Assuming you're making a comparison to VT, UNC is not "the larger public school." VT has an enrollment of well over 1000 more students. Both schools are dwarfed by 15-20k+ in enrollment by the large Big 10 publics. You're way out in left field with your ND take. ND is very much in the game, even if not to become an official full member of a conference. ND will very soon easily be able to leave its ACC commitments, just as Clemson and FSU will be. You're delusional if you don't think either or both of the SEC or the Big 10 would chomp at the bit to enter football scheduling agreements similar or even bigger than the one ND currently has with the ACC, both of which would be much more lucrative for ND, and literally any conference would let ND park the rest of their sports. UNC is a "national brand" in basketball. That's the draw with UNC. Asian tourists wear UNC stuff because they know about Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan, and the Duke-UNC basketball games. That's the entire UNC brand, lock, stock, and barrel. If a conference wants UNC, they know that's what they're buying. Literally nobody cares about UNC football, not even the people in the athletic department at UNC. It's like a side project for them. UNC will never "own" the major population centers in Virginia in terms of fan draw. If anything, those major population centers, which outside of the Richmond metro are largely made up of transplants from outside the state working for the fed or the military, skew towards many different out-of-state programs, most prominently Penn State, Michigan, and other Big 10 schools, but in terms of in-state, there's zero doubt whatsoever that VT drives the bus when it comes to college football. NCSU, while it has a larger enrollment than UNC and VT, and a perennial journeyman football program, will never be a threat to UNC or anyone else, because NCSU is also a basketball school with about 5x less pedigree and fans. College sports in the state of North Carolina, like the state of Indiana, is 100% pure basketball. Football is an afterthought for the alumni and fans of the "elite" North Carolina schools.