Tim Brando of Fox Sports has reported that Notre Dame is having conversations about joining the Atlantic Coast Conference for football. Already a member in all other sports, the Fighting Irish would become the 15th full-time member if this were to happen.
Should the ACC be looking for a 16th, surely the University of Connecticut would be a leading candidate.
The conference has already announced plans to launch a television network in 2019, a move which seems to be a necessity to keep up with the NCAA’s other major conferences. Currently, the Big 10, Pac-12, and SEC have their own networks and are slated to rake in massive revenue gains as a result.
In a world where cable network revenues are declining, live sports has emerged as the some of the most commercially viable programming out there because of its DVR-proof nature. ESPN’s highly-publicized financial woes shouldn’t affect the ACC network’s development.