Notre Dame could kill expansion

[kansas husker]

As Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick entertained questions last week n Scottsdale, Ariz., Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe strolled past. "You havin in Scottsdale, Ariz., Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe strolled past. "You havin fun, Jack?" Beebe asked, chuckling

 

As men in charge of institutions facing an uncertain future, Swarbrick and Beebe can kid one another. But their situations aren't the same. While Beebe must play defense to keep his conference from getting raided if the most powerful leagues opt for radical expansion, Swarbrick and Notre Dame are the powerful leagues opt for radical expansion, Swarbrick and Notre Dame are the only ones who can truly stand between the bulldozer and the razing of the current college sports landscape.

 

If you believe eventual conference reorganization is the natural progression of rational actors acting rationally in a free market system, feel free to retain your current level of love or hate for the Fighting Irish. But if you fall into one of the following categories, you'd better begin to cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame.

 

• You don't want to see the current conference alignment reshaped in a massive cash grab

 

• Your alma mater is among the schools -- hello, Cincinnati, West Virginia Louisville, South Florida -- that stand to lose big in the case of radical realignment.

 

Make no mistake, the Big Ten can expand without Notre Dame and still make a fortune. But if circumstances force Notre Dame to cast its lot with the league the resulting union would make the Big Ten so powerful that the other conferences would be forced to grow. For his part, SEC commissioner Mike Slive essentially promised last week that his league would act to protect its status as a premier conference. The ensuing shift would result in an entirely new alignment of schools throughout the country.

 

That's why the groups mentioned above should find the nearest Golden Dome that would be Notre Dame's preference. We'll let Professor Swarbrick, Notre that would be Notre Dame's preference. We'll let Professor Swarbrick, Notre Dame class of 1976, explain why football independence is so important to the folks in South Bend.

 

"At the turn of the 20th century, Notre Dame was indistinguishable from 120 plus Catholic colleges and universities in the United States," Swarbrick said"That changed, and it changed principally on Nov. 1 of 1913 when a"That changed, and it changed principally on Nov. 1 of 1913 when a remarkable, ragtag football team went to West Point and beat Army. The New York media captured that moment. It intersected with the immigration wave in America, and Notre Dame changed forever. York media captured that moment. It intersected with the immigration wave in America, and Notre Dame changed forever"

 

"It's not just a great football tradition. It changed Notre Dame. It put Notre Dame in a different posture relative to other institutions like it. It remains tha way today. The importance people place on this in the university context bears no relationship to our recent won-loss record. It has everything to do with this being part of our identity.

 

Essentially, football independence is a crucial piece of the soul of the university. Now Swarbrick and chancellor Rev. John Jenkins must decide whether Notre Dame will sell that piece of its soul to join the Big Ten -- if they even have a choice in the matter.

 

Swarbrick can't dismiss the possibility of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten because, to read between the lines of Swarbrick's rhetoric, the Big East - home to all of Notre Dame's other teams -- must still exist as we know it for Notre Dame to remain independent in football. That, as we've learned in the past few months, is a tenuous prospect. If the Big Ten snatches away Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Syracuse, the Big East would be fundamentally changed, and Notre Dame might have to seek shelter in the Big Ten

 

Before you deluge me with e-mails about how Notre Dame football hasn't been relevant in 20 years, remember that conference expansion is abou money and not on-field performance. Though the shine has come off the dome in the past two decades, Notre Dame still commands an audience far larger than most schools. Having Notre Dame -- a true national draw -- in the fold would get the Big Ten Network on the expanded basic tier of every major cable provider in the country, which would in turn allow the Big Ten to command an even higher fee per subscriber per month. fold would get the Big Ten Network on the expanded basic tier of every major cable provider in the country, which would in turn allow the Big Ten to command an even higher fee per subscriber per month

 

Notre Dame almost certainly stands to make more money as a Big Ten member than it would as a football independent. But this is one of those rare cases where the guiding principle isn't printed on green paper. "Remaining cases where the guiding principle isn't printed on green paper. "Remaining independent in football is a top priority for the university," Swarbrick said. "Not just for the athletics program. For the university." ndependent in football is a top priority for the university," Swarbrick said. "Not independent in football is a top priority for the university," Swarbrick said. "Not just for the athletics program. For the university.

