According to Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, Notre Dame was as close as ever to joining the Big Ten 5 years ago. In fact, his AD told him the school would be joining.

From Times-West Virginian:

Mike Brey, whose Notre Dame basketball team plays West Virginia on Saturday in South Bend, was asked if he ever thought about what it would be like if Notre Dame had jumped to the Big Ten. Yawn! Like what was he going to say? “Oh, yeah, all the time. The Big Ten’s always on my mind.” No, you figure here comes the old brush off and let’s move on to a question about Luke Harangody. But Brey had a shocker up his sleeve. “Four or five years ago my athletic director called me in for a meeting and told me to be prepared. We’re going to the Big Ten,” Brey said, so matter-of-factly that you figured everyone knew about it. But that really wasn’t the case. No one knew that Notre Dame stood on the doorstep of jumping to the Big Ten a few years back.