More B1G expansion talks
It was reported yesterday that Oregon and Washington had applied to be part of the Big Ten yesterday. Seems like Big Ten is going to make the decision on future adds based on how talks with ND go (as in ND + 1 or ND +3 or no ND and B1G looks at more PAC 12 and ACC schools). ND makes a lot of sense in terms of geography and rivalries and would also add another huge alumni fan base and possibly more TV deals on NBC.
I love the descent into obvious mediocrity for them, but I’d prefer an outwardly brash and offensive courting process by the Big.
“We only want schools that can be competitive here. If they beat OSU in the shoe on 9/3/22, we’d consider them as a possible option.”
This is fun. Only vaguely feels real but whatevah.
I could see ND + Stanford. Keep the Navy game as OOC and ND essentially has all of their traditional rivals taken care of on a yearly basis.
In 24 months, Kevin Warren may go from despised over the COVID schedule to celebrated for finally getting ND into the B1G. I doubt it happens, but if it does...WOW!
Would much rather have Washington and Oregon.
Feels like it’s gonna be ND, Oregon, Wash and a wildcard 4th. Maybe Stanford. Maybe Colorado or Arizona.
Cal with WA / ND / Stanford. Cal has the ruvalry w Stanford, ties to UCLA, and you just cant ignore the academics.
not sure I understand this footing from the BigTen when ND has little leverage.
They can either A) join fully with the ACC and get a much smaller $ figure but have an easier path to postseason or B) join BigTen and get a lot more $ but hard road to post-season. I would hope this "waiting on a decision" came with a pretty short time limit.
also... F ND!
Adding Notre Dame to TV rights deal would add a ton for the B1G. There is a benefit financially for both parties.
I don’t see ND joining the BIG with the current divisions. They would never agree to play OSU, PSU, Sparty, and us every year.
A workaround would put them in the West since they already play USC. The brains that run the conference could put Wiscy and Purdue or Iowa in the East just to make our lives miserable.
No room for divisions in a 16+ team league. Either pods or (hopefully) individual permanent rivals.
If ND joins, that's going to add jet fuel to the conference realignment fire. For one, it adds to the heat of the moment for the B1G, being in the driver's seat, making moves, and will drive schools caught by surprise to seek out the B1G. They've stolen the spotlight from the SEC for the moment.
For two, it puts the B1G at 17 schools, and you know they won't be staying at an odd number. So if ND is the next move, they definitely will not be the last move.
I suspect this will all move very quickly. Will be an interesting weekend.
USC v. Minnesota-- The Battle for George Mikan's Glasses
Or for the UCLA - Ohio State game, loser has to take Lebron for an entire year.
So in this NIL era, we will ultimately end up with worse recruiting classes than OSU, USC, MSU, UCLA, and PSU. Add in ND if they come or if Oregon were to get in. At best, we are middle of the road in the big 10 and will duke it out with Wisconsin and Iowa every year for moral victories. As it now stands, I think Rutgers will end up with better recruiting classes in the upcoming years
Calm yourself, nowicki
Rutgers? Settle down.
Like many on the post here - FUCK Notre Dame!!! I do not care about their history and geographic proximity, they are just a bunch of pompous BASTARDS, and let them rot in hell or better yet go join the ACC. Why don't they man up and join the SEC and got their ass handed to them 3 - 5 times a year.
In other words:
"The ball's in your court Notre Dame, we'll take you, but know that this is likely your last ever chance at the B1G. Take your time though, we know there are the ACC contracts and $ considerations that need to be addressed on your end. We'll give you most of a year to decide."
I do think they'll say yes. Eventually.
Yeah, fuck ND, but do we know exactly how they were approached (or vice versa)? Maybe the Big Ten isn't begging them to join.
Notre Dame probably wants someone to buy out their ill-conceived apprenticeship with the ACC.
For now, the Big Ten is in a position of enormous strength. We know Notre Dame is interested. They'll lead with their NBC carve-out, and they'll demand money for the ACC. But they also know that there are several viable Pac Ten (I guess we call it that again, they're apparently better at math than the Big conferences) candidates.
