Notre Dame has immense pull and power in the college football world. In the event that the NCAA decides to pay players, the Fighting Irish would disavow the policy and start their own league with other teams who don't want to transform student-athletes into semiprofessionals.
University president Rev. John I. Jenkins spoke at length about the potential drastic shift in the NCAA football landscape and how Notre Dame would react to such a situation, per the New York Times' Dan Barry:
Our relationship to these young people is to educate them, to help them grow.