<p>PA of Michigan 4.4
4.3
4.2
4.1
4.0
3.9
PA of ND 3.8</p>
<p>Not really all that close.</p>
<p>“There are certain people in academia who will NEVER vote ND high because its a Catholic school----that’s just a fact.”</p>
<p>There are certain posters on CC who rate ND very highly simply because it’s a Catholic school. B.S. goes both ways.</p>
<p>“Michigan’s rep is based in large part on their graduate schools”</p>
<p>PA scores at USNWR are based on undergraduate disciplines. There are other universities that are ranked higher than ND as academic institutions besides Michigan that are also excellent graduate schools.</p>
<p>“I concede that ND and Michigan are very close, but with ND having a smaller student body and the emphasis on undergrad teaching, is a better school, with better students than Michigan (and I almost went to Michigan).”</p>
<p>They are close at the undergraduate level. At the graduate level, and that does count for prestige even here on CC, Michigan BLOWS AWAY Notre Dame.</p>
<p>If Notre Dame’s football tem continues to lose to juggernauts like UConn, maybe they’d fit better in the Patriot League or whatever league the Vassar club football team is in.</p>
<p>“Notre Dame entertained the possibility of joining the Big Ten Conference in all sports in 1999, but the idea was met with fierce resistance from alumni and the student body even though the Notre Dame Faculty Senate voted nearly unanimously to seek admittance into the league. Ultimately, the school elected to maintain its football independence and Big East affiliation.”
[University</a> of Notre Dame at AllExperts](<a href=“http://en.allexperts.com/e/u/un/university_of_notre_dame.htm]University”>http://en.allexperts.com/e/u/un/university_of_notre_dame.htm)</p>
<p>“Yet, there is often tension between academic and athletic interests. Big Ten members also belong to the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a pooling of resources and research opportunities that includes the University of Chicago. A majority of the Notre Dame faculty would surely like to join such a consortium, said Murray Sperber, a visiting professor of graduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, who has written two books about Notre Dame football.”
[Colleges</a> Prepare for Ripple Effects as Big Ten Studies Expansion - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/sports/30bigten.html]Colleges”>Colleges Prepare for Ripple Effects as Big Ten Studies Expansion - The New York Times)</p>
<p>The Big Ten is more than just football and athletics.</p>
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<p>Which is why I really, really want Rutgers to be invited.</p>
<p>Which is why Notre Dame, Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse and Texas would all be fine additions.</p>
<p>tsdad-me too.</p>
<p>The article posted by GoBlue really, really makes Shank sound completely clueless about this whole deal, when he claimed a page or two ago that the faculty were against joining the Big Ten on academic principles.</p>
<p>Lets be honest here, anyways–if Notre Dame was to enter an academically strong Conference, the Big Ten is the most logical one.</p>
<p>Delany has kept things pretty close to his chest, but he did make a few comments via tweet.</p>
<h1>Delany: Changing population demographics (to the south) and the Big Ten Network are the two main factors driving expansion. 32 minutes ago via TweetDeck</h1>
<h1>Delany: Were not looking to achieve a championship game. If it was, we could have achieved that many times over the last 20 years. 41 minutes ago via TweetDeck</h1>
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<p>The South comment, along w/ the scuttlebutt that the B10 is courting UT, ND and Neb. heavily, makes it look more and more that UT is in play.</p>
<p>There’s buzz around Atlanta about Georgia Tech going to the Big Ten. I doubt if its anything more than rumors started by columnists at this point.</p>
<p>Obviously at some point there will be a consolidation of conferences and/or big players/small player consolidation. </p>
<p>Notre Dame has to be worried about Big East schools becoming a Big conference in name only if selected schools get plucked. Why? Because no other major conference is going to allow them to be part-time members like the Big East did. This is critical as Notre Dame has 20+ other sports they recruit in and if those athletes don’t see a significant conference championship to vie for each year and significant teams to compete against Notre Dame will become a second-class recruiter of top athletes in those sports. This has to scare the heck out of them. </p>
<p>If Notre Dame goes to the Big 10, Boston College will go too giving the Big 10 another large market. The ACC loses BC and they go after UCONN, Georgetown and Syracuse in the attempt to become viable in the era of super-conferences. </p>
<p>What helps the Big 10 after that? Don’t know, but either Pitt or Nebraska brings them to 14. Logistically, things like Texas or Georgia Tech just don’t seem to make much sense.</p>
<p>Ron Wellman, Wake Forest’s highly respected award winning AD, was recently asked about Big Ten expansion. He’s heard from insiders the Big Ten would expand to 20+ to maximize revenue. Additions would be primarily Big XII and Big East schools. He also said it is a good thing the ACC is at 12 instead of 9 given possible shakeups.</p>
<p>kvilledeac, no way will the Big 10 grow to 20+ teams. It will most likely grow to 14 (but may just grow to 12 or perhaps as large as 16 if Texas decides to join), with Michigan and OSU being in opposite Divisions, but locked to play each other annually in a non-divisional game. That would ensure that the two play each other annually and on years when both are very strong, that they still play each other for the conference title</p>
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<p>What do you have to do to become an award winning AD at Wake Forest? Beat Elon? Keep your sports program one rung above North Carolina State in the cellar of the ACC? Perhaps keeping your mouth shut about rumors as to what other conferences are doing might be a good start.</p>
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<p>There aren’t 9 schools which would have the financial impact to merit such an expansion (that is, unless the B10 includes schools such as UF, USC, Cal, etc. - which isn’t going to happen).</p>
<p>Aside from UT and ND, candidate schools like Mizzou, RU, UNL, etc. would be a drag on the B10 membership cut from the conf.'s TV revenue.</p>
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<p>The addition of BC hasn’t exactly done wonders for the ACC in the Boston metro area.</p>
<p>Anyway, the latest report is that the Pac10 is set to invite 6 B12 schools in order to form their own cable network (according to the report, these schools w/ the Arizona schools would make up one of the 8 member divisions).</p>
<p>If this report is true, it seems $$ is trumping any concern about academics/research since schools like Texas Tech are in the mix (not that TT isn’t a fine school, but normally wouldn’t be considered by the Pac10).</p>
<p>Anyway, this pretty much would put UT in play w/ the B10 and the Pac10 to fight over the biggest prize.</p>
<p>TT is probably as good or better than OSU and WSU.</p>
<p>^ Yes, but previously in expansion talks, the Pac10 would not have offered an invite to schools such as TT irrespective of the quality/reputation of certain schools in the Pac10.</p>
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<p>Agreed. But that’s partly on the ACC which hasn’t done wonders in football since expansion. And I would agree that BC is fine but isn’t exactly a huge draw by themselves. However, with the large Catholic base in the Boston area, the combo of Notre Dame and BC would be a must have Big Ten Network cable buy for many a household. It’s about the money and the money is about selling your product on cable/satellite. </p>
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<p>That makes sense to me. Pretty darn smart idea.</p>