In fact, I am almost 100% certain that had it had been clear at the time what was going to happen with the Catholic 7 splitting from the schools that would become the American, with the Catholic 7 keeping the Big East name, branding, record books, etc., Notre Dame would never have made the deal it made with the ACC to park its non-football sports there. Notre Dame would MUCH rather be sending its basketball and non-rev sports into major metro population areas to play other similar sized Catholic institutions right now, while retaining its full football scheduling autonomy. At the time, however, circa-2011, the Big East was clearly going to bifurcate, the Catholic schools were the ones threatening to "leave," and the latter day USF-type additions to the Big East looked to be driving the bus. Notre Dame wasn't going to caught dead having their non-football sports play "Big East" conference games against ECU and UAB. So, the ACC deal was cut instead.