ND, Texas, Florida, aTm, USC, and Alabama (a few others)could all go independent and survive. The problem is the conferences could push back and prevent long term deals where they would shut out those teams like they do ND now. It’s a big reason ND has these random rivalries with teams like Navy and USC.Notre Dame does it so they do not have to share revenue.
The basketball rule was adapted because we had a lot of lower division schools trying to move up. The NCAA put in the rule so that these small schools need to be invited to join a conference before moving up. Football does not have this rule because of Notre Dame. I think this should be a rule across the board with sports. Now in football we have 6 independents. Mighty powerhouses like UMass (got kicked out of the MAC), Liberty (just moved up this year), and New Mexico State (who got kicked out of the Sun Belt). I want the rule to avoid these tiny schools moving up when they do not deserve it. The rule will never happen in football because of Notre Dame.
Personally I wish we would do away with the group of 5.