Hold firm, call their bluff, and Notre Dame might just come to the Big Ten without all this Texas pay-us-first crap. Sounds like a good opportunity.
If not, since there's no way they'll bluff the SEC, I'm not sure I envy their position of shadow-royalty in the ACC.
Counterpoint: the desire for two megaconferences isn't strong, consolidation to four mega conferences is more passable. A revised ACC that keeps Notre Dame and picks up the eastern schools that joined the now-on-its-deathbed Big 12 is conference 3 (Cincy, Central Florida, West Virginia); and a Western CONUS conference made up of the remnants of the Big 12 and Pac 12 is conference 4.
In this scenario, Notre Dame is the consistent 1A/1B contender in an ACC that rotates between power swings of Clemson/Florida State/Miami. Notre Dame keeps its television independence and has a reasonable shot at playoffs almost every year.
That is an interesting move. No matter what, I think ND has to choose a conference in this scenario, otherwise they'll get left in the dust in the $$ arms race. The next B1G media deal is going to be massive (people saying > $1 billion/year, with $100 million/year to each school), and the SEC won't be far behind. There's no chance ND can get close to that by staying independent.
I think this is ND's last chance to get on the expansion bandwagon. Either they go with the B1G, or they hunker down with the ACC and anchor that to try to keep things from getting too overly consolidated into the big 2. I would imagine this would require a lot of hand-holding and assurances to the other ACC schools, who I expect are looking for a chance to jump ship.
Notre Dame goes full in on the ACC then FSU and Clemson bolt for the SEC. How glorious would that be? I mean people state all the time here how they dont care about the big ten as a conference so SEC being far superior shouldnt matter right?
I would much rather see 4 16 team mega conferences than 2 20 team super conferences.
Fox and ESPN disagree. And they hold ALL the cards.
I hate ND but these decisions are all about dollars and ND would add a lot of dollars. I don't think college football exists as we know it by 2025. I think we are heading for two super conferences and they are just going to tell the NCAA to pack sand and make their own rules which would serve the NCAA right. I honestly think we will end up with about half the Pac 12 when things are done shaking out. I mean why not Cal and Stanford as well as Washington and Oregon.
I honestly think that Colorado and Utah are as much a viable package as Cal/Stanford or Wash/Oregon. Denver and Salt Lake City are large media markets, would provide that "geographic continuity" in a plausible deniability manner, are both well regarded academic public schools, and would compliment the Iowa / Nebraska western B1G area. I know San Fran is the biggest media market out there, but the apathy for Cal / Stanford sports by the locals is a problem in my mind. Any sort of successful team and any of the four schools (UW, Oregon, Colorado, Utah) will bring big attendance and eyeballs.
While Utah has an enthusiastic fan base that fills their 51,444-seat Rice- Eccles Stadium on game days, perhaps that's because the Utes often are the only game in town for a city with only two major professional teams (the NBA's Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake of MLS). Salt Lake City is the 125th largest city in the country.
Will you find as many Michigan alums in Salt Lake City as you'd find in LA, the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest? If Cal fans aren't very enthusiastic about their football team, then maybe the crowd at a Michigan-Cal football game in Berkeley would look like a Michigan-Northwestern game in Evanston or Chicago.
While Denver (19th largest city) would be nice, taking UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford, Oregon and Washington would give the Big Ten a Pacific Coast footprint with AAU schools and the 2nd (LA), 17th (SF), 18th (Seattle), 26th (Portland) and 45th (Oakland) largest cities. Palo Alto and Berkeley combined would add close to another 190,000 people and that's only about 10,000 less than the population of Salt Lake City.
If we're looking at two 24-team "football super conferences" with four, six-team pods each, then a Pacific Coast pod for the Big Ten consisting of USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon and Washington from the Pac-12 seems to make more sense than a pod with USC, UCLA, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and (non-AAU) Arizona State.
Easy with PAc12 expansion. You dont want what is the already a small payout group bringing you down. For ever USC there is an Arizona to bring your $$$ down.
Hell if I was the Big TEN i wouldve invited USC and Notre Dame at the same time and let that play out. UCLA has almost zero football fan base. More like a Purdue than a USC.
