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After being the lone remaining stalwart in the collegiate conference shuffle, the ACC joined the fray on Wednesday morning and added Notre Dame to its fold.

Yes, that means you can officially add the ACC to your list of geographically-challenged conference names. Because obviously when one thinks of Atlantic and Coast, one immediately thinks of South Bend, Indiana.

The logistics of the move are still being ironed out.

Notre Dame will move all of its sports, with the exception of football and hockey, to the conference as soon as it can negotiate its exit with the Big East, according to the New York Times.

Currently, the Big East requires 27 months notice for departing the conference. This was a stipulation obviously overcome by both Pittsburgh and Syracuse, which negotiated an early exit for more money and will join the ACC in 2013. It’s likely Notre Dame will try to do the same.

Football will play five conference games, but still wants to protect its rivalries with Navy, USC and Stanford, according to Brian Hamilton of the Chicago Tribune.

So, that’s all well and good. But … why the ACC? Why not the Big Ten?

A school official, speaking on condition of anonymity prior to the official announcement, explained the move to SI.com.

“In any short-term way there’s no financial benefit,” the official told Pete Thamel. “If we wanted to do something for money we would have joined the Big Ten. What it’s really about is postseason play.”

Burn.

But the official didn’t stop there.

“It’s a really good fit academically,” the official continued. “There are sports that we’re going to play, the non-football sports are very good and they’re going to test us.”

Double burn.

And it obviously left a very bad taste in the mouths of the Big Ten, which was the conference most assumed Notre Dame would associate with if it ever decided to leave the Big East.

With already established rivalry games against Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue, and its location in the heart of Big Ten country, it would have made the most sense, right?

Paul Pabst, producer of the Dan Patrick Show, tweeted that the show efforted to have Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany on the show Wednesday morning shortly after the ACC announcement.

“We called for Big Ten Commish Jim Delany on the ND story,” he tweeted. “He’s ‘unavailable and there will not be a statement.’”

Add to that the tweeted response of Big Ten Network senior writer Tom Dienhart.

“Could you imagine the #B1G or #SEC allowing a new member to dictate terms like #NotreDame did with the ACC? #laughable,” he tweeted.

He followed that with: “How did that FB scheduling agreement Big East had with #NotreDame help Big East? League now is in tatters. ND is worried about ND. Period.”

Yep. Safe to say there won’t be any hugging it out anytime soon.

So, how long is it before the Big Ten pulls the plug on any of its teams scheduling Notre Dame? Is the Michigan – Notre Dame rivalry nearing its end? How bitter will this all become?

And in an “oh, by the way” moment, the ACC also announced today that the new exit fee for teams wishing to leave the conference will be a whopping $50 million. Those rumors of Florida State to either the SEC or Big 12? Yeah, that’s not happening now.

Which … if you’re following the collegiate conference dominoes game … means a Louisville move to the Big 12 is very likely in the Cards (um, cards) in the not-so-distant future.

The ACC added the team it wanted and now is taking its ball and going home.

Your move, Big 12?

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