 

Former Notre Dame coach Jesse Harper only scheduled that 1913 game against Army because of a boycott of Notre Dame by the Western Conference (the Army because of a boycott of Notre Dame by the Western Conference (the predecessor to the Big Ten) orchestrated by Michigan coach Fielding Yost, who was still steamed about the Wolverines' 1909 loss to the Fighting Irish. "There probably is some irony in that," Swarbrick said. probably is some irony in that," Swarbrick said

 

Adding to the irony is Notre Dame's role in creating the media environmen that set the stage for this potential realignment. It was a 1982 antitrust suit filed by Georgia and Oklahoma that broke the NCAA's stranglehold on television rights, but it was Notre Dame's 1991 decision to break away from the College Football Association -- a cabal of power schools whose membership was strikingly similar to the current BCS lineup -- and sign a four-year, $38 was strikingly similar to the current BCS lineup -- and sign a four-year, $38 million deal with NBC that convinced conferences and television networks that college football was a truly valuable television property. The move may seem greedy, but it was consistent with Notre Dame's stated desire to be independent. Now, Notre Dame is turning down money to protect that independence. million deal with NBC that convinced conferences and television networks tha million deal with NBC that convinced conferences and television networks that college football was a truly valuable television property. The move may seem greedy, but it was consistent with Notre Dame's stated desire to be greedy, but it was consistent with Notre Dame's stated desire to be independent. Now, Notre Dame is turning down money to protect that independence. ndependent. Now, Notre Dame is turning down money to protect that independence.

 

The 1991 move may also have planted a seed in the mind of a much younger own television network. Delany, the Big Ten commissioner, drew ridicule and resistance when he unveiled his plan a few years ago to create the Big Ten Network. Now, that network provides a hefty chunk of the estimated $22 million the league pays annually to each member school, and it is the engine million the league pays annually to each member school, and it is the engine that will drive any expansion. In fact, the very possibility of the Big Ten that will drive any expansion. In fact, the very possibility of the Big Ten Network changing the game came up when Swarbrick interviewed with Jenkins for the AD job two years ago. Network changing the game came up when Swarbrick interviewed with Jenkins Network changing the game came up when Swarbrick interviewed with Jenkins for the AD job two years ago.

 

"We talked about exactly this," Swarbrick said. "You could see the consequence of the Big Ten Network. Even back then. You could say, 'What's the natura of the Big Ten Network. Even back then. You could say, 'What's the natural progression? Where does this lead?' And it's all about media." Then Swarbrick pointed to the reporters -- the majority of whom were former newspaper writers now working for Web entities -- seated at the table with him. "The same changes that have changed your jobs so dramatically in the past five years have impacted our industry," Swarbrick said. "This is a dynamic environment fostered by that leading-edge change. Three years from now, I don't know what it'll be." don't know what it'll be."

 

Since his candid comments to reporters at the Big East basketball tournament set off alarm bells throughout college sports, Swarbrick has been more set off alarm bells throughout college sports, Swarbrick has been more measured with his words. Still, he doesn't deny that Notre Dame could find itself at a crossroads soon. "I probably need to have an absolute script when I use this," Swarbrick said as a warning to listeners that he had carefully scripted the next few sentences. "In the context of what's going on, we have to monitor the environment. There are things that are large enough that might challenge our ability to do those two things, stay independent and remain in the Big East. But we're not planning toward it." But we're not planning toward it.

 

Swarbrick and other Notre Dame leaders are smarter than that. Of course they have considered contingencies. Someday soon, they may have to draw on have considered contingencies. Someday soon, they may have to draw on those considerations to answer a fundamental question.

 

With everything changing around them, can the Fighting Irish afford to stick to their principles, or will they have to sell a piece of the university's soul to survive?

 

link

 

Coppied and pasted it all from my phone, which sometimes leaves out letters, so if there are any mistakes I'm sorry.

 

Just thought it was interesting how one school can play such a large part of the expansion possibilities.

[knapplc]

I read this article last week, and I have the same question now that I had then - how does Notre Dame stop realignment? That's the premise of Staples' column, but he never once tells us how they can prevent it.

 

Notre Dame can stay independent all it wants. The longer they stay independent, the more likely it is that they'll be relegated to a second-tier athletic program. Alone they are not going to be able to keep up in the monetary arms race with the kinds of superconferences that we're talking about here.

[VA Husker Fan]

I guess they could join the Big 10 with the agreement that they are the only new team, but once they join a conference I'm not sure why they would block the other realignment steps.

