Notre Dame to the ACC....except for football

[Dan E. Dangerously]

Although since ND isn’t in the ACC for football, if they decided to join another conference for football only, they wouldn’t be exiting the ACC and so there wouldn't be an exit fee.

The big questions to me are (a) how long is this 5-game-a-year contract and (b) what’s the penalty if ND breaks it?

As much as I hate them, every conference would still gladly take ND as a football-only member.

The answer to (a) : Till the end of time.
Even if they tried to join a conference for football only, like you brought up earlier, they are still locked in to playing 5 acc schools a year in football. Not feasable to place their football team in a seperate conference from the rest of their sports.

The answer to (b) : $50 million, just like every other school.
If Notre Dame ever puts their football team in a conference, it will first be in the ACC, or they pay us $50 million.