Notre Dame will shift all of its non-football sports from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, while remaining independent with the pigskin. However, the Fighting Irish will play five football games a year against ACC schools.
Geography would have suggested Notre Dame join the Big Ten. Plus, the Irish has long played several football games a year against Big Ten schools, such as Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Northwestern. In this new era of conference realignment, however, geographic compactness has gone out the window.