[Nexus]

Austin Murphy from SI sees it going down like this.

 

 

 

 

It may not have been on the agenda, but the subject of conference expansion was very much in the air at last week's BCS meetings in Scottsdale, Ariz. When the roughly two dozen athletic directors and conference commissioners broke for lunch on April 21, queuing up at an opulent buffet across from the reflecting pool at the Royal Palms Resort, it was tempting to divide them into two categories: predator and prey.

 

While Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany may not have been the most powerful man at the meetings—his SEC counterpart, Mike Slive, presides over a formidable empire of his own—Delany was arguably the hungriest, and we're not talking about his appetite for the buffet's superb salmon risotto. It's been four months since the Big Ten fired a shot across the bow of its fellow conferences by announcing in a statement from its presidents that the "timing is right" to explore the possibility of expansion over the "next 12 to 18 months." On the eve of last week's meetings the Chicago Tribune reported that the Big Ten was poised to adopt an "accelerated timetable" and might make up its mind sooner, rather than later.

 

At the Royal Palms, Delany denied that expansion had been fast-tracked, but he did nothing to dampen speculation that it will eventually happen. Not only might the conference expand, he said, but it might also expand by "more than a single [school]."

 

Two decades after Penn State became the Big Ten's 11th member and seven years after the ACC raided the Big East, poaching Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech, plans are in the works to dramatically rearrange the landscape of college athletics. In addition to Delany, first-year Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott has made no secret of his interest in expanding his conference.

 

By announcing their intentions, Delany and Scott have ushered in a period of high anxiety, forcing commissioners and ADs throughout Division I to prepare contingency plans for when the dominoes start falling. Many of the Scottsdale attendees "have known each other for 30 years," Mountain West Conference commish Craig Thompson said. "But now it feels like one of those cocktail parties where everyone's watching whom everyone else is talking to."

 

The driving force behind the Big Ten's desire to get bigger? Television revenue—from both Delany's baby, the Big Ten Network, and the conference's contract with ABC/ESPN to televise football games. The country's first conference-run national network, the Big Ten Network launched in August 2007 and is already available in 73 million homes. One of the quickest ways to increase that number, thus widening the revenue streams flowing back to the schools, would be to expand the network's footprint in the population-dense tristate area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The Big Ten could accomplish that by peeling off Connecticut, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse, or some combination of those four.

 

Just as potentially lucrative is the renegotiation of the conference's TV contract (a 10-year, $1 billion deal with ABC/ESPN that expires after the 2016 season). Delany's hand should be strengthened by a recent precedent: the NCAA's 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner to broadcast the men's basketball tournament. And if the Big Ten were to belly up to the negotiating table with new members in, say, New York and New Jersey, the conference would be poised to reap a windfall even more eye-popping.

 

Yet, there was Big East commissioner John Marinatto, in just his ninth month on the job, projecting a kind of serene defiance at last week's BCS meetings. A former seminarian, Marinatto was an associate commissioner for the Big East in 2003, when the ACC staged its raid. Rather than curl up and die, the Big East expanded to 16 schools, transforming itself into, arguably, the nation's toughest hoops conference.

 

The Big East didn't merely survive, "it thrived," notes Marinatto, who believes it would be a mistake to underestimate the loyalty of the presidents, ADs and coaches "who made it work and have ownership in it."

 

It might also be a mistake to underestimate the allure of $22 million. That king's ransom is the amount of football TV dough the Big Ten distributes to its members each year. The most generous cut given out by any conference, it comes in at a cool $16 million more than the Big East pays its top schools, a gulf that's only going to grow once the Big Ten expands.

 

Still, Marinatto's larger point is well taken. Right now, no one knows how this is going to shake out. But we can make some educated guesses. Herewith, SI's three expansion scenarios, in ascending order of impact.

 

SCENARIO 1

 

JUST A TREMOR

 

If there's one school Delany covets for his trophy case, it is Notre Dame, which last spurned the Big Ten's advances seven years ago. The cachet of the Golden Dome would go a long way toward persuading cable carriers outside the Big Ten's eight-state area—those in the northeast, in particular—to add the Big Ten Network to its basic-cable package.

