According to sources, the Big Ten officials and Notre Dame officials have entered into talks that could drastically alter the realignment talk which has dominated headlines in recent days. One insider told FanHouse on Tuesday that the two sides are talking about the nation's biggest independent joining one of the most influential conferences to give the Big Ten its desired 12 members.
The source said the talks "could not necessarily" be described as negotiations but said if Notre Dame can be convinced to give up its long standing independence that things could move rather quickly. Another source familiar with the back-and-forth between Notre Dame and the Big Ten over the years believes all of the Big Ten expansion talk which began with commissioner Jim Delany's announcement last December has always been aimed at getting the Irish to join the conference.
That last comment is interesting. The idea behind it is that the conditions that allowed ND to remain independent rather than joining the Big 10 a decade ago have been deteriorating, so the Big 10 decided last year to try its hand with Notre Dame. Notre Dame said no because the Big 10 still has little to offer; the Irish already have a sweetheart TV deal (though not quite as lucrative) and the Big East for all their non-cash-cow sports.
The Big 10 Network is the conference's ace in the hole. Because it brings in so much money, the Big 10 is more attractive than any other conference to any school out there. So the Big 10 made its move: "either you come with us, or we pull all the pillars out from under the Big East and leave you truly independent."
Checkmate? Let's hope so. With a far less favorable BCS deal than what we once had, the likely impending doom of our NBC TV deal in 2015, consistently shittier scheduling than we had even five years ago (Western Michigan and Tulsa? seriously?), and a commitment to our non-football varsity sports, many of which we just spent millions of dollars building fields and stadiums for, the Big 10 makes a lot of sense.
Let's look at scheduling for a moment. The complaint from Irish alumni about joining the Big 10 is that we'd have to fill our schedule with their shite teams. Here's the ND 2010 schedule:
Sept. 4 PURDUE
Sept. 11 MICHIGAN
Sept. 18 at Michigan State
Sept. 25 STANFORD
Oct. 2 at Boston College
Oct. 9 PITTSBURGH
Oct. 16 WESTERN MICHIGAN
Oct. 23 at Navy (at Meadowlands - East Rutherford, N.J.)
Oct. 30 TULSA
Nov. 6 Open Date
Nov. 13 UTAH
Nov. 20 ARMY (at Yankee Stadium - Bronx, N.Y.)
Nov. 27 at USC
Here's Michigan's schedule:
Sat, Sep 4 Connecticut 3:30 pm
Sat, Sep 11 at Notre Dame 3:30 pm
Sat, Sep 18 Massachusetts 12:00 pm
Sat, Sep 25 Bowling Green TBA
Sat, Oct 2 at Indiana TBA
Sat, Oct 9 Michigan State TBA
Sat, Oct 16 (7) Iowa 3:30 pm
Sat, Oct 30 at (9) Penn State 8:00 pm
Sat, Nov 6 Illinois TBA
Sat, Nov 13 at Purdue TBA
Sat, Nov 20 (16) Wisconsin TBA
Sat, Nov 27 at (5) Ohio State TBA
Which one has more crappy games?
Big 10 teams have eight conference games per season. That means the Irish can keep their annual games with Navy and USC, have two cupcake games (or even better, rotate in real teams that we play now like Pitt, Boston College, and UCLA) and still get their requisite 8 conference games.
As far as conference games go, the Big 10 would likely split into 2 divisions roughly divided by geography. The three Indiana schools, Ohio St. and Penn St. + 1 other team would form the eastern division. A Notre Dame Big 10 schedule, then, could conceivably look like this:
Sept. 4 PURDUE
Sept. 11 MICHIGAN
Sept. 18 at Michigan State
Sept. 25 STANFORD
Oct. 2 at Boston College
Oct. 9 INDIANA
Oct. 16 ILLINOIS
Oct. 23 at Navy (at Meadowlands - East Rutherford, N.J.)
Oct. 30 PENN STATE
Nov. 6 Open Date
Nov. 13 OHIO STATE
Nov. 20 NORTHWESTERN
Nov. 27 at USC
Tough schedule. Me likey. The problem with it is Notre Dame doesn't get any cupcakes while other Big 10 teams still do. The only teams we can take out to make room are BC and Stanford, meaning we've lost the ability to have new quality out-of-conference teams come play. Thus one of the sticking points may be limiting the Big 10 to fewer conference games or fewer cupcakes so we can still bring Boston College to town once in a while.
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