A lot of marquee teams insist on playing 7 of their 12 games at home. With 9 conference games, in years that there is a 4-5 home-away split, such teams must have ALL 3 of their OOC games at home. That means basically, only one OOC team can be a quality opponent, while the other two will have to be FCS or bottom-of-the-barrell FBS. I'm convinced this is why the SEC is staying at 8 for the time being. And this is one of the hang-ups with ND joining the ACC. ND won't play 9 conference games, which is all but a necessity in a 16-team conference. In fact, I'm thinking that what piqued ND's interest in our conference was the rumor of FSU and Clemson, and maybe others leaving. ND thought they might be able to work something out within a 12 or 14-team ACC, but not within a 16-team one.