<p>Grinnell and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville are now denying rumors they are headed to the Big Ten.</p>
<p>alex,
Maybe your prediction is right and the Big 12 will disappear, but I hope not. The culture is different in their parts of the USA and I don’t think that there is a good fit with the Big Ten. You have to be long-term comfortable with other people and share the same values. This would look more like a shotgun marriage. </p>
<p>Maybe it would work for a while and maybe the colleges would make more money, but would the folks in places like Lincoln or College Station or Austin really welcome the idea of having their fates decided by folks in East Lansing and State College and Bloomington? Sort of reminds me of southern Europe and northern Europe and the whole idea of the European monetary union. How’s that working out for ya? </p>
<p>As for the following:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I know you’d love to see ND shrink in stature—LOL— but it will never be irrelevant. Notre Dame does not need the Big Ten opponents to be a major force in college football. Other colleges will be lining up around the block to replace the likes of Indiana U, Purdue, Michigan State and U Michigan on the schedule. As for the rivalry with the Wolverines, I can’t agree that it’s been fun in recent years. More like a race to the bottom of college football.</p>
<p>Notre Dame already has rivalries with Michigan, Michigan St and Purdue. Why would they need to join the Big Ten to continue those rivalries? I want ND to continue to play a NATIONAL schedule (the only school in the country to do so). ND-USC, ND-Navy, ND-Boston College etc are great national rivalry games that would be lost if ND was forced to now play Minnesota and Indiana every year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nonsense. How is Notre Dame’s schedule any more national than USC? The key difference between the two teams is USC isn’t scheduling UCONN nor are they bottom-feeding by trying get wins facing under-manned service academies. What a joke.</p>
<p>Oops, I almost forgot. The other difference is Notre Dame considers USC their biggest rival. USC does not. That’s got to hurt.</p>
<p>Hawkette, Texas/Austin have more in common with Michigan/Ann Arbor and Wisconsin/Madison than they do with Nebraska/Lincoln, Iowa State/Ames, Kansas/Lawrence or Oklahoma/Norman.</p>
<p>“Nonsense. How is Notre Dame’s schedule any more national than USC? The key difference between the two teams is USC isn’t scheduling UCONN nor are they bottom-feeding by trying get wins facing under-manned service academies. What a joke”</p>
<p>Joke is right. I give USC credit for playing some tough non conference games (ie, Notre Dame), but since the PAC 10 has been such a weak conference lately, they better play some tough non conference games. USC plays a national schedule? You are joking right? They have 12 games and 9 of them are against Pac 10 west coast schools.</p>
<p>Notre Dame played 3 Big Ten schools, 3 Pac 10 schools, 2 Big East schools, an ACC school, an indepedent (Navy), and one non BCS school (Nevada). This year ND plays 3 Big Ten schools, 2 Pac 10 schools, 1 ACC, 1 Big East, 1 Mountain West (Utah), 1 Conference USA (Tulsa), 2 independents (Army, Navy) and one MAC school.</p>
<p>Notre Dame is the ONLY school in the country that plays schools from that many different conferences all over the country.</p>
<p>Only a moron would call USC’s schedule with 9 Pac 10 schools more “national” than Notre Dame. Get a clue poindexter.</p>
<p>alex,
If you mean the degree of liberalism that exists on their faculties, then perhaps you are correct. In nearly every other degree that I can think of, I don’t think so. </p>
<p>And I don’t think many of their alumni see it like you either. </p>
<p>Why do you feel that Ann Arbor is more in sync with a Texas-based school than a place like U Oklahoma would be?</p>
<p>Size of research budgets.</p>
<p>2005 Hawaii Arkansas Fresno State Notre Dame
2006 Arkansas Nebraska Notre Dame
2007 Idaho Nebraska Notre Dame
2008 Virginia Ohio State Notre Dame
2009 Ohio State, San Jose St. Notre Dame
2010 Hawaii, Virginia Minnesota, Notre Dame
2011 Syracuse Minnesota Notre Dame
2012 Syracuse Hawaii Notre Dame</p>
<p>Hawkette, it isn’t just the facutly at Texas that is liberal. The faculty is also elite, much like those at Michigan and Wisconsin. What other Big 12 school is ranked among the top 25 in virtually every field and among the top 10 in several programs? Texas’ academic prowess is more akin to Chicago’s, Illinois’, Michigan’s, Northwestern’s and Wiscinsin’s than it is to any Big 12 university.</p>
<p>And the student body and residents of Texas/Austin are also very liberal.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I didn’t call USC’s schedule more national than Notre Dame’s. Learn how to read, dick. </p>
<p>Calling ‘one and done’ football games as part of a ‘national schedule’ is a joke when the games are in Indiana. When Notre Dame schedules Tulsa in TULSA, let us the f*** know. Meanwhile, I look forward to Western Michigan’s beatdown of ND this year.</p>
<p>alex,
I understand the financial and faculty reasons for the Big Ten wanting to expand and for some schools wanting to join, but I just think that there has to be some geographic sense to all of this. Following your reasoning, after adding Rutgers, why not add U Washington to the Big Ten? And then pair it with U Florida?</p>
<p>I don’t know, maybe I’m completely misreading this one, but I don’t think that most of UT’s constituents have much interest in the Big Ten. Culturally it’s a big jump and it’s not like Texas to be a follower. Plus, I don’t see/hear any Texans sitting around pining for inclusion in some other major conference that might give them a few more Benjamins.</p>
