But the answer to your question is, no, your scenario won't make one iota of a difference - at least anytime soon.

These decisions are made by the folks with money and power. As long as the people with money and power are people who grew up and bought into idolizing the Notre Dame myth sometime in or before the 1980s, Notre Dame's approach is not going to change. As long as the people who televise games and pay for advertising are of the same generation, nothing is going to change. Only until the generation that fell in love with football in, say, the mid 2000s or later, come to power is there a chance that Notre Dame will change its approach.

No one is firing Brian Kelly because his team got humiliated by Alabama in a championship game or by Clemson in a playoff game. No one is firing Brian Kelly because Notre Dame has not won a major bowl game since the Cotton Bowl in 1994. Brian Kelly has been the head coach at Notre Dame for about 11 years now and though he's done better than all of the guys who held the job after Lou Holtz, he would have been fired by at least half of the schools in the SEC. Notre Dame is satisfied with what it is, and what it is not.

There are a hundred reasons why ordinary fans like us could say Notre Dame would be better off in a conference, whether it be the ACC, Big Ten or otherwise. But the old men with money and power at Notre Dame don't see things the way we do, and nothing will change until they are gone - or until ALL of the P-5 conferences grow the stones to freeze them out (which will not happen).