basketball game. If Notre Dame wasn't in the ACC, then it unlikely the ACC would prevent schools from play them in October and November. However, ask yourself this question; how likely would Notre Dame be interested in playing majority of the ACC schools (aka any school not named Clemson, FSU, Miami, Stanford, maybe Pitt, maybe Syracuse, and maybe GT) if they were not required to do so? Also, it is unlikely the ACC would bump a conference game so a team could play Notre Dame. Particularly if that is the only weekend the conference game could be played. The reason I bring it up is because the schedule generator the ACC uses likely factors in the required games against Notre Dame when generating the conference schedule.