Has Notre Dame's hand been forced?

ND.  Their act has grown old. 

With the ACC moving to 14 teams it will affect ND even more.

BC and Pitt are not going to be looking for tough OOC games when they play a 9 game ACC slate.

they will play MAC teams and Big East Teams.  With some CUSA teams thrown in.

While ND's situation is probably most relevant to Michigan, I am also interested in what other ramifications this collaboration will have.  The SEC generally plays a very weak out of conference schedule (obvious exception is LSU this year).  Will the SEC feel obligated to strengthen its out of conference scheduce and make a similar collaboration with another league (maybe Big12, ACC?).

Or they can be like Boise State by playing one or two tough games a year resulting in 10 or 11 win seasons. But unlike Boise State, they have a clear method of entry into the BCS bowls.



They have and will always can recruit so they may continue to be overrated by the media/pollsters, so it may work for them to play in BCS bowls, but not for national championships.

I would guess Michigan and USC are the two schools that if they took ND off the annual slate would make ND reconsider their independece. However, I would be shocked if USC dropped ND from their schedule.  That is a big tradition game for both schools.  The game has been played since 1926 and the series was only interupted during World War II.  Additionally, USC has recently been unafraid of "strong" non-conference games. Michigan has taken breaks from ND before and would do it again if need be, but I highly doubt USC will do the same thing.

If so, I think that any B1G or Pac10 team that plays 9 conference games + a championship game would risk putting a strong-ish team like ND on their schedule, especially if 1/2 of those games go to NBC and not ESPN/ the conference channel.

The Fighting Figure Skaters are screwed. There is nothing they can do now other than continue to win the September Championship and Heisman Trophy. Give it another decade or so and the media will have begun to figure it out. 

I like Notre Dame, it's a good school in a beautiful setting. 

But they are a better fit in the ACC than in our conference or the Big East. The Big 12? Out of the question based on how they see their academic prestige.

And they're already playing basketball and other sports in the East.

What happened to "Irish"?

He was a good poster and would usually provide us with some insightful Notre Dame perspective.  Did he just go into hiding after getting Denarded for the second year in a row or what?

The Big XII is cool with letting marquee programs keep thier revenue.  ND wants to keep its revenue.  Big XII needs more big name football programs.  It's a match made in crazy college football realignment heaven.

I wrote this on the other thread...

I don't see why we have to get rid of ND...

Play 8 conference games a year.

Always play the ND home and home OPPOSITE the Pac-12 home and home.

You can still schedule a cupcake, you can still schedule a Michigan directional.

...am I missing something? How does this really change anything?

Our schedule could now look like this:

vs. EMU

@ Arizona

vs. Harvard

vs. Notre Dame

...8 B1G Games.

***Following year***

vs. CMU

@ Notre Dame

vs. Yale

vs. Washington

...8 B1G Games.

How is that so much different from what we do now?

Basically we replace a home and home with a Pac-12 school for a 2nd game vs. a MAC team OR the SDSU game we got this year (Air Force next year, etc). You can still make a schedule with 1 MAC school, 1 Pac-12 school, 1 FCS school and ND and have 3 non-conference home games every year.

I always want to beat ND. And I like seeing their hand forced. Their arrogance and hubris in avoiding conference affiliation is long overdue for comeuppance.

However, I would be intrigued by another possibility that I didn't see listed in the thread. What if PSU left the Big 10, and ND took their spot? Frankly, it is going to take time for PSU to clean things up, if ever. Sadly, they will be diminished for some time. Like toxic waste, their problems are so huge, they won't go away in the foreseeable future. The kind of things that happened could warrant the dreaded death penalty.

And to my way of thinking, ND is a better fit geographically for the Big 10 than PSU ever was. ND is better academically. ND is a good fit culturally. With Nebraska stretching the Big 10 to the west, this change would make Ohio State the furthest east school, and Nebraska the furthest west. While losing PSU would diminish TV market reach, it would be worth it from my perspective.

The reality? I doubt this happens, unless it is clear behind the scenes that PSU is going to be drummed out, ND is given a "come to Jesus" offer, and it is made clear that if they don't fish or cut bait immediately, the Big 10 will wash their hands of ND forever and approach Missouri. And if the Big 10 Conference is fine with keeping PSU indefinitely, well, then this speculation doesn't matter anyway. 

EDIT:  I also agree with the above poster, that my favorite possibility would be to have ND & a Pac 10 team scheduled at home alternate years, so that there is always somewhat of a marquee game scheduled in Ann Arbor, every year.

about it. . . I agree. Whether it puts ND in a vice or not, it increases pressure on them. Personally I am happy if they are left out to dry. The B1G needs ND less this year than it did a year ago, will need them still less in the future. And as a small, private, Catholic institution with its head so far up its ass its own tonsils look like testicles to it. . . they don't fit the general profile.