Well thought article from the Chicago Tribune and suprising they would challenge the notion of ND's football independence.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-0616-haugh-notre-dame--20100615,0,1669364.column
Freedom!
Those guys...
...are Fighting Scots, not Fighting Irish.
The image would be more appropriate for a discussion of sports at:
LSA '89 - MBB Natl Champions, Big 10/Rose Bowl Champions | @MGoShoe
Could have been funny
if it had shown the Irish guy with his crazy grin saying "it's MY island!"
Not that I loved Rich Rod less, but that I loved Michigan more.
like this?
Even funnier considering that
Even funnier considering that the Scots and Irish haven't always been the best of neighbors.
It is funny
The Scots were a series of clans that left Ireland and went east to what was then Pictland. So they are esentially brothers.
Semper Fidelis
And then they...
...re-migrated back to Ireland in the 17th century (the Ulster Scots) as part of Great Britain's forced settlement of the Ulster section of Ireland (and the pacification of the Scotland-England border counties).
Many of these Ulster Scots had descendants who made up the large wave of Scotch-Irish emigration to the American Colonies in the early 18th century.
Many of whom settled in the Appalachian back country which ultimately led to the founding of Appalachian State and thence, The Horror.
Damn you Scotch-Irish! Oh wait, that's part of my heritage. Never mind.
LSA '89 - MBB Natl Champions, Big 10/Rose Bowl Champions | @MGoShoe
HaHa, mine too. I never
HaHa, mine too. I never thought that I could have some of The Horror on my conscience as well.
Braveheart was filmed..
In the hills just outside of Dublin, so it somewhat works
Mclean High School in
Mclean High School in Northern Virginia, known as the Highlanders works. Given that its sister school, Langley, is called the Saxons tells you all you need to know about the neighborhood.
Money and control
As long as NBC will provide the hefty "Notredame Broadcasting Company" contract and its large paycheck without making ND actually run their own network ala BTN, ND will stay independent. If the Big Ten can't offer significantly more money than they make now, they would probably rather have the control that they now enjoy.
The main problem I see down the road for ND is scheduling. If, for example, the Big Ten teams on the schedule decided they had enough big games in their conference and didn't need ND anymore, it would be difficult for ND to create a schedule compelling enough to justify the NBC contract. It would also be difficult to justify letting them into the MNC game if it still exists if their schedule was weak ala Boise State.
As much as I am in favor of both the Big East and Big Ten making ultimatums to ND, I would probably do the same thing ND does if I were in their shoes. I would even go so far as to say that if ND ever starts playing the game on the field as well as they play the game off the field, they might see a few more NC trophies.
We can offer
them significantly more money.
Hide ya kids, hide ya wife.
Exactly, that's why this
is a poor financial decision on the part of ND, although there probably are some doners who won't donate based on the fact that ND wouldn't be independent anymore.
Where ND really lucked out is that there aren't 4 super conferences with 16 teams. If there were, than that would increase conference games and determine the NC game, so ND would be shut out. That didn't happen, so it's business as usual for ND.
Their football contract has to be a dog for NBC though, since they haven't been good in a long time and fair weather fans have stopped watching.
"They're stuck with that quarterback (sophomore Braxton Miller) for the next two or three years, that's fine with me. He throws worse than (Tim) Tebow. - Steve Everitt
ND football won't be locked out
I think the 'ND football would be locked out of the BCS' argument is flawed. At the end of the day, ND is still a national brand and #1 on the wish list of any bowl game. Their football team will be fine and barring a decade long streak of 0.500 or worse finishes, people will watch them. Clearly finances isn't an issue for them, so if they have to take less money in their next TV contract it probably wouldn't be a huge deal. In the end, ND football will survive.
However, where they do stand to get locked out is with their other teams. Quite frankly, there is no viable option for them outside of a BCS. Basketball would be fine if they joined the Catholic league in the wake of a potential BE break up, but basketball is really the only thing most of those schools have going for them. They would be forcing their other sports into a situation that would remove them from the national spotlight.
