Quote Originally Posted by MeMyself&Me View Post
I get that it's a conference vote. But no conference is made up of a majority of schools that play ND. From a championship side, and a monetary side for that matter, affording ND an exemption that allows them to take a conference champs spot is adverse to the interest of all those schools that don't get to play them now. I would think from Oregon's perspective, for instance, having ND in the ACC or the Big 12 or the Big 10 is better than them being on their own as an independent.

As to the payout on by appearance, that also favors ND being in a conference from a majority point of view. If there are no independents then it's the conferences that always gets the money. Only way they might see it as OK in this regard is if the exemption is so hard to meet that it's likely to rarely get invoked. But then why would ND want it.
If the exemption was "be higher ranked in a bcs-like formula then then the 4th ranked conference champion" then that's a pretty high level to hit. Given what ND has achieved in the last 30 years....I don't see them crashing the party much.

Another argument why the conferences wouldn't push ND into a conference corner would be that which ever conference ND does join will get a monetary boost. As all the conferences are trying to keep up with one another, I'm not sure conferences will want to give one conference that bonus.