My son’s school lost $650k when March Madness was canceled.
@Publisher : I will admit I overestimated the intelligence of certain elements of our society and that my faith in our national leadership was misplaced.
@Muad_dib: Your response is a bit above my pay grade, so I’ll take it as a “yes”.
Breaking news:
Full steam ahead, maybe.
If Notre Dame football joins the ACC as a full member, then the ACC should realize a substantial boost in revenue.
On the other hand, this could harm Notre Dame football as several classic rivalries (such as USC & Michigan) will be lost if Notre Dame has to play a full ACC schedule each season.
@Publisher - the ND relationship with the ACC is for this year only. Other ND sports are part of the ACC, football has remained independent for a couple of reasons. This move makes sense because ND already had 6 ACC games on the schedule.
@usma87: While I do understand the arrangement, it is also being viewed as somewhat of a trial run.
Under the current agreement between Notre Dame athletics & the ACC Conference, if Notre Dame joins a football conference at any time up to the 2035-2036 football season it must be the ACC.
(I do not know whether or not there is a buy-out clause in the agreement. Notre Dame would fit better with the Big 10 Conference–especially as the Big 10’s newest members–Maryland & Rutgers–would satisfy the desired increased East Coast exposure for Notre Dame.)
In my opinion, the Big 10 misplayed the negotiations with Notre Dame several years ago by demanding an all in if Notre Dame wanted to become a Big 10 Conference member. The ACC took advantage of the opportunity in a creative fashion.
The attraction to the ACC was based primarily on the ACC’s outstanding basketball dominance and on Notre Dame’s desire for enhanced exposure to the East Coast where most Notre Dame supporters live.
@Publisher - I wasn’t aware of the long term implications. I get the trial run part. I think they will want to stay independent for the West Coast draw ( another large group of ND supporters) and annual game against Navy. If the ACC would allow those games to continue, it might happen.
I feel like independence gives them more leverage for TV deals. If they join the ACC, they will probably not get as much TV $$ from the pooled ACC contracts.
Texas has a larger piece of the pie in the Big 12 contract, so ND could negotiate the same type of deal.
Now, for this one year only, ND has the opportunity to play Clemson for the ACC Championship and, if they get that far and lose, then they have an opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl as the possible loser in the ACC Championship.
There’s a lot of money to be made playing in an ACC Championship game, losing and playing in an Orange Bowl. I’m an ND fan and I hope they join the ACC for football, since they should have a relatively easy ride to the ACC Championship each year.
Lastly, ND should be thankful that the ACC bailed them out this year, if this year happens.
Texas was a savior at the time for the Big 12 (with several moves that were calling into question whether certain conferences would survive). So Texas had more leverage. Not clear that Notre Dame would have that leverage if it was looking to join the ACC for football. Not sure Clemson would allow that and if you gave Notre Dame a bigger share, Clemson likely wants one as well which could create big problems for the conference.
Notre Dame should have joined the ACC for football before Clemson built a powerhouse. But now Clemson has a pipeline of talent with a young and very popular and good coach. Outside Clemson the conference is pretty weak for football.
Big Ten should have told Notre Dame 10 years ago or so that if they didn’t become a full member of the conference, Big Ten schools would no longer play Notre Dame in football. May not have worked but would have put pressure on them to join.
At this point, absent a supr conference re-alignment (going to large 16+ team super conferences – which was discussed a few years ago but didn’t happen) I don’t see Notre Dame joining a conference for football.
Which football teams remain independent besides Notre Dame ?
Per this link its Army, BYU, Liberty, New Mexico State, UConn and UMass.
These teams may suffer substantial financial setbacks this season if all conferences go to conference only play.
I wonder whether or not these football teams can survive beyond this season.
They could play each other. And the ACC is allowing each team to play one non-conference game so there could be options there.
I am a huge college football fan. I don’t expect there to be a season this year. For any team conference or independent. At least not a complete one. I think the writing is on the wall but because of the money involved, they need to at least make a run at it (and because of the money involved, it makes sense to make a run at it). Hope I am wrong and they manage to find a way to play this season and do so safely. We shall see.
BYU wouldn’t allow football to cease. Army, I doubt it. The other indie’s may go down the tubes.
In this pandemic-shortened baseball season, the National League is playing with a DH. Many “experts” think the NL will never go back to pitchers hitting. If a college football season gets played and this one year ACC-ND experiment works great for ND, then you just never know. Clemson and ND can negotiate an ACC “duopoly.” It’s just about the money. 
Also, with LSU, Alabama, Georgia, OSU, Clemson, Oklahoma, etc. taking CFP spots every year, ND may get shut out from the 4-team CFP in the future, since committee will often take the 2nd best team from a P5 League. If ND gets “locked out” of the 4-team CFP, they may change their mind about football independence.
Now an 8-team CFP playoff will change the entire dynamic.
In my opinion, the Big 10 misplayed the negotiations with Notre Dame several years ago by demanding an all in if Notre Dame wanted to become a Big 10 Conference member.
The big-10 does not need ND like the ACC does, they’d be happy if they joined, but when the negotiations were happening, both UM and OSU said that their athletic depts made more money than ND’s athletic dept.
“Big Ten should have told Notre Dame 10 years ago or so that if they didn’t become a full member of the conference, Big Ten schools would no longer play Notre Dame in football”
The problem with that is ND still bring ratings, fans and money to their games, so the big-10 teams are not going to give that up. I believe the big ten was looking for a 12th team to even things out and when ND said no, they went to Nebraska.
It’s funny, in Chicago Norte Dame has a huge market. I never quite understood it but it’s huge.
So with the Big Ten now having 14 teams (Big Fourteen?), someone has to go. So I vote to kick out Rutgers. Never really understood that anyway.
They wanted the NY area TV market.
Totally get the reason. Still don’t like it.
Its not clear they would have to give that up. The statement itself about not allowing Big 10 teams to schedule ND may have been enough to get ND to join the Big 10 for football. All speculation so we never will know. But even without playing ND, there are plenty of other matchups for the Big 10 that would bring ratings, fans and money to games.
In addition to access to NY TV market, they wanted to expand recruiting. And that has happened.
If someone has to go because the name is Big 10 but there are 14 teams, how does kicking one school out help? Having 4 extra teams is problematic but 3 extra teams is fine? LOL
ND/ACC article:
Big 10 reportedly may not plan football this fall. Not sure this goes beyond anything of reality: there may not be college football this fall. For any schools/conferences.