Oops, double post
Oops, double post
"They're stuck with that quarterback (sophomore Braxton Miller) for the next two or three years, that's fine with me. He throws worse than (Tim) Tebow. - Steve Everitt
I don't understand
I don't understand why individual teams think they can make a network. Seems boring to me that most of the time, you see field hockey. At least with the B10 Network, there are 12 schools that can add content that actually bears watching. I am a huge UofM fan but I don't want to watch non-varsity sports. And then where is the must have appeal to put it on outside of the footprint? UT and ND networks wouldn't get a sniff to other networks, much like the Yes network for the Yankees
Yeah, I agree with this.
Yeah, I agree with this. Even some of the biggest ND fans out there don't give a shit about non-revenue, or even non-football, ND sports. And there is only so much you can talk about one team. With the BTN for example, M fans are often interest in the Wisconsin content, because we'll play them at some point, and their place in the standings affect us. I'm sure I would love to have a channel dedicated to only UM, but there's only so much to report, and I know a lot of M fans who wouldn't get that much out of it.
Decline of ND
Paint it however you want, but ND is steadily using up all of its "special status" goodwill and eventually will find itself permanently no longer in the conversation. ND has spent the past 16+ years in football hell (aka irrelevance). Michigan has spent two, so think about how agonizing that alone must be. NBC is in the process of being acquired by Comcast Cable. Notice the word "cable" in their name. They don't even think in terms of broadcast TV let alone give a sh%t about it. Have you ever dealt with Comcast? Good luck on that one ND. And they are doing with Brian Kelly exactly what they did with Willingham and Weis. They are annointing him the next Rockne before he has even played a game. I am surprised he does not yet have a 10-year contract.
When you make key decisions the way ND does - by ignoring reality and thinking that just because you have a mosaic of Jesus overlooking your stadium and a leprechaun on your sideline that you are exempt from the laws of economics and all of the other aspects of reality in college sports - it is not surprising that you are going to make quite a few very bad decisions. This is how they ended up turning down the B10 (again) and congratulating themselves or doing so. It is also how they ended up with with Freakbass as their newest and creepiest mascot yet. They may no longer be relevant in the national football discussion, but they are still quite entertaining to watch from a safe distance. Maybe that's really what is behind their national following and TV ratings. No one really wants to watch, but they find themselves rendered helpless because somehow they just can't seem to tear themselves away.
"I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything." B. Simpson
Some business
Some business rankings still list Notre Dame No. 1 overall in terms of value but, without a football national championship, what's all that really worth?
hahaahahhahahahahahahahahahahaahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahaha Without the football team ND's academics are no longer valuable? man you really find the good articles H2V
Current Smug rating: "lethal"
I think you misunderstood...
That sentence means that ND is #1 in overall value of the football program and doesn't reference academics at all. It's probably based on a theoretical valuation of the football programs.
I don't think the author even meant #1 in overall athletic department (which may, in fact be true).
"They're stuck with that quarterback (sophomore Braxton Miller) for the next two or three years, that's fine with me. He throws worse than (Tim) Tebow. - Steve Everitt
I guess I think of the value
I guess I think of the value of ND by the degree you can earn
Current Smug rating: "lethal"
I also laughed at that sentence...
but not for your reasons. This part of the discussion has nothing to do with academics. In fact. joining the Big Ten would probably HELP Notre Dame's academic reputation.
However, being ranked the most valuable program is still worth something (i.e. money, and lots of it), and Notre Dame should be mindful of threats to that value. I don't think joining the Big Ten hurts that value, but it's definitely a distinct argument from the academic angle.
David Haugh
is an idiot, IME. He used to write for the South Bend Tribune before heading to Chicago, and his columns were typically full of questionable assumptions and shaky logic with a healthy dose of wtf. He writes just to antagonize, aggravate and drive sales/pageviews. He'd fit in great at the freep.
for Irish
http://vodpod.com/watch/586766-real-men-of-genius-hopeless-notre-dame-fan
An oldie, but a goodie. Maybe one of the tech savvy can imbed it for me
Fuck it, Dude, let's go bowling.
.
bjk
Your country thanks you.
Fuck it, Dude, let's go bowling.
If some people get their way....
Notre Dame will be joining the Big 12: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/jun/16/notre-dame-arkansas-come-down/
ND
in the Texas 10? I don't think they take well to being pushed around.
VODPOD
I love that TD Jesus is wearing a MI helmet. Very funny.
"The world is an imperfect place, screws fall out all the time".
I need to go home and put water in Buck Nasty's Mom's dish