Wednesday’s announcement of Notre Dame joining the ACC in all things sports except for football honestly stunned me on several fronts when I heard the news, but in retrospect it probably shouldn’t have. First, Notre Dame is getting out of the imploding Big East (think WAC East, but that’s the subject of another column) for its other sports, and the ACC is not only a willing partner but a fairly good fit for those Irish sports.

Second, though, look at the football package both sides got. Notre Dame technically remains an independent, yet gets the ties to the ACC. The school has almost half of its annual scheduling concerns taken care of immediately by agreeing to play five games a year against ACC schools. It also gets immediate ties to the non-BCS bowls by agreeing to become a part of the ACC’s bowl lineup, which may not be what it wants, but may be what the Irish are relegated to short-term until the program starts resembling the glory days again.

The ACC gets Notre Dame football, if — for now — on a part-time basis.

Notre Dame gets a conference bent on increasing its TV markets, thus more ad revenue, thus more money to its member schools. The ACC gets the history of Notre Dame, its rabid following and a program on the rise under Brian Kelly.

The football independence matter has been a discussion point for, oh, I don’t know — at least since I was watching the Notre Dame highlight show at 6 a.m. Sunday mornings when I was a kid in Omaha….or, in other words, a loooong time ago. I have always thought Notre Dame would go to the Big 10, but I think that was simple geography. I still think the B1G would be a good fit, but the ACC deal definitely helps Notre Dame football just about all the way around.

My guess is ACC Commissioner John Swofford asks Notre Dame leadership very soon if the university would be interested in shedding its independent status, if he hasn’t already. Kelly may say otherwise — actually, he already has by saying the move strengthened Notre Dame’s status as an independent — but Wednesday’s announcement may well be a step towards the Irish finally joining a conference. Traditions are dropping all over the place and have been for years. This would be obviously one of the biggest in college football, but like rules, traditions are made to be broken.

And if you haven’t been paying attention to the conference realignment, Swofford is among the elite in conference commissioners along with the Big 10’s Jim Delany, SEC’s Mike Slive and Pac-12’s Larry Scott. What Swofford wants, Swofford gets, and you may not know it until the announcement. Just ask the WAC East.

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