The ACC issued the latest shakeup to the NCAA landscape on Wednesday, announcing that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have joined the conference as a full member with the exceptions of football and hockey. As it pertains to football, Notre Dame has agreed to play five games annually against ACC opponents, with Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune reporting that each ACC school is guaranteed to play the Irish at least once every three years.
Notre Dame will join the conference whenever it exits the Big East, and that timeframe is something that may be worked on in the near future. Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated reported that unless there's a payout to the Big East, the Irish won't switch conferences until 2015. The ACC also announced that it increased its own exit fee to $50 million, all but assuring that the conference will be intact when the Irish make their move.
Notre Dame already has future football games scheduled with the Miami Hurricanes, Boston College Eagles, Pittsburgh Panthers and Syracuse Orange, the latter two of which will be members of the ACC by the time the Irish join. Thamel also reported that the school prefers to keep a presence on the West Coast, meaning annual rivalries with the USC Trojans and Stanford Cardinal are likely to be privileged over those in the Midwest with teams like the Purdue Boilermakers or Michigan Wolverines.
Aside from football, Notre Dame's hockey program will also not be joining the ACC. It has plans to join Hockey East beginning with the 2013-14 season.
For more on Notre Dame, check out One Foot Down or SB Nation Chicago. For more news, notes and analysis from around the country, head over to SB Nation's college football news hub.
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