BIG NEWS

[Caven]

At what point do you stop believing the denials? I mean they have to deny it until something official is announced whether it is true or not.

[huskerscott]

ND has been very open about staying indepedent for football and Big East for other sports.

 

As I mentioned in post #127, Notre Dame may not have a choice but to join a conference soon.

 

 

You have to see the Big Ten's ambitions for ND as a chess move. They're just trying to get the dominoes to fall accordingly. Like I said in my previous post, if it happens like I think it might, then ND will be the last team to join the Big Ten out of necessity. They're dependent on the Big East for everything else. If the Big East gets swallowed up by the ACC, then ND is stuck between a rock and a hard place. This would mean they'd have one last chance to join the Big Ten or get left out altogether. My guess is, they'll accept that last invite if it push comes to shove.

 

i see your point about ND's move being out of necessity. I guess i really cant imagine the Big East being picked apart by the ACC and SEC. I figured the Big East would pull teams out of C-USA or the MAC, if they needed to replace teams or they wanted to expand the conference. I know those schools dont add much for Football, but Memphis for example has been pretty competitive in basketball.

[HuskerEric]

Just reported on ESPN. (CFL)

[TheCheshireCat]

Change is coming.

 

http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/view/bid/3149/i/release_the_hounds_to_the_big_ten

[knapplc]

At what point do you stop believing the denials? I mean they have to deny it until something official is announced whether it is true or not.

Exactly. I'm a big skeptic about all of these rumors, but at some point you have to realize that something is actually happening, and when they make their announcement in July, it's not going to all have happened because Jim Delaney just picked up the phone that morning and asked for Harvey Perlman. This kind of move takes months in the planning. We're in those months right now.

[TheCheshireCat]

Here is a further source:

 

http://www.810whb.com/article/3527

[HuskerMack]

Heres another question, if the big 10 expands to 14 or 16 teams. What the hell are they going to call it then.

 

 

Well the Big 12 already owns the trademark big 14 I have been looking on the trademark site for any clues.

[Nexus]

Refer to post #139 for what one sports writer in Mizzou-land is saying about it.

[TheCheshireCat]

And another:

 

http://host.madison.com/sports/college/article_3f48eefa-5c60-11df-9a57-001cc4c03286.html

 

They're flooding in now.

[huskerscott]

Heres another question, if the big 10 expands to 14 or 16 teams. What the hell are they going to call it then.

 

 

Well the Big 12 already owns the trademark big 14 I have been looking on the trademark site for any clues.

 

How about the Super 14 or 16. You could just copy the Super 8 hotel logo and change it 14 or 16.

[bdubb75]

Check this out. Not sure if it has been posted or not but I found this very interesting:

 

http://media.nj.com/ledgerarchives/other/colorBIG10.DT.pdf

[Vince from ShamWOW]

Just reported on ESPN. (CFL)

 

Link?

 

I just went to ESPN.com (under college football) and there is nothing there.

[Rep The 402]

appearantly the NU chancellor said it was false.

[Quinn10ND]

The cards to ND's future lay in their hands.

 

They do and they don't. Notre Dame can always stubbornly refuse to join a conference; that's their prerogative. There are other pressures, however, which may make the decision one of "independence and irrelevance" or "join a conference just to stay alive."

 

If the Big 10 expands, other conferences will not remain idle. The SEC, in particular, will make moves to become a superconference. They'll target schools with geographic and philosophic similarities to their culture, and the four most obvious are Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 and Miami and Florida State from the ACC. If the SEC raids the ACC for Miami and Florida State, the ACC has to respond by acquiring other schools. Their most obvious target is the Big East, which is home to 19 Notre Dame sports. If the Big East becomes a second-tier conference, or worse, dissolves due to ACC poaching, Notre Dame may have no choice but to join the Big 10.

 

If the SEC goes after Texas and Oklahoma, all this changes and Notre Dame's situation becomes less a matter of outside forces than internal wants. However, if the Big 10 adds Nebraska, Missouri and Rutgers, they could easily tell Notre Dame they're either in or out, meaning that if the Irish remain independent the Big 10 could refuse to play them, putting a huge hurt on Notre Dame's BCS chances with such a huge hit to their SOS.

 

 

On your first points- you're onto why this has become any sort of debate: The destruction of the Big East. ND football doesn't need a conference and barring a BCS change that says only conference champions can participate, then it will never need a conference. The issue is the Olympic sports, and it's a legitimate one. However, there's been little indication by the administration of a desire to change - in fact, the rhetoric against joining a conference has grown stronger as this has played out after some hedging two or so months ago - and given that the non-revenue sports are usually subsidized in large part by football, it will, in the end, come down to football.

 

Your second point is one I've seen elsewhere, and it's the weakest one. If the Big 10 wants to refuse to schedule ND and "hurt" ND's SOS, then I'm sure they'd be welcome to. Considering ND played more PAC 10 teams in 2009 than Big 10, I'm sure ND could find 3 teams from the ACC, Big 12, SEC or PAC 10 to play every September and keep that SOS the same.

 

That said, I'm going to hope you guys do join the Big 10 and hope that we phase out Michigan State or Purdue some years and get to play you again; only twice in about 40 years isn't enough. Regardless, best of luck and by every pre-preseason poll I've seen, it doesn't seem like you guys will need much of it this year.

 

Cheers.

[TheCheshireCat]

Check this out. Not sure if it has been posted or not but I found this very interesting:

 

http://media.nj.com/ledgerarchives/other/colorBIG10.DT.pdf

 

Nice find. Glad to see Texas and OU aren't in the SEC. If that ever happens, that will be a superpower that will probably dominate all others, unless they knock each other out of contention every year with a killer IC schedule.