It’s been 1,399 days since Notre Dame has beaten us in football.
To hell with them.
Take Stanford and Cal and tell Oregon and Notre Dame to fuck off. Utah would be fine too.
Are you forming a quiz bowl team or do you want to create an athletic super conference that is great at football? ND and Oregon have what we need. I'd be cool adding a couple nerdy schools with ok to good olympic sports as a complement to good football schools.
ND, Stanford, Washington, Oregon
Why would anyone want Cal. If Stanford is in the B1G taking Cal is like taking Rutgers, but with no need of their market since it's already there with Stanford.
What market is that? Fans Looking at the directors cup standings in the paper every sunday morning? I dont think most here understand the football following outside of USC, Oregon, and Washington. Utah is cute but being a pain in the ass West coast MSU doesnt pay the bills.
Cal beat Stanford by 30 points last year. Stanford has been the better program for most of the last 10-15 years, but going forward it's anyone's guess which of them will be stronger.
"Why would anyone want Cal?"
In the Final Directors Cup Standings for 2021-2022, California-Berkeley finished 27th, ahead of Washington (30), Oregon (31), Utah (44), Colorado (58) and every Big Ten team other than Michigan (3), Ohio State (4) and Wisconsin (24).
I'd take ND but only if they received NBC money. It's their deal let them live with it.
i feel guilty we are killing the PCC/pac8/10/12 so i'd feel slightly less bad if we gave Stanford-Cal-Oregon-Washington a landing spot.
Also, Oregon is, I think, a bigger deal than ND as long as they keep that sweet sweet Nike $
Finally, the Bay Area is the 6th largest TV market and Seattle is 12th. Since everything is about BTN, that's food for thought. If we went for GT, Atlanta is 7th, for Colorado Denver is 16th, Charlotte is the largest in the Carolinas (UNC) at 22nd, behind Portland, OR at 21st.
From a TV standpoint, a cultural standpoint, and a brand standpoint and a logistical standpoint - I hope we take the Pac12 North, minus the Beavers and Cougs. Sorry about breaking up the Platypus Game.
Pac-12 is suicide, not homicide.
They had worst TV deal and no perennial playoff contender.
The LA teams applied to the Big Ten.
Form the megas, leave the NCAA, give as many scholarships as you want,
play games when you want to.
For the non-revenue sports anyway.
He who pays the piper calls the tune so we are stuck playing football and basketball when we are told.
Not sure how long I will continue season basketball when I get back to St., Clair Shores later than midnight after night games.
If i did not get to tailgate at the Wolverine Little House (adjoins MGoPatio on the Main Street side)
I would drop football now.
yea you're not wrong about the Pac 12 - they mismanaged themselves after looking to be in a strong position when they took CU and Utah once upon a time.
And I should note, if you put Raleigh and Charlotte together, that would be the 10th largest TV Market, which makes a UNC-Duke-UVA-ND push look good too.
I still think culturally having 6 west coast teams may be more palatable than having 2. I also think the ACC's grant of rights means taking PacX teams offers less resistance than going east.
Anyhow, here we are.
But would you rather have the 10th largest tv market combing those teams, or the 6th plus the 12th plus the 21st (SF, SEA, POR). You could own the entire west coast.
Keep ND OUT of Any Conference..Live by the sword DIE BY THE SWORD
Live by the Swarb, die by the swarb***
Colorado and Utah would be the most sensible moves after this.
Its like adding 2 nebraskas but with less history. Yeesh.
not huge
151,415
Current Number of living Notre Dame graduates
many more fans, but not a huge alumni base.
P.S. To hell with Notre Dame
ND will find a way to f it up for everyone including themselves.
They're the crazy but hot ex-girlfriend of college football that everyone considers getting back together with because she's so hot. But she's crazy so it'll be miserable. But she's smoking hot. But psychocrazy.
Repeat ad nauseum.
Can we hit it then ghost her?
"Waiting on a decision by Notre Dame" is exactly what you say when you don't want Notre Dame to say yes.
Big should be saying yes to Oregon and Washington, then let ND worry about whether they're still hot after Kelly left them and the Big is seeing other people because we never said we were exclusive or anything.