Notre Dame says they prefer Independence

If a team other than Notre Dame joined the Big Ten, it could set off a chain reaction across other conferences, similar to what took place when Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College bolted the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference. With that in mind, Notre Dame will keep an eye on the situation, Swarbrick said, according to the Tribune.

"The question that any school faces, not just Notre Dame, is: Does this start the dominoes falling again, like the last round of reconfiguration?" Swarbrick said, according to the report. "It's less about our willingness to enter into discussions than what happens to the industry. What are the implications?"
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Interesting....this to me sounds like Notre Dame just doesnt want to be in the BIG TEN....but if the dominoes start falling, they may be forced to join something.
 
They should be in a National Independents league with the service academies and religious schools, Army, Navy, Air Force, BYU, TCU, SMU, ND, BC, anyone else? It could end up having some good football actually.
 
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Bad move on their part. If Jon is correct and "dominoes start falling" they may in fact end up being forced to join a conference.....and the pickings may be slim at that time.

They continue to become less relevant with each passing year. They should strike while the iron is hot and lobby to join the Big 10.....otherwise, who knows...they could end up in the MAC or something!
 
83Hawk said:
Bad move on their part. If Jon is correct and "dominoes start falling" they may in fact end up being forced to join a conference.....and the pickings may be slim at that time.

They continue to become less relevant with each passing year. They should strike while the iron is hot and lobby to join the Big 10.....otherwise, who knows...they could end up in the MAC or something!
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Um, no. If Notre Dame wants to get into the Big East, Big 10, ACC they can whenever they want.

And I'll bet you that Notre Dame is in a BCS game within the next 2 years
 
Just wondering out loud:

What would happen if the Big 10 limited their participation on Notre Dame's schedule to one team per year?

What would happen if ND's sweetheart deal with the BCS went away and they had to compete the same as other indys to gain a BCS berth? Their appeal and their leverage in negotiating with the NCAA has to to be suffering with their poor play.

I keep hearing from the press that ND makes too much money (via NBC contract) to consider joining the Big 10, yet Jon has made a credible case that Big 10 teams actually out-earn ND.

Will NBC even be able to justify keeping up with the Big 10 cash flow in their next contract offer?
 
I don't think Notre Dame wants to be in a conference - it takes away from the mystique of the program. Notre Dame still wants to pretend as though they are above other college football programs and joining a conference says that they are on the same level as the other teams in that conference - not to mention that if they join the Big 10 and Ohio State finishes ahead of them for 10 straight seasons they have no logical argument to make as to why they are better.

If they joined a conference it'd be the Big East - the thing that people oftentimes underestimate with Notre Dame is that you can sometimes look at their schedule as being tough but the reality of it is that they have the benefit of having their tough games spread out and seperated by cupcakes (granted that is not the case this year).

Look at their "Big Ten schedule" this year - they played three lower tier Big Ten teams in a row and got beat by Michigan while narrowly escaping against Purdue and Michigan State. If they were to sign up for the Big Ten the schedule would be out of their control. The reality is that teams in the Big Ten and other power conferences make their schedules the way that they do because that's the most intelligent way to do it. With Notre Dame's traditional rivalries they could end up with a schedule where they have to play the Big Ten regular season with a preseason schedule of USC, Pitt and Florida State.

The prestige factor and the schedule are the components of this that people are overlooking because the money does currently fall in favor of joining the Big Ten.
 
Cyclones17 said:
doubtful.
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I agree. The only people saying that ND will make more money in the Big 10 are Jon Miller and the people who beleive him.

Persoanally, I think the people who work the books for ND know better what the potential and existing revenue streams are for the athletic program, and since they continue to refuse to join, it should be obvious that ND knows that they are better off as it is.
 
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