It seems that the primary argument for ND to join the ACC in football is for access to the national championship. The primary argument against is that ND wants to keep its national schedule. The idea is that if ND plays a tough schedule, it will be picked by the playoff committee if it has clearly earned it.

There is another scenario here that I would like the board to discuss. If all of the remaining power conferences go to 16 teams, for a variety of reasons, it would seem to me that all of those teams would be locked into a 9 game conference schedule. In this scenario, the option for ND to play a national schedule could be significantly curtailed. With only 3 OOC games it would become very difficult for ND's desired opponents to maintain ND on their schedule.

So, my proposal is this: ND will eventually join the ACC because its national schedule will no longer be feasible. Without a national schedule, the only chance ND would have to compete at the highest levels would be as part of a conference.

Is this a feasible, even likely, scenario?