ND has been getting paid less as an independent

And would be looking at a smaller payout going forward as an independent. The most recently negotiated Big Ten deal has been estimated at about $80 million per year per member. The number I'm hearing for ND as an independent (and I could be wrong about this) is about $65 million per year. Personally, I think it's worth it to leave $15 million per year on the table under those circumstances to remain independent, but there's no doubt that we'll get less. Moreover, ND is one of the only, if not the only, non-Big Ten members who can drive the share of each conference member up by joining the conference. So clearly the networks are willing to pay more for us as part of the Big Ten than NBC is willing to pay for us as an independent.

I have heard that ND receives about $11 million per year from the ACC. That's obviously not a full share, but I'm not exactly sure how it's broken down. It could include some amount for ACC road football games.