Look at the price of ND/BYU tickets on Stubhub.
Saturday morning I was at my gym outside Ann Arbor and my Wolverine buddies were upbraiding me that ND was doomed because we won't join the BIg Ten. A few hours later I wondered to myself what kind of draw U of M might be as a second rate team in a bloated, geographically chaotic conference? USC at Rutgers? Iowa at Washington? The list of uninteresting matchups is limitless. Meanwhile ND sells out for top dollar in Provo. Utah!
ND will never lack for teams actually begging for a game with us. BYU doesn't give sh*t that we're not in their conference and neither does Miami. Teams in the Big 12 are salivating for a home and home. I'm sure that most Big Ten teams would be happy to play us as well.
ESPN is a east coast liberal network that is steadily losing relevance with the proliferation of alternative sources.