Turns out the Big 12
isn't going anywhere, and that Nebraska and Colorado are the only teams leaving. The irony being that this makes the Big Ten have 12 teams, and the Big Twelve has 10 teams now. In a weird way, I feel sort of let down. I think it's too bad because the possible massive conference realignment was generating a lot of positive buzz among college football fans. It certainly got my attention, and I know it sent shock waves coast to coast. It also managed to distract everyone from the real problem college football has of no playoff system.
Still, it's going to be pretty fun to watch Nebraska eventually play in the Big Ten. I am going to be curious how the Big 12 plans on having a Conference Championship Game when they don't have enough teams to legally do so? I'll also be curious if the Big Ten will have a championship game now since they have 12 teams?
Time will tell how these, and all the other possibilities will shake out.
First i wanted to address your previous article but i didn't have any time.
ReplyDeleteFirst, addressing the ND part.
"In a 2007 survey, Forbes reported that the Notre Dame football program returns $21.1 million to academic initiatives, a total that is more than the survey's next five programs combined".
Quoted from an NBC article. Second, a big ten school receives about 22 million from the network before taxes so the total revenue is much lower. Now, the silly NBC contact generates just as much/more money as the Big 10 network why should they leave?
As for the military academy's. The average college football fan does not know Navy, and Army actually help fund ND's football program in the 20's bailing them out of debt and keeping there football program alive. Without Army and especially Navy. ND would not exist. That's why they try and play every year. Now, whats the difference between ND playing Navy or USC playing San Jose St or Mich vs Umass (not even a D1 team, lol there in UD's conference).
Let me go on record, until they're 4 16 team power conferences there is no reason for ND to join a conference. I believe ND will and should over time join a conference. Only if the time is right and they are a good fit which the big ten is, but not 16 teams. So this is not a good fit and not the right time. So it will probably happen down the road.
Also, Cu and Neb will play each other still, they will schedule non conference games. Think how does FSU and Florida still play at the end of the yr. It will just be a Big Ten Pac 10 match up.
2007 huh Rossi? Boy that's up to date. Should we buy stock in Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and WAMU too then? Assuming that you realize you're in the year 2010 where both the economy and the financial landscape of college football has changed dramatically you'll want to refer to this article, which was written with an EXTREME amount of forethought exactly a year ago today that points out that Northwestern and Vanderbilt get more money for their televised games than ND.
ReplyDeletehttp://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/06/15/as-notre-dames-tv-money-dwindles-so-too-should-its-independenc/
So yes, the contract is still silly because it doesn't generate nearly the amount of money for ND that it once did.
Putting the dollars aside for a moment, yes we all know the story as to why ND plays the miliary still. That's all fine and lovely, but I would just ask you this question. Going over the past decade, do you honestly think the following schools of Miami, Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, LSU, Texas, Florida, and Alabama have just as good if not easier schedules than Notre Dame does?
The answer obviously is no they don't. In some of those schools cases, they have a CONFERENCE championship game to win in addition to the BCS Champsionship Game, which really makes their title runs all the more impressive.
So if Notre Dame is not making money anymore, and in some cases is being paid less than schools in the very same Big Ten that they thumb their arrogant noses at, and it's obvious that if you really want to be taken seriously as a BCS National Championship contender, you need to be in a conference...there really is no excuse for Notre Dame to remain independent anymore is there?