ACC Blogger Heather Dinich On Notre Dame And ACC Football

With this move, the ACC hit two home runs: It solidified its current membership for the future and cornered Notre Dame into a commitment. The biggest downside to this for ACC fans is the bowl arrangement. Under the new agreement, Notre Dame could step over an ACC team and take its place in one of the non-BCS bowls if its record is better than, equal to or within one win of the ACC team or ranked higher in the BCS standings. ACC fans are likely to get a taste of what has angered Big East fans for years. In the big picture, though, it's worth the trade-off.

While five football games might seem like a tease to many ACC fans, it’s important to remember that that’s almost half of Notre Dame’s schedule. Eventually, under this new agreement, every ACC team will face Notre Dame at least once in a three-year period. That’s an especially intriguing scenario, considering the ACC is moving to a nine-game conference schedule next year when Pittsburgh and Syracuse join the league.

Adding Notre Dame to the lineup for Clemson, Florida State and Georgia Tech, which already have built-in SEC rivals, will make a national championship run even more difficult, but it also will make for a more entertaining nonconference schedule (see you later, Savannah State and Murray State).

It also will boost the ACC’s strength of schedule in time for the new playoff system, as Swarbrick said Notre Dame would like to begin the five-game arrangement as early as 2014.

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