Scheduling 12 games a year was becoming problematic for ND with many conferences going 9 or 10 in house.
I doubt we'd get "better" opponents for those 5 games but a 10 games/year diet in the ACC is downright nauseating.
As a side note: I understand the history but the ship has sailed on playing Navy every year.. We dumped the MSU/Purdue every year. Time to do it with Navy. I 'd rather play 6 in the ACC if that is the trade off.