The ND’s scheduling dilemma, as I see it, is that they cannot find many strong opponents late in the season. ND used to have a very strong SOS, one of the nation’s toughest schedules. Some ND exceptionalists probably still believe that ND can schedule any team any time. That’s not entirely true anymore. Sure, many blue chip teams would schedule ND in the early season, but the conferences do not usually like their schools scheduling a power level OOC game toward the end of the season (except for four SEC/ACC matchups in rivalry week). One reason why the USC/ND series is at peril is because the B1G didn’t like USC playing ND in the last week of the season. That messes up the conference schedule. (Just heard 2026 game is being cancelled and ND is going to play BYU instead.) As a result, ND tends to play the ACC games in the late season, and ND fans blame the ACC for their weakened SOS. Well, I don’t think it’ll be easy for ND to schedule blue blood schools in the late season anyway. Obviously, ND’s SOS would be stronger if ND can play more ACC football brands and fewer ACC non football brands, and there were reports around the time the ESPN contract got renewed that ND may get to play more Clemson/FSU/Miami. Well, I doubt that non football brand ACC schools would love that idea, and there was no follow-up on the scheduling tweak as far as I know. Instead, ND entered into a separate deal with Clemson (ND wanted all Clemson games counted toward the five-game arrangement, but Phillips said no). From this angle, it’s no surprise ND’s AD approached Sankey. Pete B. called Sankey right after the snub (mainly for playoff format). The SEC has many football brands, and playing more SEC schools would definitely strengthen ND’s SOS. But that would also boost TV ratings and increase ad revenue and enrich ESPN, the entity which played the ND-Miami game more than a dozen times on ACCN right before the selection. That’s the irony.