If I were the commissioner of the ACC, I would call Penn State and see if they wanted to join ND in the ACC. The SEC invites OSU and the Big 12 adds Huskers again. Let Northwestern the Michigan schools and The I State schools play minor league football full time.
I'm not criticizing your position, I'm just asking why people think that Ped State would suddenly make the ACC more desirable for Notre Dame than it already is. ND really doesn't have a history with Ped State that automatically makes the ACC more compelling.
Ped State has played ND 19 times in nearly 110 years and has no future games scheduled. So this is approximately one game every 6 years.
Miami has played ND 27 times in 65 years, and we have a game scheduled for 2024. So this is one game every 2.4 years. Miami is the TWELFTH most common game for ND.
Of the 11 teams who have played ND more frequently than UM (and the 16 total which have played ND 20 times or more):
Service academies:
1. Navy - 93 games
6. Army - 49 games
11. Air Force - 30 games (no future games currently scheduled)
Big 10:
3. Purdue - 83 games
5. Michigan State - 65 games
7. Michigan - 38 games
8. Northwestern - 37 games
13. Indiana - 25 games
15. Iowa - 24 games
Pac 12:
2. USC - 91 games
10. Stanford - 34 games
ACC:
4. Pitt - 68 games
9. GaTech - 35 games
13. BC - 25 games
16. UNC - 20 games
So what are the ACC's options that would make the ACC more palatable to ND?
A. Take Navy (fills in a "Maryland school" slot vacated by Maryland)
B. Take a Big 10 school - highly unlikely to get Michigan/MSU/Iowa. Indiana/Purdue/Northwestern would be appealing for local rivalry, but are probably net "takers" from Big 10. Long shot crazy idea could involve going after Maryland/Rutgers, though neither school has played ND more than 5 times, but would make some geographic/market size sense.
C. Wild *** hail mary - approach USC, given that the Pac 12 is unlikely to play.
D. Incredibly unlikely - Ped State/WVU