 

But Notre Dame has a deeply held attachment to its football independence that, according to Jack Swarbrick, the school's AD, began with Jesse Harper, the Irish coach from 1913 through '17. In those days Michigan coach Fielding Yost despised Notre Dame. Not only did he refuse to schedule the Irish, but he also vowed retribution against any conference school that did. (That early incarnation of the Big Ten was called the Western Conference.) Rather than plead for games, Harper decided to play a barnstorming national schedule. The Irish boarded trains for Nebraska, Syracuse and Texas. They took on Army and Penn State. Notre Dame won many of those games and caught the nation's fancy. Thus did a run-of-the-mill Catholic college become a national icon. That helps explain, as Swarbrick says, why football independence is "central to the roots of the university."

 

According to Swarbrick, Notre Dame would join the conference of Yost, Woody and Paterno only under certain, dire circumstances—namely, if its nonfootball partner, the Big East, were pillaged to the brink of extinction by the Big Ten. In other words, if the Big Ten adds just a single member, it won't be Notre Dame. Besides, says one former high-ranking network executive, "I'm not sure Notre Dame's the prettiest girl at the party anymore. I think there are other schools that would give the Big Ten better exposure."

 

So Delany moves on to his next candidate: Missouri. The Tigers have been feeling like a bit of a stepchild in the Big 12 of late. For three straight years they've been shafted by the conference's oddly random bowl-selection process. (Recall how, after beating Kansas in the final game of the 2007 regular season and winning the North division, Missouri looked on as the BCS selected the Jayhawks to play in the Orange Bowl. One year later, the Gator Bowl bypassed the Tigers for a Nebraska team they beat by five touchdowns. And last season the Insight Bowl took a 6--6 Iowa State squad ahead of 8--4 Missouri.)

 

Like many of their conference brethren, the Tigers are irked by what they perceive as the Big 12's Longhorn-centrism and how it distributes (or, more accurately, fails to distribute) its football TV revenue. Where the Big Ten and SEC dispense equal shares, the Big 12 has a weighted formula favoring its strongest teams. While the gentry rakes in $10 million, bottom-feeding Baylor must settle for $7 million—well shy of the $22 mil that its Big Ten analogue, Indiana, is pulling down.

 

While he has grumbled publicly about the inequitable distribution of funds, Tigers football coach Gary Pinkel says he prefers to stay put—not a surprising opinion from a man who has worked tirelessly to cultivate relationships with high school coaches in the talent-rich Lone Star State. Last year's Missouri roster featured 32 players from Texas. Pinkel's staff is coming off its best recruiting year, with a class that includes nine Texans. If Mizzou bolts for the Big Ten, that pipeline figures to dry up.

 

Build some new pipelines, the coach is told by his unsympathetic superiors, who are swayed by the Big Ten's bigger bucks and academic reputation. So suppose the Tigers take the leap. Surprisingly vulnerable, the Big 12 loses a second member when the Pac-10 steals geographically attractive Colorado. And in keeping with what he described as his conference's "Noah's ark strategy—if we add, it's going to be two-by-two," Scott then lures Utah from the Mountain West, a cruel blow to an up-and-coming conference that had been on track to earn automatic qualifying status from the BCS. The Mountain West gets further weakened when the Big 12 plucks two of its marquee schools, BYU and TCU, to restore its membership to an even dozen. Thrilled though they are to have the Horned Frogs, Big 12 officials won't accommodate the wishes of TCU football coach Gary Patterson. Asked in January if he'd consider a move to the Big 12, Patterson joked, "Only if they let us play in the North"—the conference's weak-sister division.

 

SCENARIO 2

 

SEISMIC SHIFT

 

After all that time spent wrangling Big Ten presidents and chancellors into the yes-on-expansion camp, it seems a shame, Delany decides, to stop at one. The Big Ten becomes the Big Fourteen, welcoming Mizzou, Rutgers and ... Nebraska.

 

Sorry, Pitt. The Big Ten's already got the Nittany Lions, and that's enough of a presence in the Quaker State. No offense, Syracuse, but there are serious doubts about how much of the New York City market you actually bring in. Besides, the Orange has won 30 games in the last eight seasons. You're not Big Ten timbre and haven't been for the better part of a decade.

 

The easiest call here is Rutgers. A state school with a large enrollment (40,500 undergrads), Rutgers is a natural. It's also a member of the Association of American Universities research consortium—something the Big Ten presidents want to see in all new members. No less important to Big Ten bean counters: The Scarlet Knights give the Big Ten Network a foothold in the New York City metro area.

