Superconferences & Realignment

[GBdomer]

yup...

Dont sound to excited.

 

[NDPhilly]

Independent isn't going to be a option once Texas joins the PAC 12 any day now

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

You underestimate my excitement. I'm actually all-in on this deal.....provided they work out the TV end of it.

 

[IrishLax]

It's going to be really tough to strong-arm conferences into doing exactly what Notre Dame wants. Either we are going to completely maintain our football independence without interference from any conference, super or otherwise, or we are going to be 100% in a conference.

The lone exception would be the Big 12/Big East merger. We could totally strong arm that conference.

Right now they're looking at having who as their headliner? TCU? A current MWC team? Missouri? WVU?

A conference of Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State, Cinci, UCONN, USF, Rutgers, Louisville, WVU, TCU would have 12 teams... and enough quality between Missouri, TCU, and WVU to warrant an auto-bid to the BCS. ND could totally retain its independence in that scenario. And if they wanted to join that conference, they could probably retain their current sports deal OR strong arm the conference into whatever terms it wanted in terms of TV rights.

BYU is another chess piece to watch in all of this.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

The lone exception would be the Big 12/Big East merger. We could totally strong arm that conference.

Right now they're looking at having who as their headliner? TCU? A current MWC team? Missouri? WVU?

A conference of Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State, Cinci, UCONN, USF, Rutgers, Louisville, WVU, TCU would have 12 teams... and enough quality between Missouri, TCU, and WVU to warrant an auto-bid to the BCS. ND could totally retain its independence in that scenario. And if they wanted to join that conference, they could probably retain their current sports deal OR strong arm the conference into whatever terms it wanted in terms of TV rights.

BYU is another chess piece to watch in all of this.

Not gonna stick. It would be the weakest conference by far, and ripe for raiding as the four soon-to-be superconferences each go to 16. It might happen in the short term, but four superconferences look like an inevitability right now, and there won't be a 5th AQ conference standing at the end.

 

[D-BOE34]

You underestimate my excitement. I'm actually all-in on this deal.....provided they work out the TV end of it.

Not sure the deal but love the pic!!

 

[Grahambo]

The best players in the country are from the South why would you not want more of them?

I'm not saying I don't want more of them. What I am saying is that the geographic location of Notre Dame still matters to these kids that have the option of playing in the SEC, the best conference, all the while still being close to home. Just because we would play in the ACC does not mean ND itself is any closer to the south.

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Not sure the deal but love the pic!!

Not saying there's a deal in place, but I'm all-in on the ACC if we can put up our own TV deal on it. Otherwise, shop the Big 10.

 

[tripsdad]

Bottom scroll during the post-MNF wrap-up: Andy Katz reporting that if ND can't remain independent in football, ACC is the conference of choice

 

[tripsdad]

couldn't find anything on ESPN website to confirm...

 

[Grahambo]

Katz also saying MWC and CUSA talking merger, the remaining B12 schools would merge with Louisville, USF, Cinncy, and TCU. WVU and Missouri are candidates to be team 14 in the SEC but my opinion says WVU would be the choice.

 

[Grahambo]

couldn't find anything on ESPN website to confirm...

Got ya covered...

Big East, Big 12 talking possible merger, sources say - ESPN

"According to a source close to Notre Dame, the Irish's first choice is to remain as an independent in football and stay in the Big East in all other sports.

If the Irish decide they can't remain as a football independent then the choice would be to pursue the ACC before the Big Ten.

But the latter is not the ideal scenario for the fiercely independent Irish. The Irish don't want to give up independence unless forced."

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

couldn't find anything on ESPN website to confirm...

nor I

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Man, after watching that video, it looks like someone steamrolled Tranghese's grave. Wonder how the Big 12's commissioner's feeling right about now?

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Got ya covered...

Big East, Big 12 talking possible merger, sources say - ESPN

"According to a source close to Notre Dame, the Irish's first choice is to remain as an independent in football and stay in the Big East in all other sports.

If the Irish decide they can't remain as a football independent then the choice would be to pursue the ACC before the Big Ten.

