This is all ND spin trying to flesh out if there is any hope of partial membership in the ACC. They are playing chicken. The last time around, they got in the way of BC being added to the ACC right away to see if there was any way to get the deal they wanted. This time there is no other school they can get in front of/obstruct, and the BE option is evaporating in front of them, so they are playing the game of which conference is wiling to give use the best deal when they probably will not get a deal from any of them. Sure, there are 3 ACC schools with strong ND ties and TX may want this for going independent in the future, but ND lacks any real leverage right now. They fall back to their considered opinion that they are "special" despite the NBC TV ratings being average. So they play it out through rumors and blogs and see if they can get 6 more schools in either the ACC or Big 12 to play along. But I am sure they are trying to figure out what Plan B works best for their alumni and donors because I find it hard to believe that Plan A will work in any other conference than the BE.
I'd add one more piece to this. Remember the comment on the ACC's media day from one of the coaches (might have been K) to the extent that all members in the ACC have always shared revenue equally? You could easily interpret that comment as the ACC and Notre Dame are having conversations about ND playing football in the ACC but are negotiating terms (which will not be fully equal economically).
This would be consistent with Wojo's piece linked elsewhere earlier. It would also be consistent with Herbst's reaction the first weekend (the theory would be that she was told by a representative of an ACC school that ND would be joining and UConn would be offered with it, but she did not understand the timing of it and that she wasn't helping the ACC's cause by not keeping her mouth shut).
My guess is that Notre Dame is shopping itself to the ACC, Big Ten and Big XII to see what the best terms it can get, both as a non-football and as an all sports, are. Remember, that the Notre Dame administration already decided they needed to be in a conference, but in separate times have let the alumni talk them out of it). They are making less money than tons of schools at the moment, and their ratings are continuing to slip. The growth of conferences will make it harder and harder to schedule well, and thus to stop the slippage in their market share.
I am manic, and am going through periods of depression and optimism over this, but I still hold to the position that before Syracuse and Pitt actually leave we will be committed to a conference with an AQ future.
But if you think for a moment that one of Notre Dame's terms to the ACC (or either of the Bigs for that matter if we're being discussed) does not include that to take us instead of Rutgers the Irish will want our home games against them to be in the Meadowlands or Yankee Stadium, you're nuts. We already know that is how the Irish want to play us, and we have far less leverage today than we did when we didn't jump at the offer a few years ago.
