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I’ve not seen much about Notre Dame joining a conference. Are they just going to sit silent with their stack of cash from NBC and say “we like being an independent team…”

Until they get an offer they can't refuse... why not?

The only things at this point that would motivate the Irish to join a conference are (1) a clear significant difference in revenue from membership, and (2) the inability to put together an attractive schedule. I think even if the ACC demanded that ND join the conference in football in order to maintain its membership in most other sports, the school would say adios and join the Big East.

This is, of course, driven by football and the money TV is willing to pay conferences for televising football games.

The following may have been discussed in another thread that I overlooked. If so, I apologize.

The realignment/consolidation will have a terrible impact on many college sports other than football, especially with the Big10 expansion to the West Coast. It will result in a scheduling nightmare. For example, basketball teams play something like 26 games per year (I forgot the exact number). UCLA and USC basketball will end up with road games at Penn State and Maryland, among other East Coast schools. Likewise, Penn State and Maryland basketball will travel to LA.

The same problems will occur for other sports which produce less revenue, such as soccer, lacrosse, tennis and so on. As a result, travel expenses will increase dramatically for members of the Big10 and to a lesser extent, other conferences. The schools may find that the increased revenue from football is severely diluted by travel costs in all sports.

Schools may start dropping minor sports. So, schools benefit financially from the consolidation. But athletes may suffer. Any surprise?