The ACC and the Big10 were the most successful conferences in terms of bowl matchups. But that comes and goes. I'm sure a lot of that also had to do with 2 SEC teams being in the BCS. If ND really is interested in maximizing BCS opportunities then they should join a conference. If ND has one loss and a conference team that wins a 13th game has one loss, ND is out.
If a conference team has 2 losses and wins a conference championship and ND has one loss there is a pretty good chance that the conference team gets in if both are competing for the last spot.
Advantage of a conference is someone is going to be good or at least has the appearance of being good. Now if ND gets FSU and Clemson on the schedule every year, that is a moot point. Both of those teams will be very good for quite awhile. FSU just had everything go wrong including not having a viable backup QB. I think they will win 10 games this year.
If ND as an independent plays FSU, Clemson, Stanford, USC, and a couple good Big10 teams and have only one loss, they deserve to be in the BCS.