Welcome ACC addition: Notre Dame joining the ACC is good for them — and us.

This week, UNC and Duke athletics finally managed to agree on something — along with the rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC voted unanimously to add Notre Dame to its prestigious conference in all sports except football and hockey.

Though Notre Dame will not participate in football — a point which has elicited criticism from fans and media outlets — the addition of Notre Dame’s strong athletic and academic program will serve as a win-win for South Bend, Ind., and the ACC as a whole, including UNC.

Even though Notre Dame will not be a full football member, it has agreed to schedule five ACC football games per season. This means a few things for the ACC including an increase in revenue.

The addition of Notre Dame will serve as a great bargaining chip for the ACC when it seeks to restructure its current TV contracts with ESPN — which could bring in an additional $1 million for each conference school.

Additionally, ACC schools that will be adding Notre Dame to their home schedules will have the advantage of adding one more big-ticket football game. Notre Dame fans are known for travelling well, which means higher ticket sales when the Fighting Irish come to town. This will be especially true for teams like Miami, who have historic bad blood on the gridiron against the Irish.

The addition of Notre Dame also improves competition for Olympic sports across the board.

Notre Dame is well-known for having top-tier athletics, particularly in women’s soccer, men’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s basketball. The Fighting Irish will only increase the high level of competition in these sports, as the ACC is one of — if not the best — conference for these sports in the country.

Notre Dame is a force in Olympic sports, competing against the likes of Duke, Florida State and UNC deep into post-season tournaments.

With the elevated level of competition, recruitment will become easier for ACC schools. Recruits look for conferences that have powerhouse programs in their particular sport because they want to compete against the best in the country.

There are exceptions to this rule, but one only needs to look south to our SEC neighbors, who dominate the football recruiting landscape.

Although the ACC still has some ground to gain in the football domain, every school — and every sport — will benefit in overall recruiting with the addition of Notre Dame.

In the past few years, the landscape of college athletics has changed due to conference realignment. The addition of Notre Dame gives the ACC a huge advantage in terms of the national picture. It can now be considered the most stable of the BCS automatic qualifying conferences, the top six conferences, after adding the Irish, Orange and Panthers.

While sports fans were calling for the conference to add another team to make 16, ACC Commissioner John Swofford said at the press conference announcing Notre Dame’s addition to the ACC: “There is no need to add a 16th team to the league.”

At this stage, adding an additional team would be illogical because it would make the conference’s two football divisions uneven. But if Notre Dame gave up its football independence, which is unlikely, there would be a possibility to add another school.

Last summer there was some speculation about the potential departures of Clemson and FSU from the ACC to the Big 12. Some ACC watchers think these moves might still happen, but the ACC subtly addressed these concerns by implementing a new exit fee­ of more than $50 million dollars per school. In comparison, the Big East exit fee is a mere $5 million — pocket change for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame and the ACC made a very smart move by adding the Irish to the conference. Even though Notre Dame does not necessarily fit in the ACC with respect to its geographic position, its academics and competitive athletic programs correspond perfectly with the rest of the conference.

Other conferences’ future plans aside, the ACC has closed its door — for now.