But the latter is not the ideal scenario for the fiercely independent Irish. The Irish don't want to give up independence unless forced."

thanks

 

[Rhode Irish]

Let's imagine what Swarbrick is weighing as to this future scenario:
A). he wants to stay independent for a lot of reasons, football-wise. One of those is that he foresees the possibility of the Notre Dame "network" evolving into a multi-electronic media presence ultimately without any dependence upon an established network like NBC.

B). He seriously wonders about the near-future chance of there being four 16-team superconferences. Here's how he does the math. There are 67 teams in the major 6 conferences now [I'm counting TCU in the Big East]. The future superconferences need 16x4=64 of them. Who, other than us in his ND-independence scenario will they be?

C). One would guess that the three abandoned step-children will come from the K-State/KU/ISU Big12 leftovers, or the Louisville/Connecticut/Rutgers/Cincinnati leftovers, OR Texas might be weighing something Media-similar to NDs vision.

D). However it shakes out, if there are four superconferences of two eight team divisions each [a rational organization], the likely scheduling pattern for these giants would be to play everyone in your division [seven games] and rotate through the other division two per year. This would give each team 9 conference games and three non-conference. Teams would want to play at least one patsy, but Notre Dame could occupy one of the remaining two slots with, say, Michigan, MSU, Purdue, USC, Stanford, as they do now. Swarbrick would have to roll the dice that such would remain possible. Economically, it would seem to remain attractive to opponents to do so, especially if ND is raking in large profits from its own network.

E). there is a chance that Texas [and BYU] see the same thing, and go with their networks. If so, they constitute another two games we could get every year. Swarbrick would want to watch Texas closely as their decision gives him some security.

F). In the best scenario above, we get Texas, BYU, Navy, Air Force possibly, and a MAC opener every year, retain our three "Big Ten" regional rivals, retain our two "PAC 12" California rivals, plus Pitt and BC for a familiar potent schedule. Or we could toy with scheduling Cincinnati, Rutgers, Boise, or the like.

The point of this post is to say that it's probably not at all obvious to Swarbrick from either a scheduling nor a business perspective that he HAS to go to a conference, and there are big reasons to hold out against it. THAT last will depend upon the future of MEDIA, not football, I surmise.

Sorry if this has been said on one of the pages between this post and mine. I think everything you said here is true, but you aren't taking into account what I think is the biggest reason to join a conference: this is going to lead to a playoff wherein the winner of each of the four leagues plays a "Final Four" (similar to the formerly popular idea of the "+1" game). An independent ND will not have access to the national championship in that scenario. Neither would an independent Texas, or anyone else (which is why Texas is going to the Pac).

 

[HereComeTheIrish]

Sorry if this has been said on one of the pages between this post and mine. I think everything you said here is true, but you aren't taking into account what I think is the biggest reason to join a conference: this is going to lead to a playoff wherein the winner of each of the four leagues plays a "Final Four" (similar to the formerly popular idea of the "+1" game). An independent ND will not have access to the national championship in that scenario. Neither would an independent Texas, or anyone else (which is why Texas is going to the Pac).

Yep..... Whole lot of posturing going on right now, but the way it looks, we're going to be in a conference, sooner than later and it looks more and more like the ACC if they meet out TV demands.

 

[Rhode Irish]

The lone exception would be the Big 12/Big East merger. We could totally strong arm that conference.

Right now they're looking at having who as their headliner? TCU? A current MWC team? Missouri? WVU?

A conference of Baylor, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas State, Iowa State, Cinci, UCONN, USF, Rutgers, Louisville, WVU, TCU would have 12 teams... and enough quality between Missouri, TCU, and WVU to warrant an auto-bid to the BCS. ND could totally retain its independence in that scenario. And if they wanted to join that conference, they could probably retain their current sports deal OR strong arm the conference into whatever terms it wanted in terms of TV rights.

BYU is another chess piece to watch in all of this.

1. Hahahahahahaha UConn. If they don't get into the ACC then they just spent like a bajillion dollars investing in a FBS football program for nothing. The ACC is no SEC, but this "merger" conference is complete joke. Couldn't have happened to better people than the a-holes in Connecticut.

2. When we look back at all of this massive realignment in 10-20 years, people will eventually realize that a lot of the blame for what happened can be placed at the feet of John Marinatto. He had moves he could have made over the last 18-24 months (and even farther back, but he had to have realized what was coming 24 months ago). Failing to secure a TV deal, increase the buyout or add another couple of teams to the conference doomed it. It was already the weakest major conference. I guess that is what they get for hiring a Providence guy to run a league whose fate depended on fixing its football.

