Most of the stories about the potential expansion of the Big Ten conference contain a sentence along the lines of, “The Big Ten would love to add Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish are more likely to remain independent in football.” As of today, those sentences might need an edit.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told reporters the university could give up its independence in football — that “a scenario that would force our hand” could arise.
(I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that such a scenario would involve either Notre Dame losing that big NBC contract… or getting more money as part of a Big Ten network deal.)
Swarbrick described the looming realignment as potentially “relatively small … or they could be seismic.” Small might mean the Irish joining the Big Ten for all sports — which would leave the Big East one member short in basketball — hardly a catastrophe. Or, they could join the Big East, where their football program might replace a Rutgers or Pitt or Syracuse, should one of those schools bolt for the Big Ten.
But what if the Pac 10 decides to expand as well… or the Big Ten decides to add more than one member?
That’s where “seismic” kicks in.
Could the football version of the Big East continue to exist as a BCS conference after that sort of realignment? Would the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Texas and Florida be willing to give up a primo bowl berth to the winner of a group headlined by Connecticut, Louisville, Cincinnati and whatever schools move up to replace the Panthers, Orange and Scarlet Knights? Or would all the Big East’s football schools scatter to the four winds, leaving a basketball-only conference?
This could get interesting.
Notre Dame Open to Joining Football Conference? originally appeared on About.com Basketball on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 16:19:32.
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