Oh folks, I've got so much written up. Thoughts on the draft, an SEC Battle of the Bands, a belated birthday note to Spurrier. All typed up and just not posted. And instead of reaching into my backlog, I'll be posting my thoughts on expansion.
First, any respect I had for the Big 10 is rapidly dwindling. The Big 10 really shouldn't have announced anything until they had a better idea what they were doing. I'm glad the Big East commish called the Big Ten commish out, because the affected conferences need to be making plans if something is going to go down, and if the Big 10 is all talk then we need to be allowed to get on with our lives. I think the Big 10 commish thought he was being all coy and people were going to be excited and supportive. Instead, we all know it's his desperate attempt to be able to compete with the SEC and he's being pissy that he's been called out on it. In other words, he's Britney Spears in her post-pantiless shot phase. Charming, really.
So here are my expansion thoughts:
1. Expansion is a good thing. Any team that wants a BCS game should play in a 12 team conference that has a championship game.
2. Expansion is a bad thing if conferences become bigger than 12 teams. It's an obvious, desperate move to eclipse the SEC. Lame an unmanagable.
3. I'm glad (I think) that Slive is going on record as saying he's going to keep the SEC on top. I'd hate for us to have to expand because my entire football life has been the 6/6 East/West and it's just perfect. On the other hand, our last expansion wasn't that long ago, and I'd hate even more for some other conference to start stealing some of our records. But surely there's some fable or myth about people wanting to outbuild each other and then it all collapses. That leads to
4. This is a very, very bad thing. About five years ago, I read an article in some journal for athletic bigwigs about the state of college football. The author determined that Division IA was unstable and untenable, destined to fall apart within the next twenty years. At the time, we were at 'only' 119 teams. I think now we're at 122. The top conferences will capture from the mid-tiers, which will recoup from the bottom tiers, which will encourage AA teams to make the leap, thus diluting even further the league's prestige.
5. Where does the Big 10 think it's going to get all these teams? It seems Notre Dame is finally facing reality and will be willing to acquiesce into the Big 10. That needs to happen, the end (we'll worry about the PAC-10 later). There aren't enough quality teams to expand much further. There aren't enough quality teams to fill the Big 10 as it is. There's no way any conference can meaningfully expand by more than two teams. Again, it's just going to dilute the landscape and cheapen college ball.
6. Where does the Big 10 think it's going to get all these teams? Previously, I focused on the on field product, which, admittedly, the comissioners care little about. Notre Dame, one of the richest programs in the nation, stands to gain ten million dollars per year by joining the Big 10. If there's that much a difference for a wealthy program, what can any other program bring to the conference without siphoning off the conference's existing resources? There's a theme here- dilution hurts every aspect of the conference.
7. Who would join the SEC? Right away, I'm thinking we'd have to get Georgia Tech back. Oh, if we steal Clemson and Florida State from the SEC, then Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida would all have huge in state rivalries with conference implications. I know Memphis is angling to get in the BCS; they're thinking the Big East, but if the SEC picks them up maybe Tennessee could get an instate rivalry, too. That would only leave out Kentucky and Arkansas, yes?
8. Not about expansion at all, but the draft has been hilarious. I'd've thought Denver would have learned their lesson after taking Cutler all those years ago. But no, they've chosen to become a laughing stock by taking Tebow. He came so close to not going in the first round, and I almost feel bad for Jimmy Clausen. However, it was very exciting when they showed him sitting at home watching the draft, and then brother Rick came into the living room from the kitchen. I miss Rick.
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Notre Dame, one of the richest programs in the nation, stands to gain ten million dollars per year by joining the Big 10.
ReplyDeleteAre you off your rocker, Miss Missionary? Notre Dame in the Big 10 is Purdue North. It's a one-way ticket to losing a national fanbase, oogles of merchandise profits across 50 states, and having to throw out a large single-party national TV contract and get kicked into whatever corner ten, eleven, or however many other schools want to throw ND in.
Not being in a conference sounds bananas from SEC world. I understand. And yes, it's not 1966. But being in a conference, ceteris paribus, is morally neutral. If your tradition and ethos is wrapped up in conference play, like it is at UT, Bama, et al., being an independent is unthinkable. But a conference championship is just another game against a team that maybe---just maybe---is pretty good at the end of the year. Being in a conference gets you what ND already has: perennial rivalry matchups. It also gets you what ND in recent years has demonstrated it can find: perennial bottom feeder punching bags. Being in a conference gives you another flag to waive (yay other SEC teams we hate once a year but sort of love at other times for inscrutable reasons!), but Notre Dame fans have those already: God, Country, Notre Dame.
Notre Dame is far smaller than any school in the Big Tweleven. It has a massive endowment but not anything like the numbers, size, or annual cash flow of places like OSU or Michigan. It will become the most pathetic and irrelevant of a conference that---outside of a pathetic part of the country---is already often irrelevant. Furthermore, conferences dictate more than what happens with your TV contract: the Big Tweleven requires member institutions to funnel money into graduate programs in manners that ND has continually eschewed.
Finally, some history: in 1913, Notre Dame was largely indistinguishable from 119 other Catholic colleges in the country. What mainly set them apart was having been blackballed by the Big 10 (then called the "Western Conference"), at the instigation of Michigan, after the 1909 Irish thumped the Wolverines. Unable to find local opponents for a full schedule, Coach Harper booked the most powerful team in the country, Army. Jesse Harper's ND team smoked Army at the Polo Grounds, led by Rockne and Dorais's forward passing attack. The rest is a colorful and successful history. Notre Dame became what it is through being independent. She gets a bigger seat at the table, a larger slice of the pie, and a wider following than other team, as an independent. Notre Dame needs to change like you or I need an extra hole in the head.
I understand Notre Dame takes pride in its independence and that it's still smarting from its previous Big Ten snub, and that they want to keep their instutition undergraduate focused. I've experienced how insular their fans are. I really wouldn't care one or way another about their conference status except they're given privilged status when it comes to BCS games and funding. Either they should make it in to the BCS games the way everyone else does, or they should join a conference. However, your post belies the true point- Notre Dame is scared of the competition. Without being able to schedule all the service academies (and please, no further history lectures about that tradition for I know all about that), how will she cobble together a winning season and take a more deserving team's bowl spot? They shouldn't be able to have that pie, and eat it, too.
ReplyDeleteFor further thoughts, I refer to my post "Expansion: Bad for Waistlines, Good for Conferences" if you have not all ready it.