<p>Notre Dame will not join the Big Ten, they have too much to lose and too little to gain.</p>
<p>Hawkette, UDub is in the Pac 10, a conference with such elite universities as Cal, Stanford, UCLA and USC and culturally fits well with other Pac 10 schools. UDub has no reason to want to get out of the Pac 10. </p>
<p>Let me put it another way. Ask somebody who knows nothing about sports but is very familiar with each of the following universities’ academic offerings, campus environments and overall culture to identify the school that does not belong to the list below:</p>
<ol>
<li>University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign</li>
<li>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</li>
<li>University of Nebraska</li>
<li>University of Texas-Austin</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin-Madison</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not contesting that there is some theoretical reasoning supporting your contention and I’m not suggesting that U Washington wants to leave the Pac 10. But I just struggle with the Big Ten’s prospective geography. Maybe if there was some precedent, I could better envision Texas schools in a distant (both literally and culturally) conference like the Big Ten, but I can’t. Heck, I can’t see 'em in the Pac 10 either and some people say that that is also a possibility. The only other place where I can envision them is in the SEC, but football-wise that’s too insane to contemplate. </p>
<p>Time will tell, but my guess is that regional culture and geography wins out over money.</p>
<p>[from] ctyankees :</p>
<p>“How is Notre Dame’s schedule any more national than USC?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t call USC’s schedule more national than Notre Dame’s”</p>
<p>Uhhh, you clearly stated that USC’s schedule is at least EQUALLY national as Notre Dame’s. And my post proves that there is no way it is. ITS NOT. Its not even close. USC plays 9 of their 12 games against Pac 10 teams on the west coast. Notre Dame plays schools all over the country from multiple conferences. …See, that is why ND is the only school to have a NATIONAL TV contract to broadcast their games NATIONALLY. What a complete doofus. Let me know when USC gets their own NATIONAL tv contract to themselves.</p>
<p>And yes, USC’s biggest rival is Notre Dame. Ask any USC alum.</p>
<p>"USC OOC Schedule–Not too Shabby </p>
<hr>
<p>2005 Hawaii Arkansas Fresno State Notre Dame
2006 Arkansas Nebraska Notre Dame
2007 Idaho Nebraska Notre Dame
2008 Virginia Ohio State Notre Dame
2009 Ohio State, San Jose St. Notre Dame
2010 Hawaii, Virginia Minnesota, Notre Dame
2011 Syracuse Minnesota Notre Dame
2012 Syracuse Hawaii Notre Dame"</p>
<p>I already gave credit to USC for playing a pretty tough nonconference schedule, which they have to because the Pac 10 more often than not is so pud. But since Nebraska was lousy in 2006 and 2007, if you take Notre Dame off that schedule, the only real tough school there is Ohio St for 2 games.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, the scuttlebutt (from an NU alum who went drinking w/ a buddy working in the B10 offices) is that the B10 is talking foremost to 3 schools, UT, ND and Neb. (despite what RU alums think, candidates like RU are “filler” schools; and part of the strategy to get the big fish in play).</p>
<p>And people close to big-$$ boosters at ND and UT are also saying that talks are heating up - which gives the scuttlebutt at least some credibility (apparently, UT and ND have certain demands, such as playing each other annually).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Give me a break, schools like Mizzou and Neb. have more in common w/ B10 schools than the B12 South schools; same goes w/ CU w/ the Pac-10 schools.</p>
<p>The formation of the B12, itself, was a shotgun marriage (the B12 has no history; what it did have, such as the UNL-OU rivalry was disregarded.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Uhh, the folks in Lincoln would much rather have their fates decided by the current B10 schools than by Austin (the vast majority of UNL posters want in to the B10, but they also don’t want UT as part of the deal).</p>
<p>Also, while UT fans/alums generally like being the 800-lb gorilla (in the B12), they generally have scorn for their brethren in the B12 (only surpassed by their scorn for the SEC schools).</p>
<p>I highly doubt that the Big 10 is seriously thinking of asking Texas. Texas would want to have Oklahoma in whatever conference they are in, and most likely Texas A&M. The Big 10 is not going to invite all those schools. Texas is much more likely to end up in the Pac 10 or SEC depending on how the chips may fall. Missouri and Nebraska are the much more likely candidates from the Big 12.</p>
<p>It stacks up like this:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Plan A is to invite Notre Dame only, to make an even 12 in the Big “10”</p></li>
<li><p>Plan B is to invite Missouri, Nebraska and Notre Dame</p></li>
<li><p>Plan C, if Notre Dame does not budge at all, is to take Missouri, Nebraska and some combination of Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Notre Dame is truly the wildcard in the whole thing, because what happens to the Big East, where ND has bball and all other sports, is key.</p>
<p>If the Big East is going to implode, ND may have no choice but to go into the Big Ten—which will be a sad day in Notre Dame football history.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, I asked you a question. </p>
<p>A Notre Dame fan talking about the quality of the PAC 10? That a laugh. You couldn’t beat Oregon State if given a 10 point lead at half time.</p>