 

If television households are so important, how do the Cornhuskers make the cut? "It's not just about how many people are in a certain state," says Mark Silverman, president of the network, who was speaking in general terms, not about Nebraska. "It's also important to have programming that's relevant across the country. Having a popular school playing helps you do that."

 

So the Pac-10 adds to the ark with Colorado and Utah, and the Big 12, now having lost three members, and Mountain West find themselves in intensive care.

 

With Delany at center stage during the BCS meetings, it was easy to forget that the teams over which he presides are still playing catch-up to those from the SEC. It was easy, that is, until Mike Slive, the SEC's amiable commissioner, pulled up a chair and read a prepared statement summing up his thoughts on expansion:

 

"Given the success the SEC has experienced over the past decade," during which time the conference has won five national championships to the Big Ten's one, "we are very comfortable with where we find ourselves today. Should there be a significant shift in the conference paradigm, the SEC will be strategic and thoughtful to maintain its position as one of the nation's preeminent conferences." Translation: We like the view from the top, and think we'll stay here awhile.

 

SCENARIO 3

 

THE BIG ONE

 

Having heard Swarbrick repeatedly insist that the Irish could never join the Big Ten unless its partner, the Big East, was reduced to a smoking ruin, Delany decides to oblige them. In addition to coaxing Missouri and Nebraska to the altar, the Big Ten cherry-picks Pitt and Rutgers. With the Big East tottering on the verge of extinction, Notre Dame has no choice but to become the 16th member of the Big Ten. Fielding Yost and Jesse Harper perform simultaneous barrel rolls in their graves.

 

Not above shopping at a fire sale, the ACC gobbles up Cincinnati, Louisville, Syracuse and West Virginia, forming the nation's second 16-team superconference, thus meeting SEC commissioner Slive's threshold for significant paradigm shift.

 

His hand forced, Slive wins a bidding war with the Pac-10 for Texas, which has no interest in remaining in the suddenly second-tier Big 12. To ease the Longhorns' transition, Slive invites along Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, forcing the Big 12 to reconstitute itself with a dog's breakfast of remainders from the WAC and the Mountain West.

 

Emboldened by their new power, the remaining superconferences—the self-described Gang of Five—vote to jettison the NCAA and form their own league. Suddenly redundant and unfunded, that now sclerotic body dies a slow death, like the "withering away of the state" in Marxist doctrine. The Gang continues to work with the BCS, after wresting one key concession: From this point on, the national championship will be decided by a plus-one national championship game.

 

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

 

SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

 

Back in the real world, a plus-one is at least five years away. Expansion will happen, with conference realignment announced before the 2011 season. Delany isn't one for half measures, but it seems unlikely that his bosses, the staid and august Council of Presidents/Chancellors, will countenance the demolition of college football as we know it.

 

So they will split the difference. The Big Ten will go to 14 teams, and Notre Dame will not be one of them. The Big East will survive. Again. Casting a covetous eye to the east, Larry Scott will launch the Pac-12 Network. It will succeed, but on nowhere near as spectacular a scale as the Big Ten Network, which kicked off this arms race in the first place.

 

And Swarbrick will continue to be inspired by Harper, who, like him, arrived in South Bend at a time of ferment and flux. "Who knows?" says the AD. "Three years from now, maybe Google will be in the rights-acquisition business."

 

Having quickened so dramatically, the pace of change isn't going to slow down. Whenever it arrives, Swarbrick predicts, "the status quo won't last for a decade. Those days are gone." That train has left the station.

 

LINK

[knapplc]

Emboldened by their new power, the remaining superconferences—the self-described Gang of Five—vote to jettison the NCAA and form their own league. Suddenly redundant and unfunded, that now sclerotic body dies a slow death, like the "withering away of the state" in Marxist doctrine. The Gang continues to work with the BCS, after wresting one key concession: From this point on, the national championship will be decided by a plus-one national championship game.

 

I would be in favor of this. The NCAA has been a worse disaster than the BCS.

