Notre Dame Joining ACC, Will Play 5 Conference Football Games Per Year

Conferences were thrown into upheaval again this week when Maryland and Rutgers announced plans to join the Big Ten, and the biggest questions arising from the moves appear to be in the ACC, where new member Notre Dame is “concerned.” Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins expressed the sentiment about the constant conference shuffling and speculation to Brad Wolverton of the Chronicle of Higher Education:

The Fighting Irish joined the ACC as partial members in September, will all sports except football and hockey joining the league. But Maryland’s departure to the more lucrative Big Ten has kickstarted another round of rumors and speculation about other ACC members. On Wednesday, the athletics director at Virginia Tech had to deny reports about the Hokies interest in the SEC, while Boston College, Virginia and North Carolina have been thrown out as the next potential targets for Jim Delany and the Big Ten.

Jack Swarbrick held a press conference and answered questions from the media on Wednesday night, just hours after it was announced that Notre Dame would join the ACC in all sports except for football. The Fighting Irish will also play five ACC football games per season while maintaining independence.

Swarbrick stated adamantly that maintaining football independence was critical to Notre Dame. Swarbrick said that the mission is to have Notre Dame playing “everywhere in the country,” and that the school will continue its rivalry games yearly with both Stanford and USC.

The addition of Notre Dame to the ACC, announced Wednesday, won’t mean that the ACC will go to 16 basketball teams. It will stay at 15 when Notre Dame joins in 27 months.

The ACC already sealed deals with Syracuse and Pittsburgh to move from the Big East in September 2011. Notre Dame has long been a pretty solid Big East basketball team, so the top basketball conference in the country will be so much stronger in 2014.

Notre Dame will join the Big East as a full member with the exceptions of football, which will play five games a year against ACC opponents, and hockey, which will remain with the Hockey East conference from 2013 onward.

For more on Notre Dame, check out One Foot Down or SB Nation Chicago. For more news, notes and analysis from around the country, head over to SB Nation’s college football news hub.

News of Notre Dame’s impending partial move to the ACC broke Wednesday morning. And with it, many Irish fans are wondering how it will impact recruiting.

That’s a complicated question.

That poaching of the Big East coincided with talks between the ACC and Notre Dame involving a post-season partnership based around the Orange Bowl. We will likely find out soon enough if the idea of Notre Dame joining the conference grew out of those initial talks.

For more on Notre Dame, check out One Foot Down or SB Nation Chicago. For more news, notes and analysis from around the country, head over to SB Nation’s college football news hub.

After appearing to have weathered the conference realignment storm that once threatened to decimate it, the Big East was dealt a monster blow on Wednesday when the ACC announced that Notre Dame would be joining the league as a member in all sports but football.

Notre Dame’s decision to jump conferences comes almost exactly one year after Syracuse and Pittsburgh - two names that had been as synonymous with the Big East as any others - chose to make the same move. That news sparked a duel between members Louisville and West Virginia over an available spot in the Big 12, one which the Mountaineers ultimately claimed.

Notre Dame will join the ACC as a full-time member of the conference in all sports except football. Notre Dame football will remain independent, but will play five games a year against ACC teams as part of the move, which can occur sometime within a 27 month exit window from the Big East. The conference could negotiate an exit sooner. These are the raw facts as of Wednesday morning.

Now, for speculation:

Notre Dame will join the conference whenever it exits the Big East, and that timeframe is something that may be worked on in the near future. Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated reported that unless there’s a payout to the Big East, the Irish won’t switch conferences until 2015. The ACC also announced that it increased its own exit fee to $50 million, all but assuring that the conference will be intact when the Irish make their move.

Aside from football, Notre Dame’s hockey program will also not be joining the ACC. It has plans to join Hockey East beginning with the 2013-14 season.