Look For ND To Join The Big 10 …

I stand corrected on that. I was wrong; you're right. They have a garbage TV deal now with NBC. Seems to me they should have been able to get a lot more. Especially with NBC moving games behind their Peacock Network paywall. I gotta imagine that will get fixed when they renegotiate in a couple of years.

I still say NO WAY they are joining the Big 14 anytime soon.

I believe the issue is, unintuitively, that ND is only selling big matchups on a major network and the real money is in more mediocre games which go to conference-owned channels. From a money standpoint, the conference channels are the real game changers.

With the conference channel, you have maybe 10% of the people who actually want to watch the games, but then all 100% of the people who get the "sports package" or whatever have to pay for it even though they don't want it. That money goes directly to the conference. And the conference is likely getting to keep a big share, if not all, of the advertising revenue the channel generates.

With NBC neither of those is really true. NBC is free over-the-air and everyone gets it, so ND isn't extracting carriage fees from a ton of people who don't even care about their games. Additionally, NBC is keeping the advertising revenues and just paying ND a flat fee (which is presumably less than the advertising revenue.)
 
I believe the issue is, unintuitively, that ND is only selling big matchups on a major network and the real money is in more mediocre games which go to conference-owned channels. From a money standpoint, the conference channels are the real game changers.

With the conference channel, you have maybe 10% of the people who actually want to watch the games, but then all 100% of the people who get the "sports package" or whatever have to pay for it even though they don't want it. That money goes directly to the conference. And the conference is likely getting to keep a big share, if not all, of the advertising revenue the channel generates.

With NBC neither of those is really true. NBC is free over-the-air and everyone gets it, so ND isn't extracting carriage fees from a ton of people who don't even care about their games. Additionally, NBC is keeping the advertising revenues and just paying ND a flat fee (which is presumably less than the advertising revenue.)
Last I remember hearing, ND was only getting around $15 million from NBC plus whatever their ACC share of non-football revenue is. It would not be hard to get more than that by going all in with a major conference.
 
It really has zero to do with $. As long as ND remains a Catholic School, they are NEVER going to the B10. Unless the AAU disbands, the B10 drops membership in that organization as a requirement for inclusion, or the Catholic Church's official stance on abortion changes, there's no path for them to join.
 
It really has zero to do with $. As long as ND remains a Catholic School, they are NEVER going to the B10. Unless the AAU disbands, the B10 drops membership in that organization as a requirement for inclusion, or the Catholic Church's official stance on abortion changes, there's no path for them to join.
Wut?
 
It really has zero to do with $. As long as ND remains a Catholic School, they are NEVER going to the B10. Unless the AAU disbands, the B10 drops membership in that organization as a requirement for inclusion, or the Catholic Church's official stance on abortion changes, there's no path for them to join.
This is absolutely true. The BIG will never ask them to join because they know ND will give them the middle finger. You don’t know the history between these two if you think they’ll ever come together.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, the only conference that Notre Dame is contractually allowed to join is the ACC. If Notre Dame joins a conference between now and 2036, it has to be the ACC. That's the length of the grant of rights deal signed in 2016.

It all goes back to the ACC deal that Notre Dame has. The deal states that Notre Dame competes in the ACC for most of their sports, like basketball and baseball, while football gets to remain independent. The caveat is that they have to play five ACC teams annually in football. This deal goes through 2036, and during that time period, the only conference Notre Dame can join is the ACC.
 
If I was ND, I would join the ACC today. They would instantly be in the top 2 of the conference, if not number 1.
 
If I was ND, I would join the ACC today. They would instantly be in the top 2 of the conference, if not number 1.
It is a lot more complicated than that. Their alumni and fanbase take a lot of pride in ND football being unique - one of a kind - and independent. They really, really, really, REALLY do not want to be just another team in the ACC.
 
They will continually get left out unless the playoffs are expanded to 8 or even 12. I don’t think the ACC can financially match the Big 10 … ask Maryland.
Are you suggesting Brian Kelly has been the reason they have not joined the ACC?
 
It is a lot more complicated than that. Their alumni and fanbase take a lot of pride in ND football being unique - one of a kind - and independent. They really, really, really, REALLY do not want to be just another team in the ACC.
I remember when we used take pride in being UNIQUE. But, then again, I'm pretty old.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, the only conference that Notre Dame is contractually allowed to join is the ACC. If Notre Dame joins a conference between now and 2036, it has to be the ACC. That's the length of the grant of rights deal signed in 2016.

It all goes back to the ACC deal that Notre Dame has. The deal states that Notre Dame competes in the ACC for most of their sports, like basketball and baseball, while football gets to remain independent. The caveat is that they have to play five ACC teams annually in football. This deal goes through 2036, and during that time period, the only conference Notre Dame can join is the ACC.

There is an exit clause for full conference members who want to depart:

It's first important that we clarify that the $50 million number being thrown around isn't entirely accurate. The ACC's exit fee is actually calculated as three years' worth of per-school conference distributions, which currently stands at a little more than $50 million and will increase as the conference's distributions rise in the coming years. That's a hefty fine, but the payout also comes with a relatively speedy exit. An exiting school must notify the conference and its members of its plans by August 15 in order to leave by the end of the following June, a roughly ten-month wait.

I would assume the same buyout applies to ND, although you know what they say about assumptions.
 
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