its own network television deal. That's not true anymore. That was before the SEC was raking in all of this cash, and before [Big Ten commissioner] Jim Delaney was able to put a deal together like the one he did with FOX and still has a looming second tier to negotiate. As a conference, you are stronger than any one institution, and yes that does include the great Notre Dame."
Lastly, Kelly wants to be in a conference and all of the other ACC coaches want Notre Dame to become a full member as well:
Coaches: Notre Dame should be in a conference
Read Jack Swarbrick's quotes a week or so ago that his mandate is to preserve independence and that is still ND's goal:
Post: #1
Jack Swarbrick: Football independence and no playoff expansion are ND's goals
But the question remains: Had the Irish hung on to win but Oklahoma still made the Playoff instead on style points, would that have prompted a serious evaluation on Swarbrick’s part about whether full conference affiliation is needed?
“No, not at all,” he replied. “It’s not any 11-1 finish. Had we played differently against Wake Forest and Boston College and finished 11-1, it might raise a different question. But we had lost the edge we carried into those games relative to the Selection Committee’s view of us. In some ways that hurt us more than the Stanford outcome.”
Because the Irish finished No. 8 in the Selection Committee's poll at the end of the regular season, they could have gotten in with the eight-team Playoff in 2015. However, Swarbrick sees no groundswell of support in the collegiate ranks to expand to eight teams — and he would oppose it even if there was.
“There is zero momentum in that regard, and I am not in favor of it,” Swarbrick replied about an eight-team format. “I think the four works, and in many ways it has exceeded our expectations. I think it has preserved interest in the other bowls, which we were worried about. It’s made for a compelling, compact playoff.
“And when you talk about this, as we do, the Committee talks to the schools that have been through the process. The prospect of playing a third game in the playoff window — we’ve yet to find a coach who thought that was a good idea after they played two. It’s just tough.”
The four-team Playoff is ideal to Swarbrick for two other main reasons.
One, it doesn’t dilute the importance and every-week-is-a-playoff excitement of the regular season. No sport, college or pro, has a more gripping regular season than FBS football, and the leaders want to keep it that way.
Second, the bowl tradition is maintained and remains significant to many teams throughout college football.
What if Notre Dame is blessed to have a few 11-1 regular seasons now through 2025, and still gets left out of the four-team Playoff?
Swarbrick is not swayed by this hypothetical. One of the foremost mandates through his first eight years on the job has been to preserve Notre Dame’s football independence however possible and as long as possible.
“We have accepted from day one that there will be years where our independence will work against us in getting into the College Football Playoff,” he said. “I don’t know what year that will occur, but we’re very comfortable with that trade-off, that the benefits of independence are worth the inevitability that there will be a year where our independence hurts us. We’re fine with that trade-off.”
Here’s the deal: Notre Dame has lost a minimum of three games in 21 of its last 22 football seasons (2012 the exception). Thus, it would be nice to first become a good enough program to where 11-1 becomes a potential “problem.”
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notr...n-as-goals
There are no "secret" deals to bring ND football into the ACC.
