Notre Dame to bolt from the Big East in favor of the ACC

Notre Dame will be leaving the Big East Conference and will join the ACC for the 2014 season. The move will be for all sports with the exception of football, where the Fighting Irish will remain independent.

“I don’t think there’s out there a better situation than the situation we have,” Notre Dame President, Rev. John I. Jenkins said. “The ACC has allowed us to retain a tradition (of football independence) that’s so central to our identity in football while we’re joining a conference that athletically as well as academically fits Notre Dame perfectly.”

ACC is making an exception to their all-or-nothing rule to accept Notre Dame, which had much to do with the school making the move. A compromise was reached which has them playing five games annually against ACC schools, while they still remain independent.

The school will be required to pay the Big East a $5 million exit fee, which is significantly lower than the $7.5 million that Syracuse and Pittsburgh paid to leave the conference.

Notre Dame will most likely enter the ACC during the 2014 season, due to the 27-month notification requirement put on Big East schools.

Schools in the ACC will see an increase in revenues from broadcast rights due to a new agreement signed with ESPN. Each school will receive up to $18 million, which is comparable to the $20 million the Big 12 schools are going to receive from the deal recently inked. It’s thought that the deal that Notre Dame has with NBC is worth $15 million per year.

The move to the ACC gives the Fighting Irish basketball squad the opportunity to match up with ACC powers Duke and North Carolina.

“I think it’s great and it comes as a great shot in the arm, I think, for me and our program,” said Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey said, who spent eight years as an assistant coach at Duke.