Notre Dame isn't my team, but if they had to go into a conference, here's what might be their wet dream:

Notre Dame Conference
Rivals Division: Boston College, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Stanford, USC
Friends Division: Air Force, Army, Georgia Tech, Miami-FL, Michigan, Navy, Northwestern

Conference schedule is nine games, and there are two protected crossovers: Michigan/Michigan State and Navy/Notre Dame. ND gets to play each of the other cross-division opponents except Michigan once every three years at least while still having three OOC games to schedule against whomever.

EDIT: Actually, if you swap BC and Michigan, you only need the Navy/ND protected crossover and ND can play Michigan every year. The divisions are less balanced competitively, but meh.