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“Does ND come under any Diocese?” you asked.

The university as a whole does not, as I explained in several comments.

The religious services on campus do come under the bishop more directly, but even there, the chain of command begins with the Holy Cross priests who are in charge of campus liturgy. If they are doing things that are wrong sacramentally or liturgically, the bishop can tell them to stop and mean it.

Catechesis and preaching and that sort of religious teaching on campus ultimately does come under the purview of the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend. If in their RCIA program (catechesis for new Catholics) they are teaching falsely, he can directly discipline them. But if the theology department faculty are teaching unCatholicly, he cannot fire them—the university would have to (if it actually such a provision in its due process rules, which it probably does not). Those who have a mandate from him could be called in for a tete-a-tete but jawboning is his major weapon for faculty. If they are teaching theological error, he can point that out, publicly denounce them (as the American bishops did collectively with McBrien a few years back), but he can’t fire the heretic. And even the public pointing out of theological error by the bishop has to take place in a complex due process spelled out in a document the American bishops promulgated decades ago. Firing a professor belongs solely to the university departments, adminstrators, board.

Some Catholic universities are diocesan universities (U. of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., for instance.) Those universities are more directly under a bishop’s control, but even there, due process rules and by-laws apply. Even a diocesan university has its own president, board etc. who are delegated the authority to run the university on a day-to-day basis. But yes, in a diocesan university, the bishop has ultimate authority.

Seminaries come directly under a bishop’s authority (if diocesan) or indirectly (if run by religious orders).

But very few Catholic universities are diocesan and very few, today, are even under the authority of religious orders. (Bishops have indirect control over religious orders in their dioceses.)

So, the short answer is NO, Notre Dame does not come under the authority of a diocese, not even indirectly. The bishop has moral suasion to use on Catholics who run it—he can jawbone them. And his last weapon, his nuclear option, is that he has the direct authority to forbid them to call themselves a Catholic university.

But as I wrote elsewhere, if he did that to Notre Dame, Notre Dame would portray themselves as the Great Defenders of Academic Freedom against the Sadly Misguided but Well-Meaning Old Fuddy Duddy Bishop and go on calling themselves “historically Catholic.”

And there’s the key. For MOST people today, a “historically Catholic” university is just fine and dandy, thank you. To me it says “once was but no longer is” Catholic. But to most people it says, “isn’t that sweet, this is a charming historically Catholic school with lovely neo-Gothic buildings and that’s about as much Catholic crap as I really care to have on my college education sandwich anyway, so, I’ll just cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame, with emphasis on the Old”

and life is just peaches and cream.