Dave Gavitt passed away over the weekend. As it turns out he only beat his conference by a couple of days.

 

[t3hjc]

UConn's getting in a good conference. They have too much to offer.

 

[BGIF]

Sorry if this has been said on one of the pages between this post and mine. I think everything you said here is true, but you aren't taking into account what I think is the biggest reason to join a conference: this is going to lead to a playoff wherein the winner of each of the four leagues plays a "Final Four" (similar to the formerly popular idea of the "+1" game). An independent ND will not have access to the national championship in that scenario. Neither would an independent Texas, or anyone else. (which is why Texas is going to the Pac).

Seeing as there have been threats of anti-trust action when the NON AQs really had no means of getting in the BCS action, why wouldn't the Congressman/Senators of those teams left out, including ND, pounce on that issue? The simple reduction to 4 conferences begs such action.

 

[Carlyle Javar Holiday]

Seeing as there have been threats of anti-trust action when the NON AQs really had no means of getting in the BCS action, why wouldn't the Congressman/Senators of those teams left out, including ND, pounce on that issue? The simple reduction to 4 conferences begs such action.

If these superconferences decide to make their own governing body and dump the NCAA, they could do as they please. No one is saying that these smaller less popular schools cannot form their own governing body and have their own playoff system and generate revenue on their own. It is inevitable. The superconferences can defect from the NCAA and make their own sanctioning body while colleges still under the NCAA governing body could be in the BCS. Then the BCS would simply be irrelevant and the new playoff system would emerge in popularity for obvious reasons.

 

[BGIF]

If these superconferences decide to make their own governing body and dump the NCAA, they could do as they please. No one is saying that these smaller less popular schools cannot form their own governing body and have their own playoff system and generate revenue on their own. It is inevitable. The superconferences can defect from the NCAA and make their own sanctioning body while colleges still under the NCAA governing body could be in the BCS. Then the BCS would simply be irrelevant and the new playoff system would emerge in popularity for obvious reasons.

Not that simple.

 

[Carlyle Javar Holiday]

Not that simple.

What exactly is a 16 team 4 conference system restraining in terms of competition and fair trade? I tend to think that it actually promotes competition rather than suppresses it. It actually opens the door for some of these smaller schools to get into the national championship picture. No one says there can't be play in games for the two teams with the worst records. Teams like Boise St and TCU would actually benefit from a system of this nature by giving them an opportunity that they currently do not have with the BCS format.

 

[Old Man Mike]

BGIFs point cannot be simply dismissed. The government does not have to see only one monopolizing entity to sense monopoly. The four conferences might want to claim that they are four sovereign entities, but if their practices in fact outlaw other potential genuine competitors for ancillary opportunities within reasonable business expectations, then in principle the matter could be considered monopolistic.

The issue of course would be would any school group of sufficient clout and argument want to pursue this. Notre Dame alone might not. If Texas is independent too, I would bet that this combination would not only pursue it but "win". An intermediate question would be whether some combination of ND w/o Texas but including Boise, TCU, BYU, etc had enough clout.

An entirely different issue, but not utterly thoughtless, is that if Notre Dame [and other independents or "lesser conferenced teams"] can maintain good schedules AND go undefeated, then the football public will be very unhappy with the freeze-out situation as creating NCs with "asterisks". Our current situation is at least in theory open to the possibility of "intruders" playing for the NC. I don't believe that we nor the speculated super-monopoly should blithely ignore the attitude of fans.

 

[brucejcarr]

Notre Dame to the ACC

Notre Dame to the ACC

Reports today on Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio, that ND might be interested in joining the ACC.

Thoughts?

 

[koonja]

.

 

[koonja]

I always thought we were going to be big 10. I wonder what Big 10 rivalry games we would keep? Michigan might be all.

 

[nlroma1o]

I hope not....

 

[GoldenBoy3]

I think ND is now forced to join a conference with this new alignment. They will grab 2 teams from each super conference for the BCS games and the T0p 2 in the standings for the NC.

 

[koonja]

I really wish they'd go to the big ten. OSU, Michigan, Nebraska, MSU, etc... So many good games.