Realignment almost over

[Who'sYourData?]

I read the reasoning a few weeks back. Honestly, I can't remember what it was that would "force" ND into a conference. As I recall, the primary factor would be the Big East going kaput. Notre Dame doesn't want it's Olympic sports in what would perceived to be a minor conference. The assumption is that every other respectable conference would be all or nothing.

I did read that from a pure money perspective, ND would get more in the B1G. But they would lose being the big dog on the network..

[macphisto]

Four 16 team conferences might work for a short time, but it's worth noting that the FBS is going to be expanding over the next several years, making it necessary to include more BCS schools to keep a majority.

There also are a few problems. For the Big Ten, who do they add? They have high academic standards. Mizzou is going to the SEC. I doubt they jump ship if the Big Ten calls now, even though they would have preferred the Big Ten going in to this mess. Pitt is going in the ACC. Doubt they leave. WVU doesn't have the academics. Iowa State and Texas have it in the Big XII, but Texas will have to bring Tech with them and the Big Ten doesn't want Tech.

The ACC may have an interest, but they don't want to pull the trigger on 16.

The PAC-12 could have had Oklahoma and Texas and yet didn't go for it. Could be that the ACC and PAC-12 are locked into their TV contracts for a decade and adding more teams splits more money up. The Big Ten has the smallest window on the TV deals, but I think they are happy at 12. Look at how long they stuck with 11 - eighteen years. If Notre Dame came calling they probably would just go to 13 because of their desire for AAU schools. They'd look at Kansas, but they would not want KState in a package. My guess is if they go to 14 it would be Notre Dame and Rutgers. But I find it unlikely that the B1G would go to 16.

I think five 14 team leagues would be more likely. But if the Big East expands to 12 and maintains AQ status it'll get harder to move to this because more teams will get left out. That'll cause Congress to take notice and will cause a lot of problems. And the one 16 team conference that existed recently fell apart. That's how we ended up with the Mountain West - it broke off the 16 team WAC back in 1999. The core schools became dissatisfied. I think if the leagues get too big that that will happen to any of them - the originals will become unhappy and think of how good it was before they added all these other schools and may end up leaving.

[smazza]

big east will be a player

usf will be fine

houston is abig tv market

orlando is big

smu/dallas

and boise

I THINK BIG EAST WILL BE BETTER in football

rutgers has entire northeast with cuse gone

[smazza]

Isn't 5 conferences of 14 more likely?

5 or 6 conferences after music stops and it wont be soon

[Sellular1]

I heard ND might be screwed and have to join a conf because as the conf expands there is much less room for OoC games and ND will not be able to schedule enough games.

[79 Bull]

I heard ND might be screwed and have to join a conf because as the conf expands there is much less room for OoC games and ND will not be able to schedule enough games.

Even with only 2 or 3 OOC games, there will always be 12 AQ teams that would kill to be on ND's schedule.

[CousinRicky]

I heard ND might be screwed and have to join a conf because as the conf expands there is much less room for OoC games and ND will not be able to schedule enough games.

Even with only 2 or 3 OOC games, there will always be 12 AQ teams that would kill to be on ND's schedule.

Yeah, who wouldn't want $1million to go up there and kick their arses.

[jvwvu]

After BE makes their moves, all the big conferences are going to try to cherry pick ND, Big12 with UL, ACC with Rutgers or UConn, or when Big 10 makes a move.

ND is already to find a place to put their non football teams and was told no by ACC / Big12 unless football was coming to.

Their contract is up with NBC in 2 years, NBC wants to televise and market a league that was Big East until the realignments happened.

I think we are done until the 6 year deal with Big 12 comes up, and at that time we will see if we go to 4 -16 team leagues.

[Danm1983]

Even though ND will hate it, joining the Big Ten will be their best move. Granted, they have no financial issues for traveling far and wide, but geographically, they could maintain their yearly games with Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue at the least. If they have 3 OOC games (playing a 9 game conf schedule), they will be able to rotate big games against teams like Nebraska, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State.

They'll keep an OOC game with USC every year. That one is big for them in recruiting. Their games with Army and Navy can rotate every other year, and then that last game they can fill with other traditional rivalry games like Stanford/Boston College/Pitt/lower-tier gimme game like Tulsa/USF (oops, did I say gimme? )

As the generation that saw the Notre Dame heydays begins to die off (truth), their fan base will evolve a bit and have to accept that some of their rivalries will have to be bi-yearly or cut off at times, in order to maintain the best possible position going forward. If their snooty fans and administration fail to see this, then they'll sink into the shadows and will become an outlier in a system that is slowly shrinking to exclude whomever it can in order for the blue bloods to maintain their pieces of pie. ND is not the yearly powerhouse, and their "AQ" BCS deal isn't going to last forever, especially if other conferences are aligning how we are seeing them.

If ND thinks it's difficult to get to a BCS game in a 14-16 team conference, they'll have an even harder path trying to be the outlier in a 4 or 8 team playoff system that includes only 4 conferences.