Announced today by the Atlantic Coast Conference and will be made official at press conferences both at the league offices and at South Bend, Notre Dame will join the ACC in all sports except for football (naturally) and hockey (again, naturally).
ACC Accepts Notre Dame @fightingirish as New Member. Irish to become 15th member of the league. #NDACC bit.ly/ACC-ND-091212
— The ACC (@theACC) September 12, 2012
In exchange for joining the ACC, Notre Dame has agreed to play five conference teams a year in football. So ND will leave the Big East just as the conference is negotiating with ESPN for a new TV rights deal. And the ACC has once again poached the Big East as it already will get Syracuse and Pittsburgh in addition to earlier lures, Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech. So in basketball, baseball and in Olympic sports, the ACC will increase to 15 member schools.
And a big factor in Notre Dame’s decision to remain independent in football is its contract with NBC which lasts until 2015. NBC has rights to 7-8 Notre Dame home games a year. ESPN also benefits as it will be guaranteed at one to two Notre Dame games at ACC sites.
Here’s the press release from the ACC.
ACC Accepts Notre Dame as New Member
Irish to become 15th member of the league.
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents has unanimously voted to accept the University of Notre Dame as a new member. The Irish will compete as full members in all conference sponsored sports with the exception of football which will play five games annually against league programs.
“We are committed to keeping the Atlantic Coast Conference a vibrant and competitive league dedicated to ensuring the appropriate balance of academics, athletics and integrity,” said the ACC Council of Presidents in a joint statement. “The addition of Notre Dame further strengthens the rich tradition and culture of the ACC as well as allowing for future academic collaboration and we enthusiastically welcome them into the league.”
“The ACC was founded on the cornerstones of balancing academics, athletics and integrity,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford. “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. The collective alumni and fan bases cover the entire country with exceptionally strong roots up and down the Atlantic Coast. This is a terrific milestone in the evolution of the ACC and showcases tremendous solidarity and vision by our Council of Presidents.”
“The ACC is composed of some of the most highly respected universities in the country, and we at Notre Dame look forward to joining them,” said Notre Dame President, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. “With a mix of institutions – many of which are also private, similar to Notre Dame in size, and committed to excellence in research and undergraduate education – the ACC is an exceptionally good fit for us academically, as well as athletically.”
“We have monitored the changing conference landscape for many months and have concluded that moving to the ACC is the best course of action for us,” said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame Vice President and Director of Athletics. “We are able to maintain our historic independence in football, join in the ACC’s non-BCS bowl package, and provide a new and extremely competitive home for our other sports.”
With the addition of Notre Dame, the ACC’s future membership includes 11 institutions ranked among the top 58 in the 2013 U.S. News & World Report survey of “America’s Best Colleges”, more than any other conference also competing at the highest level athletically.
In addition to extending an invitation to Notre Dame, the Council of Presidents voted to increase the conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. Currently this would equate to an exit fee of over $50 million.
Did you read that last sentence? An exit fee of $50 million? No one’s getting poached from the ACC now.
Notre Dame will stay on course joining Hockey East.
