The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are reportedly close to agreeing to a deal with the Orange Bowl that will make the Irish as a tie-in team from 2014 moving forward. The deal will reportedly make it so that the ACC Champion will play either a Big Ten team, an SEC Team or Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. The deal has not yet been made official, but it is considered to be a formality.
The Irish, of course, reached a deal last week with the ACC to become a full member of the conference with the exclusion of football. The Irish will also play five gamers per season against ACC competition in football, so the pairing with the Orange Bowl certainly makes sense.
Both the move to connect with the ACC in football and with the Orange Bowl for the postseason will go a long way toward solidifying Notre Dame's place in the constantly shifting world of college football.
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