Notre Dame to the ACC: A Perfect Marriage for Irish and New League

Big East commissioner Mike Aresco knew he was taking over a league in transition when he signed on last month to lead the eviscerated conference. But even he had to have envisioned a better start to his tenure than this.

The Big East lost a fourth member—third to the ACC—in one year on Wednesday when Notre Dame announcedits intentions to follow Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notre Dame will pay a $5 million exit fee to its soon-to-be former conference, which requires 27 months’ notice before a school is permitted to leave.

Notre Dame will join the ACC in all sports except football and hockey (which the ACC doesn’t offer). Big East and Notre Dame officials have yet to hammer out an exact timetable for when the school will make the conference jump. Judging by recent precedent, the Fighting Irish will likely be granted an early exit if they chip in more money to the $5 million departure bill.

The Big East: An ACC Farm System

After spending several decades as the bell cow in major college basketball, the makeshift Big East is now beginning to resemble a developmental league for the ACC instead. The new-look conference has now forked over three schools in 12 months to the ACC, which is fattening up on a conference whose depth it couldn’t match as previously constructed.

Jan 16, 2012; Piscataway, NJ, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Mike Brey talks to forward Jack Cooley (45) during the first half against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the Louis Brown Athletic Center on the campus of Rutgers University. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

If you can’t beat them, join them. Or even better, as is the case with the ACC raid of the Big East, have them join you.

The ACC needed padding in the middle of its conference to offset the imbalanced, top-heavy structure. Sorely lacking stability in the middle, the Big East did that and more by adding a program that has been a staple of consistency under head coach Mike Brey. The Irish have never won an NCAA title. The last time they even came close was 1978. But Notre Dame has won at least 20 games in each of the last six seasons and a minimum of 10 conference games in five of those six. That’s the kind of consistency the ACC covets in the middle, where programs like Maryland, NC State and Virginia Tech have faltered in holding down the form.

The ACC was always fine at the top, boasting a one-two punch that no other league can rival. And it’s sufficient at the bottom. Wake Forest and Georgia Tech have been bad of late, but not at the level of ineptitude as Big East bottom-dweller DePaul, which totes a record of 5-67 in the conference over the last four seasons. The Demon Deacons and Yellow Jackets have programs capable of competing in the ACC. Keep in mind Wake Forest isn’t long removed from Chris Paul’s days in Winston-Salem. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, advanced to the NCAA championship game within the last 10 seasons, not to mention Tech is the home of Miami Heat star Chris Bosh.

The ACC is only pushing five or six teams into the NCAA tournament these days, a figure decidedly too low for a league that fancies itself as the premiere talent factory in college hoops. With Notre Dame now on board, flanked by stabilizers Syracse and Pitt, the ACC should soon become what the Big East has dabbled with over the last several years: a double-digit bid league.

ACC eyes more, Super-conference inevitable?

The addition of Notre Dame now puts the ACC at 15 teams, one shy of forming a super-conference similar to—perhaps even stronger than—the one the Big East wielded over the last several years. Don’t expect it to stop there.

Fifteen is a crooked figure, an odd number that wouldn’t make sense as an end game. Barring an ACC team (or several) like Florida State leaving the conference to pursue bigger football opportunity, the ACC will likely court one more to complete a 16-team super-conference covering the entire eastern seaboard.

The ACC has emerged as a behemoth on the national scene, a magnet to rival league members uncertain about the future of their current environments. Sensing the end of the Big East, Connecticut could be the next to jump, or at least want to jump. The snag? The ACC may be reluctant to welcome the Huskies aboard.