Mike Coffey: Two things will always be attractive to Notre Dame when it comes to athletic affiliation: Mission and academics. The plethora of land-grant institutions in the Big 10 makes it a poor fit for the Fighting Irish — chances are they’d end up on the wrong end of a lot of everyone-to-two votes, since Northwestern is the only school in the group even close to resembling what ND is. This is why the ACC has long been viewed as a possible landing spot for ND, because schools like North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech, BC, and Virginia have a lot in common with ND off the playing field.
This may be one of the things working against the Big XII when it comes to ND’s involvement. They’re looking for high-profile academic schools, and other conferences like the ACC and Pac10 can bring more of that to the table. If ND gets involved with the Big XII and has any say in the expansion talks, look for them to push for schools with a high academic profile and decent athletic programs like GaTech.