That was a potential drawback from the move to the ACC and we were all waiting to see how it would shake out. The 2018 class hit a lot of the same places ND goes after. Our signees since then largely were also except for Tony Sanders from Miami. However, the last three classes have been poor. I do wonder long term how that will shake out.
But of course the rationale was always what could provide a good fit for basketball without putting football at a disadvantage. That isn't a consideration for the current Big East schools. Except of course that UConn has the reverse issue and decided to value basketball over the football step-child.
He really is Midwest, Northeast and then Mid Atlantic but just down to No Va (really more DC and MD focus is most south he gets), and then very occasionally he's done a CA or MO. MD is now Big 10. G'town is Big East. I guess Northeast makes sense given history and BC, Syracuse. But I can't see any VA players south of DC metro, NC, SC, GA and for FL I saw two.
Meanwhile Michigan and Big 10 seems to have benefited from MD joining them. Michigan has taken some kids we might have gotten or had a good chance for in the past. So maybe the ACC-less MD was actually worse for us than a Big East when it comes to MBB.
Linked is an article from 2017 on where basketball talent is geographically.
The used to be an old adage within the admissions office that 80% of ND attendees came with x miles (forgot what the # of miles were) of the ND "hockey stick."
Chicago to New York City, flip up to Boston, flip down to DC.
I don't know if that holds anymore.
ACC quasi membership I think has been good for FB. I wonder how successful we'd be in NC, SC and GA without the ACC relationship. I haven't seen it help as much in MBB or WBB. Certainly I would think it has helped in MLax. Maybe BB too.
I don't sense we have gained BBall recruits from those ACC states (beyond a few from FL). They seem to still come mostly from the Midwest and Northeast and no further south than DC and No VA. But maybe that is just Brey's recruiting comfort zone.
P.S. Marquette had a recent top 100 decommit from NC. Maybe he'd be someone we are interested in (6'9" or 6'10" kid).
would likely improve recruiting and attendance, then I'd be open to the idea, assuming it wouldn't negatively impact football. Recruiting and attendance are the primary reasons UConn made the move from the AAC to the Big East, but it's very unclear to me if ND would similarly benefit. For UConn, it was a no brainer.
Finally, if I were AD, I would speak to coaches of non-revenue sports and ask them how significant the ACC Network is. ND recruits nationally for pretty much every sport, and I have to think that the ACC Network has become an important part of the recruiting pitch. ND can recruit athletes out of pretty much every sate in the country and, at least for baseball, soccer, and several other sports, tell parents they'll be able to frequently watch their kids via the ACC Network Extra. I don't think the Big East has anything comparable.
I was at a Creighton event in KC where a guy told the President during a q&a session, "the Missouri Valley is going to be reaching out and making Creighton an offer they can't refuse"
The President respectfully said, "they're invited to Omaha anytime, but we are in a league with Villanova, Georgetown, Xavier, Marquette...et al...and we like being "friends" with these schools with excellent academic reputations"
I can't imagine what the Presidents of the schools would do if they could get ND into the league. Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova...three excellent schools with a number of other schools with very good (albeit not elite like ND) academic credentials. Would ND rather "hang" with Duke, UNC, Clemson, Virginia (okay, they're top notch) or with the Big East schools...I can imagine the President and the AD having differences of opinion.
We all know that ND is staying in the ACC, but they'd be a neat fit in the Big East. They'd matter more, for sure.
At least the Notre Dame that operates thinking championships are the goal would not be.
The non-match non-basketball sports are absolutely horrific compared to the ACC.
would not have any challenging competition if ND returned to the Big East.
ND requires a conference affiliation with universities that have competitive programs in the non-revenue sports. This is the problem ND solved by affiliating with the ACC. (Of course, UCONN was an exception while ND was in the Big East -- but other sports suffered from lack of competition in the Big East.)
I know ND is excellent at lacrosse. Not sure about baseball.
As I understand it, Creighton's women's sports are pretty good, but don't know how they'd stack up against a school like ND. (basketball, volleyball, and soccer) (I only know about Creighton as I just had a daughter graduate from there last year and have another daughter who will be a frosh there next year)