They've said from the beginning they wanted to be a football independent forever. Would have loved them to join the ACC, and my only disappointment is they will eventually join the B1X for all sports (including football). Would the ACC have better media contracts with ND? Absolutely. Would it be enough to pull even with the B1X and SEC? Highly doubtful. The ACC's main problem is their primary "football" powers all (except CU) decided to tank at the same time. Miami, F$U and VT just haven't been pulling their weight in the conference for at least a half decade. Add in all of the dead weight the ACC is carrying, and you have the real reasons it won't compete with the P2. But the dead weight is why ND wanted to park their non-revenue sports in the ACC, right? We hope all three will finally rejoin CU to challenge the SEC for football supremacy, but with the big bucks flooding into the mega-2 conferences, the odds of that happening are slim. I think all three will be better, but will they be "playoff caliber" at the same time? Probably not.