ESPN reported on Sunday that the Big 12 is making a final stand by trying to convince Texas and other schools looking to leave the conference to stay in the conference which would now be reduced to 10 teams. Such a move would all but kill any talk of Notre Dame having to abandon it’s long standing independence in the near future
Beebe (Big 12 Commissioner) has been told the loss earlier this week of Nebraska to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Pac-10 could diminish the value of the Big 12 by as little as 8 to 10 percent.
Beebe is stressing the value of sharing revenue with fewer schools and collecting and distributing the departure penalties of Nebraska and Colorado, the source said.
Should Beebe be successful in keeping the Big 12 together, the chances of Notre Dame joining a conference anytime soon would be reduced to next to nothing.
As recent as Friday, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick said that none of the realignment moves that occurred at the end of the week affected Notre Dame’s stance on its independence. The Big 12 staying together would only reaffirm Swarbrick’s and Notre Dame’s position.
Throughout all of the realignment talk that has taken place over the last few months, every Notre Dame representative from Swarbrick to head coach Brian Kelly has sang the praises of Notre Dame’s independence. The only way Notre Dame would join a conference would be if they were back into a corner and forced to or if they were presented an opportunity they couldn’t refuse.
Texas is really the key here. If Beebe convinces Texas to stay within the Big 12, the massive realignment many have been bracing for could be over just as quickly as it started last week. The Longhorns are really the prized possession in all of this realignment. The Pac 10 added Colorado and the Big 10 added Nebraska last week, but Texas is the bell of the ball for both conferences. The potential television revenue that Texas can bring to a conference in the form of a major market for a conference TV network such as the Big 10 Network is huge.
Without Texas though, both the Big 10 and Pac 10 could be done adding schools – at least for now. If that is the case, Notre Dame’s independence won’t be threatened at all.
If Texas and the other Big 12 schools end up leaving and the conference ends up being disbanded, then there could still be a chance Notre Dame gets backed into a corner. At that point, we’d just have to sit back and see how the rest of the dominoes fall.
As I mentioned Friday, the one conference to keep the closest eye right now for Notre Dame is the Big East. If realignment doesn’t affect the Big East at all, the Notre Dame admin won’t be forced into making the very difficult decision regarding a conference. Notre Dame needs a conference partner for its non-football sports and its unlikely another major conference would be willing to accommodate a deal like Notre Dame’s with the Big East.
Texas and Texas Tech’s board of regents will both meet on Tuesday to discuss their conference affiliations while Oklahoma’s will meet on Wednesday. The results of those meetings could squash the Notre Dame conference rumors in their tracks or only add more fuel to the fire.
Carroll and Bush riding together again to further denigrate college football? Imagine that, reminds me of the three stooges…..Carroll, Bush and Garrison. Carroll the NEW chronic complainer should be an interesting side show with all his emotional brouhahas. Wisely, silence cannot be misquoted, however in Carroll’s case seems like an air of guilt? All the NCAA has to do now is….if they have the will to do so….is to reel all of them in to excoriate the problem forever.
Anyone see the video clip of Pete Carroll’s responce to the NCAA punishment? Great stuff!
Heaven forbid anyone over there actually apologies to somebody,anybody.
One of my friends coined Pete’s reaction as “Shock and aaawww” but the best one that I have heard so far is Carroll’s “Sargent Schultz” defence.
Give him a little mustache and a WWII German Helmut and watch him go around
saying “I see nothing, I hear nothing”
I just don’t understand their logic. Bush has been in the NFL for a few years now, and Carroll is the new head coach of the NFL Seahawks. But the two of them are now all gun-ho to start the appeals process. They are going to lose. It’s just another ploy to try to clean up their image at the expence of dragging the University through the mud a little longer.
As a ND fan I’m all for it. I hope they drag it out for another year.
SteelFanRob,
There may be a diamond in the rough BK type of guy at USC, however, considering the numerous academically marginal USC candidates by ND standards, not impossible but more than likely improbable. Good point though.
JC et al.,
I just don’t know that we’ve seen the last of USC and its flaunting of the rules. I’d like to believe that in 3 years USC will be wallowing in self-imposed mediocrity as a result of its cheating. But I just don’t get the sense that the pundits who cover college football believe that. On the contrary, they seem to believe USC will not suffer at all long-term. Let’s hope you’re right, JC, and they’re wrong.
Now, I don’t see why ND wouldn’t covet the right kind of USC Jr. or Sr., assuming the kid was a BK type of player and ND type of character. I agree we shouldn’t take just anyone off that roster. But why not the right type of player? I’m sure not all the USC players are scumbags like their coaches or administrators!
I think you mean self-inflicted not self-imposed.
USC’s idea of a self-imposed punishment is ordering vodka martinis for visiting recruits as opposed to gin.
