ND's schedule has four SEC/B1G teams in both 2025 and 2026 — and that's not counting us, FSU, UNC and UVA — and perhaps others — who are likely more likely than not to end up in a 20- or 24-team SEC and B1G if/when the ACC collapses.
All those schools are likely play to nine straight conference games once late September arrives. Why would teams besides USC break up their conference schedules for a home-and-home deal with ND?
Maybe the Big 12 or ACC leftovers make an arrangement to keep ND's independent status afloat and the Irish rejoin the Big East for basketball and non-revenue sports? But that would mean a mostly second-tier schedule in their by far most important sport.
Here a quote from soon to be retired ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick from back in 2022:
"We're getting to a two solar system model here," Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said on Thursday, according to ESPN's David Hale. "You have two suns with all the gravitational pull -- the Big Ten and the SEC. People are going to have to figure out how to align with one or the other.”