Notre Dame Joins ACC As Full Member Except For Football, Hockey

Notre Dame University will be joining the ACC. The Fighting Irish will become full members of the conference for every sport except football and hockey, and the Irish football team will play five football games against ACC opponents annually as well.

The ACC has issued a press release with the details, and they also tweeted the following from the official conference twitter feed:

Notre Dame to the ACC. News Release at 10 AM. Stay Tuned. #NDACC

— The ACC (@theACC) September 12, 2012

Notre Dame is currently a Big East member for all sports except football and hockey. The conference requires 27 months notice before the Irish can officially leave. Several universities, including Syracuse, West Virginia and Pittsburgh, have negotiated earlier exits in the past for a larger exit fee, and there is speculation that Notre Dame will look to do the same.

The Big East has not yet made any sort of official comment about the exit of Notre Dame, and no timetable has been announced as of yet.

Notre Dame's hockey team is a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Last October, it announced it would be joining Hockey East beginning with the 2013-14 season.

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