It’s America, feel free to follow USC of a cliff. USC is far and away from what it once was…..deep in rich tradition. USC is now the leading cancer of college football. Ruthlessness, selfcenteredness and obvious greed will be the down fall of USC in the near future since the NCAA will allow the cancer to grow again unlike SMU. It it interesting how SOME of our alums and fans are foaming at the mouth at the thought of recruiting JR and SR USC football players for the advancement of our football team? Pathetic.
I’ve put some thought into this. Typed and deleted this post a few different times and all.
Here’s my thinking on USC:
I disagree (disrespectfully) with the idea that ND shouldn’t play them because of the infractions.
I look at them as the prodigal son. It is our job to welcome them back into the world of fair-play football regardless of the length and degree of their absence. The punishment is between them and the NCAA, and we need to live with that punishment as well.
Like it or not USC is an important part of ND football. They are a ND tradition. They’ve played ND through thick and thin. ND should do the same, if only to show them how to play with a sense of class and dignity.
Quite frankly, all I can think of every time I read someone saying ND shouldn’t play them is fear. I think people are afraid ND can’t/won’t beat them even with sanctions. If that’s true, it’s sad. It means we as ND fans are at a low point, a very low point where we’re letting fear make excuses for us.
I hope that’s not the case… but then again hope’s not exactly a good commodity to own stock in either. I personally look forward to USC rebuilding and learning from their mistakes. I also look forward to ND playing (and beating the tar out of them) them in the near and distant future.
Very well put and I totally agree with you 100%
Bill,
I whole heartily agree with your assesment. While the USC infractions take center stage today, it is not enough to terminate a series and a rivalry that dates back to Knute Rockne and 1926.
It is more than just some home and home series. It is a National Game and a great part of college football history and tradition.
Back in 1926 when the two teams first played it was a break through for college football.
Back then college football was regional. Teams from the east stayed and played in the east. Same for the midwest and western schools.
Most considered a midwest team, travelling to the west coast to play, too time consuming and too costly. Remember, this was before air travel.
USC and Notre Dame opened college football and helped make it a National Game.
USC is part of our fiber as much as we are a part of theirs.
USC and ND have played 81 times. ND holds the edge:
42-33-5
What a mess. Texas is such a bad state. First, the bumbling Bushes. Now the loser Longhorns. Someone put the whole darn state on probation for being jerks.
Question for the board:
Does the USC national championship from that year still count? Can they count it towards their total titles? Anybody know what the official answer to these queries are?
Officially: The AP is letting them keep it.
The BS team is considering repealing it. I say BS team, well because they’ve stated that if they take it away they’re not naming a champion for that year. You know the year when Auburn went undefeated in the SEC and won their BS game and apparently never had any sort of shot at the title.
Unofficially: I’m revoking the ‘C’ from those BS games everyone lords about.
Yeah yeah, simplistic RaRa BS carries the day again….oh golly gee whiz why did’t I think of that one!
Now is a great time to be a Notre Dame fan. The Irish may just get lucky enough to beat a crippled USC.
envious of ND are we?
Never felt the pride and honor of winning something fair and square? Too bad.
Your team’s greatest accomplishments… taken away.
All your recruiting, your coaches, your players, all under scrutiny. Put under the microscope for carefull review. Ouch!
Never exspecting to get caught.
What a bitch.
In the mean time, what type of style points do we get for playing USC that would really represent an equal playing field? And USC will be back in few years? Back to their usual narcissistic ways of….. superior to all others? Why don’t we just schedule ourselves with some NFL teams? What would be the difference? We are independent are we not? College football might as well go pro because it is beyond repair if people continue to allow the convicts to run the prison. Sure….why not endorse USC in two years with open arms, obviously the halos above their heads will be burning brightly once again. USC like Miami has proven themselves not to be trustworthy, not now, not ever.
If Texas is the key, then if I were Texas I would go football independent and seek a REAL deal for their non-football sports emulating ND. It would certainly put a new twist in things. Not to mention, a real power play given Texas has the status to pull it off. I would love to replace USC on our schedule with Texas since USC is now a worthless and meaningless game.
USC is a worthless and meaningless game? USC will be back in a few years.
JC,
I like your thinking about Texas going indepependent. They have the strenth and wealth to stand alone. A great following as well.
Much like ND
In fact, it may well be worth the effort to open our arms to any teams left out of one of the “Mega Conferences”
Add 10 OR 12 more teams as independents and we would have a pool of teams to play in other sports besides football.
If anyone can pull it off, it’s ND.
“Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. Yearning to breathe free. The
wrenched refuse of our teeming shores. Send these, the homeless tempest-tossed to us, we will lift our lamp to the Golden Door”
I think you need to think more about what you are saying… Worthless? Meaningless? That is as far from true a statement as you could ever say. I know you may be angry with USC (as most of us are) but it is not, nor will it ever be a worthless, meaningless game.