It was right there for the taking: longtime football independent Notre Dame, looking for a conference to join for every other sport since the Big East was becoming something different, was coming to the ACC looking to play with the likes of Florida State, Miami, Clemson and familiar faces like Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Boston College.
The ACC had the Fighting Irish just where they wanted them. The conference could have played along for a while with the whole ‘be in for everything but football’ for a while, but surely there was going to come a time where Notre Dame was going to have to go all in.