Quote Originally Posted by Vippie1 View Post
I think where this is headed and many arent going to like this but:

ND joins the ACC for all sports except football. However, the ACC will negotiate a much better deal in return than the BE was able. ND locked in as opponent in OB, ND schedules "x" number of ACC games annually, maybe even some minor amount of revenue sharing from ND's TV contract. Some MAJOR penalty if ND joined any other conference for football, etc.
Taking ND as a partial isn't ideal but it's the lesser of two evils. ND probably has a B12 partial offer in its back pocket but the ACC has some leverage in that it knows ND prefers to place its Olympic sports here.

The ACC can use that leverage to craft a workable deal for both sides. For example, requiring ND to play a home-and-home vs every ACC opponent over a five-year period (28 games total, so 5-6 per year would accomplish this). This leaves plenty of room for ND to still schedule Navy, Stanford, Purdue, USC, Michigan, Michigan State, and others. They wouldn't be able to play all six of those rivals every year AND schedule teams like Washington State, Arizona State, etc, but they weren't planning to play all the rivals annually anyway.

The question I have though is how much extra money would three ND vs ACC games really enhance the ACC's TV contract? As a result of its deals with other leagues, wouldn't ESPN/ABC already own the Tier One rights to every ND away game unless they're play Navy or an SEC team (in which case CBS owns the rights)?