'Nothing's off the table' as Texas, Notre Dame keep eye on expansion

[Nexus]

They are two of the nation's heavyweights, athletically sound and mostly secure. These are uncertain times, however, and there is wariness even at Notre Dame and Texas. The word from both schools is that they plan to sit out any wave of conference reconfiguration triggered by the Big Ten's prospective expansion. The Irish prefer to stay independent in football. The Longhorns say they're committed to the Big 12. Athletics directors at both schools nonetheless acknowledge their resolve could soften if change is momentous — say the Big Ten expands to 16 schools and the Southeastern follows suit — and both programs are faced with being left out of a newly defined upper tier of college sports.

 

"It's not something we have to think about. It's something we are thinking about," says Texas' DeLoss Dodds.

 

"If we have our way, we're never going to get caught in a situation where we're not part of something that's really viable nationally. If that's the way the world goes, then we'll go in that world."

 

At Notre Dame, AD Jack Swarbrick says, "You've got to think about it and evaluate it, and make sure you don't wind up with a different division of college football all of a sudden. DeLoss and I have a similar perspective."

 

Another connection: Among the options Texas has explored, according to Dodds, is independence in football.

 

The 'Horns' program is one of the few with enough resources and national appeal to allow consideration of that move, though hurdles would loom. One is state legislators' insistence that Texas and Texas A&M remain a tandem. Another is the need for a conference home for basketball and other sports.

 

"We've had those conversations. We've thought about it. It's a possibility, but it's not something we're thinking about seriously," Dodds says. "You could do it in football. It hurts basketball badly unless you find a conference. It's got lots of flaws."

 

Still, he says, "Nothing's off the table."

 

The Big Ten is beginning its seventh month of expansion deliberations, a process that Commissioner Jim Delany says will take until November or later. Big 12 members Nebraska and Missouri are seen as potential targets, along with the Big East's Rutgers and Pittsburgh, and Delany has talked of looking into more southern, population-growth areas.

 

The issue hangs as the Big East goes through spring meetings in Ponte Vedra, Fla., this week and other leagues head into theirs — the SEC and Big 12 in Destin, Fla., and Kansas City, Mo., respectively, early next week and the Pacific-10 in San Francisco a few days later. The CEOs of Big Ten schools gather June 6 in Chicago.

 

In the Big 12, Commissioner Dan Beebe says he'll push for a deadline — probably sometime before the start of the 2010-11 school year — for institutions to affirm their commitment to the league, backing it up with stiffer monetary penalties for leaving.

 

LINK

 

 

[Landlord]

I hope Texas believes they can go independent, then does it and it completely bites them in the butt.

[Husker_x]

If there are four superconferences, I hope it's a standing rule that you can't schedule independents. It's time to knock Our Lady from her high horse.

[74Hunter]

When was this written? Apparently it was prior to the Pac-10 bombshell that was dropped yesterday.

[knapplc]

When was this written? Apparently it was prior to the Pac-10 bombshell that was dropped yesterday.

It was written over a week ago. 5/25/10