Andy Staples weighs in:

In his 1-20-22 mailbag column in The Athletic, Andy Staples was asked if the recent no vote on college football playoff expansion by the ACC was an attempt to force ND football into the ACC. His response was in part as follows:

To keep the ACC... from being raided by the Big Ten — and then, inevitably, by the SEC — and ripped apart, Swofford made a deal with Notre Dame for its sports besides football and five football games a year between the Fighting Irish and ACC teams. This allowed for a more lucrative TV deal that ultimately allowed for the creation of the ACC Network. It also allowed for the signing of a grant of rights that eliminated the possibility of the Big Ten going after North Carolina or Georgia Tech or Duke or Virginia. But the price of that security gets steeper with each passing year. To make the deal, the ACC had to agree to a longer term.

The deal runs through June 2036 and since it already places the ACC fourth in media rights revenue, the gap between the ACC and the Big Ten/SEC will only grow wider as the years pass....This is a bad deal for Phillips and the ACC school administrators stuck dealing with it. So why not rip Swofford for it? Because the ACC as we know it probably wouldn’t exist without that deal. This was the bargain: You’ll survive, but it’s going to hurt.

Its vote for CFP expansion — in a system requiring unanimous decisions for change — is the last shred of leverage the ACC has when it comes to the possibility of Notre Dame joining as a football member. The second a 12-team CFP with six at-large spots passes, Notre Dame never needs to consider joining a league in football ever again. Phillips said last week that trying to rope in Notre Dame isn’t a concern. Such statements insult everyone’s intelligence. For the ACC, getting Notre Dame to join in football — which might allow for an adjustment of the never-ending media rights deal — is the only concern.