Syracuse, Pittsburgh to ACC: Should Notre Dame Join and Save the Big East?

It has been reported by ESPN.com and New York Times.com, among others, that Pitt and Syracuse are among the 10 college football programs that have applied for membership to the ACC conference. This move might pose some difficulty for the Big East and might eventually kill the conference.

Syracuse was a founding member, and Pitt joined 20 years ago.

While the challenges this poses for the conference are significant, the situation is not completely beyond hope. In the same article by ESPN's Heather Dinich, it's reported that Baylor and Iowa State have reached out to the Big East as backup in the wake of a Big 12 implosion, and TCU is scheduled to join next season.

The conference would wind up at about the same level of respectability as it is now if all those changes occur—that is to say, the bottom of the BCS totem poll.

However, there is one more move the conference could make that would give them a boost: Convince Notre Dame to go all-in with football. The Irish are already part of the conference in basketball, as well as other Olympic sports, and have a huge fan base that would draw a massive television audience for the conference.

Now, it would likely take serious convincing.

Notre Dame has a contract with NBC for viewing rights to their games that would probably have to be modified or ended, and the university seems to enjoy their independence. However, in the fast-changing universe of college football, how long can the Irish remain that way?

While independence is obviously the university's first choice, soon they will have to consider joining somewhere, and it will likely come down to the Big Ten and the Big East if the conference is still around.