ND full time is fool's gold. And this is from someone who held onto this notion it would happen for a very long, long, time as TerryD can attest. I think there are only two ways they will even consider joining a conference in full. One is something that Swarbrick has already stated; if they were somehow shut out of the CFP which they aren't now. If the CFP expands beyond 4 teams in the next round to 6 or 8 as most think will actually happen this favors ND remaining indy.
The other would be if somehow conference's scheduling agreements made it impossible for the Irish to keep a good schedule. Remember back when the PAC and B1G were talking about a scheduling agreement between the two? At that time the PAC had a 9 game conference schedule but the potential deal with the B1G was nixed by the PAC due to certain commitments already in place by some PAC teams. Now I don't think it was specifically mentioned, but that had to be USC and Stanford playing ND. My guess is that neither of them wanted to exchange their Irish games for a rotating B1G game, as their 10th game. Perhaps the rumored combo of the BTN and PTN might force the issue now, but with the B1G now at 9 conference games as well, I doubt the likes of Ohio State will want to give up that big OOC marquee game for an alternating PAC game either. Perhaps a fixed PAC-B1G rivalry game might work? I doubt it, but I think that is the only way to force ND's hands now.
For any that still think $$$ will drive the issue, the Irish could have sold out to that factor long ago and be in the B1G right now if that was a prime motivator for ND. And should that ever become a deciding factor in the future, how likely would it be that the ACC would be their choice under that scenario?
So, five years before the GORs start to expire and ND is still not in full, the ACC should consider expanding beyond 14 then it should not take ND into the picture, imho. But if they can't give up that hope then somehow revisiting the championship game rule that would allow for more than two divisions, require at least 8 conference games to participate in the championship game, and pick the two best teams from the divisions to participate in said game might be the way to go. This would allow the ACC to expand to 15, have three divisions of 5 teams, and the two most highly ranked teams from the three divisions make the championship game.
In this regard, I think WVU would make a better addition than either UConn or Cincy.
Northeast
BC
SU
Pitt
WVU
L'Ville
Mid-Atlantic
VT
UVa
UNC
Duke
NC State
South
FSU
Miami
Clemson
GT
Wake
As for the claim about how WVU has no markets, under the new old paradigm (cord cutting), content value is more important than markets. Psst...it always has been. Markets only truly ever came into discussion when expansion candidates were close in terms of content value which allowed for other factors such as markets and academics to enter the picture.
Cheers,
Neil