They wanted Stanford, Cal and SMU, because of recruiting and their academic chops. This bias is a major reason that FSU and Clemson sued the conference. Now to be fair, Notre Dame is running circles around the SEC and the B1G commissioners too. Notre Dame will receive ~$20 million if they win the National Championship and Ohio State will receive around ~1 million if they win Monday night. I will say it again, Negotiation Dame is running circles around the ACC with Jim Dame Phillips leading the way for them and they are running circles around the SEC and B1G too. They get ~20 times the money for a National Championship, play an easier schedule playing 2-11 postseason ACC for 5 games, don't have to play in a Conference Championship Game and will almost always if not always play at home for the first round of the playoffs. *Jim Phillips worked at ND, and his kids went there. PS I would have taken SMU over UCF on your list. To be fair, I think most if not all think that was a good move, but ND will probably benefit the most with many alums, fans, and they like to recruit in Dallas/Fort Worth. ** Edited by Stech at 1/15/2025, 11:59:12 AM