Notre Dame Joe

Amen

Yes but they don't get to play for the national championship. I'm not restarting the "do they deserve it?" debate, just pointing out that it is not possible.

People love The Boise's and Butler's of college sports and that's what football is lacking under the current system.

I don't see why Texas would leave the Big12 without getting a special deal, at least for their own tv station. What are they lacking? I'm also quite sure the Big East is not issuing ultimatums [ultimata?] to anyone.

Broadly, the "Tradition" holds that it is in our best interest to be independant

The Notre Dame fan base is ardently opposed to Big# membership regardless of the financial impact. The admins of course are weighing financial impact choices of course, but we suspect their real reason is they want ND to be perceived as a major research institution (like the Big#) and not as a Catholic football school. Maybe Nebraska believes your research profile would be upped. But its the ND fans, not the NBC money that is keeping us out of that conference.

Are you guys fine with losing rivalries with Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado in favor of The Michigans, eastOSU, and Indiana U?

That may be an understatement. I forget what was going on in South Bend at the time, but you guys had less fans clamoring for seats around then than you traditionally do, and we packed your stadium like crazy: I'm glad to hear that you remember our fans fondly, because we take pride in not being those typical asshat visitors (with the inevitable few asshats thrown in here and there). From what I recall in 2001 you guys were wonderful visitors and I daresay Nebraska would be ecstatic to be in the same conference as Notre Dame. I know that's a remote possibility, but one can always dream. Welcome to HuskerBoard, NDJ. Make yourself at home, and any insight you have into the Irish this year - we'd love to hear it. There were a large number of ticket holders whose loyalty stopped at 50$. The student section was mostly green but the senior area had a number of red groups. That being said it actually was quite not as bad as it looked because; that upper decks in that shot are the visiting team section, and it was sunny and hot that day so most of the adult domers were wearing white shirts. Still I doubt any of those issues were a problem in the return game in 2001.

another thing about michigan: they actually think they won a national championship in 1997. weird, huh? Avoiding Nebraska in 97 saved Michigan from 50 years of underachieving. It was a necessary evil. As for the fan bases, the most interesting is the UM vs eastOSU. OSU's rabid fans are all from Ohio whereas M is scattered around the country. It's the Gentry vs the Provinces. For that reason the fans in Columbus try to make outsiders feel as intimidated as possible [invest in fake license plates] Playing in South Bend, the Big# fanbases weren't too much trouble. MSU was the most annoying because they were very blue collar; as in loud and drunk. People still remember the nicest fans in 2000 were the visiting Nebraskans. Especially because most of us sat within a row or two of Red shirts in the stadium.

Hello Huskers. Not sure what thread this should go in but, have you read the history of the Big11? I see a lot of problems with the power of Texas over the Big12. I want to warn you how the Big2 (scUM and eastOSU) run their conference? What happened in the Big12 title game was controversial, but there is very little to debate about who gets what in the upper midwest. Google around. - Joe

I agree mostly. ND passed on a chance to join the Big11 and stop it for a while at 12.