[Huskertone14]

I think it's the SEC that may impact what Notre Dame does. I have been reading that the SEC wants to be proactive instead of reactive. Everybody talks about them wanting to take Texas/Texas A&M or Texas/Oklahoma, and they will probably take that stab at a Texas and somebody else combination, but the teams that make the most sense here are Florida State and Miami out of the ACC, which both would gladly jump over to the SEC. If that happens then the dominos start to fall, the ACC will have to replace those 2 teams and if they want to keep up with everyone else they would have to bring in 4 total to make it 14 teams in the conference, and most likely those teams would come out of the Big East. I think Pitt is the first team that gets in to the Big Ten, then 4 other teams from the Big East go to the ACC which forces ND to make a choice to look out for the future of there other athletic programs and the Big Ten is the most logical choice here.

 

SEC adds: FSU, Miami

ACC adds: West Virginia, Uconn, USF, Louisville (or Rutgers, Syracuse, Cincinnati) but they only need 4 here.

Big Ten adds: Pitt, ND, Neb

 

I would be happy to see Nebraska go to the Big Ten especially if they added Pitt and ND. And since the Big 12 seems like it's not being very active in this whole picture.

[knapplc]

Big Ten adds: Pitt, ND, Neb

 

I would be happy to see Nebraska go to the Big Ten especially if they added Pitt and ND. And since the Big 12 seems like it's not being very active in this whole picture.

 

I think a lot of what you're saying is likely, but if the Big 10 adds schools they won't settle at 14. They'll go after Missouri and one other school and make it 16.

[HuskerTrucker]

No way that Notre Dame will stop expansion, they may slow it down - by the Big Ten only taking on 2 more teams, but they won't stop it. However, the Big 10 would not go to 16 teams without Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a "jewel" if the Big 10 could bring them in. What I would hate to see happen is have them make a sweetheart deal with Notre Dame, something better than any other team in the Big 10 gets, just to get them in the door. Notre Dame has a superiority complex, thinking they are better than anyone else, and deserve more than anyone else, to me that is a problem. That is the same problem we have in the Big 12 with Texas now, and other teams, including Nebraska, resent this.

[Judoka]

No way that Notre Dame will stop expansion, they may slow it down - by the Big Ten only taking on 2 more teams, but they won't stop it. However, the Big 10 would not go to 16 teams without Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a "jewel" if the Big 10 could bring them in. What I would hate to see happen is have them make a sweetheart deal with Notre Dame, something better than any other team in the Big 10 gets, just to get them in the door. Notre Dame has a superiority complex, thinking they are better than anyone else, and deserve more than anyone else, to me that is a problem. That is the same problem we have in the Big 12 with Texas now, and other teams, including Nebraska, resent this.

I just can't see the Big 10 giving in to ND on this one. I think that if they don't take the offer as it stands, the Big 10 takes NU,MU and Rutgers. They give ND one more chance and if no is still the answer, they take the top teams leftover in the Big East just to spite them and leave ND without a top tier football conference.

[Notre Dame Joe]

No way that Notre Dame will stop expansion, they may slow it down - by the Big Ten only taking on 2 more teams, but they won't stop it. However, the Big 10 would not go to 16 teams without Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a "jewel" if the Big 10 could bring them in. What I would hate to see happen is have them make a sweetheart deal with Notre Dame, something better than any other team in the Big 10 gets, just to get them in the door. Notre Dame has a superiority complex, thinking they are better than anyone else, and deserve more than anyone else, to me that is a problem. That is the same problem we have in the Big 12 with Texas now, and other teams, including Nebraska, resent this.

 

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

[Nexus]

No way that Notre Dame will stop expansion, they may slow it down - by the Big Ten only taking on 2 more teams, but they won't stop it. However, the Big 10 would not go to 16 teams without Notre Dame, Notre Dame is a "jewel" if the Big 10 could bring them in. What I would hate to see happen is have them make a sweetheart deal with Notre Dame, something better than any other team in the Big 10 gets, just to get them in the door. Notre Dame has a superiority complex, thinking they are better than anyone else, and deserve more than anyone else, to me that is a problem. That is the same problem we have in the Big 12 with Texas now, and other teams, including Nebraska, resent this.

 

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

 

Welcome to HuskerBoard!

[Enhance]

I read this article last week, and I have the same question now that I had then - how does Notre Dame stop realignment? That's the premise of Staples' column, but he never once tells us how they can prevent it.

 

Notre Dame can stay independent all it wants. The longer they stay independent, the more likely it is that they'll be relegated to a second-tier athletic program. Alone they are not going to be able to keep up in the monetary arms race with the kinds of superconferences that we're talking about here.

See, this is why I think some of this is interesting.

