By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Kyle Young said it felt like Christmas Morning when he learned Notre Dame was joining the Atlantic Coast Conference Wednesday. Now, one day later, it’s like having a new toy that looks cool and all, but you can’t figure out how it works.

“There is so much more that goes with it, all the details,” said Clemson’s Associate Athletic Director Thursday. “And with that is the unknown. It’s like that old saying, ‘The Devil is in the details.’”

And those details are laid within the football scheduling, which is one of Young’s primary roles in the athletic department.

“You love to play Notre Dame,” he said. “I would love to have them in our division and I would love to be playing them every year. It would be a slam dunk. I would not bat an eye at it. But, I don’t want to give up a home game. You can’t do that.

“I think when you look at it, and you know what having one less home game does to the bottom line in our department, you don’t want that to happen. What I don’t know, is what does adding Notre Dame (to our conference) add to the bottom line of our department? I have no idea. I have no clue whatsoever. It could be a huge boom for Clemson and for the Atlantic Coast Conference, but I have no idea.”

At this point, the ACC doesn’t either.  Notre Dame joined the ACC as a full member in every sport with the exception of football on Wednesday.  ACC Commissioner John Swofford and Notre Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said that this was a “win-win for everyone involved.”

It will be Associate ACC Commissioner Michael Kelly’s job to make sure that is the case, at least when it comes to scheduling. His job is to work with each of the ACC’s current football members and Notre Dame to formulate a plan that will work in the best interest of everyone.

Keep in mind, Kelly must also do this within the confines of the new nine-game conference schedule that is set to begin next fall.

“The only detail that has been absolutely determined so far is that there will be at least five games that Notre Dame will play against ACC teams every year,” he said. “We anticipate that beginning in 2014 and we anticipate Notre Dame will have three home games that year and come to two ACC stadiums that year as well. Then we would alternate that the following year. There would be three ACC teams hosting Notre Dame and keep rotating that through.

“That’s really all we know at this point in time. There are some games Notre Dame has contracts with ACC teams in the 2013 and ’14 years so it is logical, and I would say likely, those are the first ones up in terms of filling in if there are not multiple things being switched around.”

Kelly says in the upcoming meetings they will start looking at the rotation and see what might be best for the ACC and Notre Dame as far as having a home or road game.

“We will try to work through any opportunity or challenges that each school might have,” he said.

That challenge for Clemson is keeping a seventh home game on its schedule, while also honoring the league’s new nine-game schedule and any future matchups with Notre Dame. In 2014, Clemson will know exactly what that challenge might be like.

Clemson has agreed with Georgia to keep the 2013 and 2014 home-and-home series alive after the ACC announced its nine-game schedule earlier this year. In 2014 the Tigers will play Georgia in Athens, Ga., meaning the Tigers will have just six home games because they will play five ACC road games as well.

The athletic department is expected to lose almost $2 million net because of that.

“Then you have to take in the consideration what kind of jobs a game day creates for people in our athletic department and people in our university,” Young said. “There are people that sometimes get overtime. They count on those games to be able to work sometimes to get some overtime pay.

“Then you move into the community, and I’m talking about just Clemson. Then you spread that out into Anderson and Greenville, and you can see the impact.”

According to a recent economic impact study by researchers at the Strom Thurmond Institute, they shed some light on the topic. In the latest issue of Clemson World Magazine, the study shows that each home game results in an average of $733,000 of state government net revenue. But it also affects employment, output and local revenue.

Because of Clemson’s seven home football games, there were 198 jobs created in Anderson, Oconee, Pickens and Greenville Counties. The total money spent by fans on game days in these counties was $10,273,000, and the net local government revenue was $542,000.

“All these articles you read about buying home games is negative. They all have this negative spin to them,” Young said. “We are not into buying games to win them. Yeah, we want to win games. That’s what we want to do, but look, when we have had the opportunity to buy a really good game, we have bought a really good game…

“But if we don’t buy a game, then we don’t get that kind of stuff we mentioned in this area. You have to have that kind of stuff and we have to have that in this department. First, and foremost, we have to have seven home games in order for us to do the jobs we are supposed to do in terms of making sure all of our programs have the resources to be successful.

“That’s just the starting point. Now, think about all the other activities that go on at any home game.”

Kelly says the ACC definitely understands the economic impact a seventh home game has on a small community like Clemson, or any community for that matter. They will work with their member institutions to make sure each school is given the best opportunity to set a schedule that works for them.

“We will work with them the best we can, but in this circumstance, Kyle and I have not sat down and looked at all of this,” Kelly said. “I know it creates some challenges, but obviously when they look at whom else they have scheduled, we can certainly find the right years that make sense for Clemson when it comes to playing Notre Dame.”