There is a lot that happened, but in 2012 conference re-alignment was THE issue in college sports. In November of that year, Maryland did the unthinkable and left the ACC for the Big Ten. The ACC was in an extremely vulnerable position, with UNC, UVA, and Duke considering following Maryland, and FSU and Clemson considering a move to the SEC. If those moves had happened, I don't think there was any doubt that Wake would be in major trouble. At about the same time, Hatch and Wellman (as the senior ACC AD and soon-to-be chair of the NCAA basketball committee) directly led the fight to get Notre Dame to join the ACC, as they knew it would stabilize the conference. They were successful, the ACC signed a grant of rights TV deal (with Wellman again highly involved), and here we are in 2018 in a extremely stable and profitable ACC.
There were many articles that quoted Wellman and Hatch, but here is statement directly from the President of Notre Dame which erases any ambiguity regarding Wake's involvement (not that there was any at the time), "I also want to publicly acknowledge the pivotal role played in our discussions by Nathan Hatch, the current President of Wake Forest, the former Provost at Notre Dame, and a friend of mine and of many here."