 

If the Big 10 truly did put some sort of offer on the table towards in Nebraska, Mizzou, Rutgers, and Notre Dame, it still sets up the B10 up for realignment. If Notre Dame says no, then you have added three teams for a fourteen team conference. If ND says yes, then you have fifteen teams and finding a sixteenth shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Either way, the only way I see Notre Dame joining a conference (as far as football is concerned) is if the Big East gets raided and they have to look out for their other sports. ND doesn't want to get left behind any more than any other team does.

[Micheal]

I read this article last week, and I have the same question now that I had then - how does Notre Dame stop realignment? That's the premise of Staples' column, but he never once tells us how they can prevent it.

 

Notre Dame can stay independent all it wants. The longer they stay independent, the more likely it is that they'll be relegated to a second-tier athletic program. Alone they are not going to be able to keep up in the monetary arms race with the kinds of superconferences that we're talking about here.

See, this is why I think some of this is interesting.

 

If the Big 10 truly did put some sort of offer on the table towards in Nebraska, Mizzou, Rutgers, and Notre Dame, it still sets up the B10 up for realignment. If Notre Dame says no, then you have added three teams for a fourteen team conference. If ND says yes, then you have fifteen teams and finding a sixteenth shouldn't be that difficult.

 

Either way, the only way I see Notre Dame joining a conference (as far as football is concerned) is if the Big East gets raided and they have to look out for their other sports. ND doesn't want to get left behind any more than any other team does.

 

yep, this is pretty much how I see everything going down as well. whether there will be 14 or 16 teams depends on Notre Dame. I feel for those schools that could get left out when this start going.

[huskalova]

Obviously, I am new. The questions that I have are.

 

Why has the Big Twelve not been more proactive in this whole conference realignment?

 

Didn't the Big 12 commissioner not see this coming?

 

Have the powers that be not looked into Big 12 TV, additions to the conference?

 

As far as Husker Nation is concerned, you have to like our position at the bargaining table. For as small a population state as we are, after ND, NU is the best candidate for added tv revenues as Husker Nation reaches nationwide. And I have to admit I have been in angst from the beginning of the Big 12 by the arrogance of Texas in handling of conference issues. And personally it doesn't matter which conference I hang my Big Red hat collection. If you take care of business and beat your opponent on the field weekly. We will once again be playing for all the marbles. I have heard those that say they would like to hang around the Big 12 to stick it to Texas. I don't care who we stick it to.... But wouldn't it be fun to do the Texas sticking in a National Championship Bowl Game..... 00:01

 

After all that it looks as though I put this in the wrong thread... LOL

[knapplc]

Obviously, I am new. The questions that I have are.

 

Why has the Big Twelve not been more proactive in this whole conference realignment?

 

Didn't the Big 12 commissioner not see this coming?

 

Have the powers that be not looked into Big 12 TV, additions to the conference?

 

Don't worry about the wrong thread. It happens.

 

Welcome to the board.

 

I think your first question answers your second. Dan Beebe, the Big XII Commissioner, has been astoundingly silent about this process until recently, when he rattled his saber at Nebraska and Missouri. That's been just about the extent of his actions, at least publicly. Maybe he's been working behind the scenes, but there's no evidence of that to date, not even rumors. That's probably the most disheartening thing about all of this - our own conference didn't seem too interested in us until it began to look like we had a real shot at jumping ship, then suddenly it's, "Get on board or get off the ship."

 

The biggest problem here is revenue, and it's twofold - first the sports revenue that comes from TV deals and general branding of a conference, and the second is academic grants that total in the billions of dollars doled out to schools every year. The Big 10 has an advantage over every other conference in both categories right now, and they're looking to corner the market. First, the Big Ten Network pays its members double what schools like Missouri get in TV revenue each year. They would add nearly $11 million (projected) to Nebraska's coffers as well, and we have one of the better TV revenue streams in the Big XII.

 

Add onto that the fact that the Association of American Universities, of which every current member of the Big 10 is a member, earns more than 55% of those billions of dollars in research grants every year, and you're looking at a tremendous advantage for a conference when they're looking to expand. Nebraska and Missouri are both AAU members, and although they lag behind the Big 10 academically, they're going to catch up REAL fast with the kind of money they can get from association with the Big 10, and Nebraska may be able to take leaps and bounds forward with the advent of their new research park on the old State Fair grounds.