This guy gets it. ND does not want full membership in a conference because it has more than a regional appeal and fanbase. Money isn't the issue. ND fans love to see games in California, Texas, Florida, the northeast, Chicago, etc. That's also good for national recruiting.
One might say that other teams can recruit nationally, but the teams that do so tend to be in more desirable places than South Bend, IN and have more local talent than Indiana/Chicago (e.g., USC, Bama, FSU, etc.). Perhaps the one exception is OSU these days.
Perhaps some day ND will have to fully join a conference for football. If that happens, I personally hope it's the Big Ten for regional rivalry reasons. I'm an old-school traditionalist, though I know tradition and rivalries don't drive college football decisions any more. ND could maintain its rivalries with at least USC and Navy, though it would likely have to drop Stanford. But, as an ND fan, I like rotating new teams into the schedule every few years: Texas, Oklahoma, ASU, etc. That couldn't happen with a full conference schedule plus traditional rivals USC and Navy.
ND got a good deal with the ACC. The ACC has excellent presence in basketball, baseball, and other non-revenue sports. The conference is on the East Coast, where there are a lot of ND alum and fans. Fans would rather see games in Charlottesville, Chapel Hill, Tallahassee, etc. than Minneapolis, West Lafayette and Columbus. The football played in the ACC is solid, though not spectacular (no worse top to bottom than the Big Ten).
I'm not convinced that the football deal with the ACC is a permanent solution, but it's the best one ND could get for the time being.
