College Football--Big Ten Expansion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pete Bevacqua, who will become the Notre Dame AD early next year, was most recently the Chair of NBC Sports. I wouldn't be shocked if they figure out an attractive deal there!

This is not as clear as one may think.

Current Big Ten Conference media rights are owned by Fox, CBS, & NBC along with BTN (Big Ten Network which is 61% owned by Fox).

Certainly, Pete Bevacqua wants to maintain excellent relations between Notre Dame and NBC and he will operate in the best interests of Notre Dame, but the current CFP eligibility rules are temporary and will be redesigned/renegotiated in 2024/2025 for 2026. All that the CFP has to do is to specify that eligibility for the College Football Playoffs require that a team belong to & compete in a conference. But, this might push Notre Dame into the ACC rather than into the Big ten Conference. Unclear as I do not know Notre Dame's contractual provisions with the ACC other than in broad terms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pete Bevacqua, who will become the Notre Dame AD early next year, was most recently the Chair of NBC Sports. I wouldn't be shocked if they figure out an attractive deal there!

Swarbrick is the figure who has been most adamant that ND will never join a conference. A lot of people speculate that after he retires, they will finally cave and join the Big10

Agree. Even the President of Notre Dame might be nearing retirement--although I do not know of any such plan.

[Anonymous]

(OP here)

In my view, the best CFP format would be designed around four healthy power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and the ACC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Text message among ACC members shared by Notre Dame's outgoing AD (athletic director) Jack Swarbrick:

"The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D-1 sports could be abandoned in the latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics."

"He's [ND AD Jack Swarbrick] absolutely right and that's absolutely fair, but it is not the ACC's job to clean up this mess."

What an absolutely tone deaf, hypocritical tool.

This is an indictment of college athletics! Also, please NBC, give us 70M/year so we don’t have to join a conference.

Isn’t “abandoned” just another word for independent, Jack?

Buffoon.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Text message among ACC members shared by Notre Dame's outgoing AD (athletic director) Jack Swarbrick:

"The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D-1 sports could be abandoned in the latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics."

"He's [ND AD Jack Swarbrick] absolutely right and that's absolutely fair, but it is not the ACC's job to clean up this mess."

That’s rich coming from a school that has stubbornly remained independent. Why doesn’t ND just join the B1G and have Stanford and Berkeley sign on as well? Perhaps ND should be abandoned by all other top football schools since they want to remain on the outside of conference affiliation. Here’s another indictment of college athletics: It allows ND to remain independent without repercussions.

ND wants to join the playoff party at the end of the year without the pressure of competing for conference titles. With super sized conferences in the making, they might just be left out of the mix in the future. Imagine what would happen to ND if that occurred?

ND wants the NBC paycheck and the guarantee that all of their games will be on a national broadcast. If they go to the Big10 and end up playing Maryland at the same time Ohio State is playing Wisconsin, then they will be hard to find on tv

Other way around. Maryland has higher CFB viewership than Wisconsin.

https://medium.com/run-it-back-with-zach/which-college-football-programs-were-the-most-watched-in-2022-94eca4f6acbd

Normalize the data for opponent or it’s worthless

Last season UMD / Ohio state 6.6 million viewers

Wisconsin / Ohio state 4.59 million viewers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(OP here)

In my view, the best CFP format would be designed around four healthy power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and the ACC.

There won't ever be 4 healthy power conferences anymore though. That is wishful thinking. The Big12 will have no big-time programs left after this year and the ACC's top programs want to bolt ASAP due to the $$ differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(OP here)

In my view, the best CFP format would be designed around four healthy power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and the ACC.

There won't ever be 4 healthy power conferences anymore though. That is wishful thinking. The Big12 will have no big-time programs left after this year and the ACC's top programs want to bolt ASAP due to the $$ differences.

TCU has accomplished as much as the big 10 recently

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(OP here)

In my view, the best CFP format would be designed around four healthy power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and the ACC.

There won't ever be 4 healthy power conferences anymore though. That is wishful thinking. The Big12 will have no big-time programs left after this year and the ACC's top programs want to bolt ASAP due to the $$ differences.

TCU has accomplished as much as the big 10 recently

Am I missing something? TCU had a great year last season and got some friendly bounces to beat Michigan. However, TCU is 24-21 over the last 5 years in the Big 12 regular season. Take away last season's 9-0 regular season and they were 15-21. They also lost the conference title game to K-State last year, which doesn't count as a conference loss below.

2018 7–6 4–5 T–5th
2019 5–7 3–6 T–7th
2020 6–4 5–4 5th
2021 5–7 3–6 8th
2022 13–2 9–0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(OP here)

In my view, the best CFP format would be designed around four healthy power conferences like the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and the ACC.

There won't ever be 4 healthy power conferences anymore though. That is wishful thinking. The Big12 will have no big-time programs left after this year and the ACC's top programs want to bolt ASAP due to the $$ differences.

TCU has accomplished as much as the big 10 recently

Am I missing something? TCU had a great year last season and got some friendly bounces to beat Michigan. However, TCU is 24-21 over the last 5 years in the Big 12 regular season. Take away last season's 9-0 regular season and they were 15-21. They also lost the conference title game to K-State last year, which doesn't count as a conference loss below.

2018 7–6 4–5 T–5th
2019 5–7 3–6 T–7th
2020 6–4 5–4 5th
2021 5–7 3–6 8th
2022 13–2 9–0

The Big 12 cupboard isn't bare but it isn't close to the SEC or B1G. Kansas and the other OSU are probably their best overall assets. Kansas would jump at the opportunity to join the B1G too. I'd love to see a true basketball blue blood in the B1G, no offense to MSU, Indiana, and Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Kansas UCLA would be a great new rivalry!

[Anonymous]

As a Texas alum, and former athlete, I am excited about Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC. I would much rather travel to the SEC schools to tailgate as a fan. Not so much to the BIG.

I haven't had much interest in the BIG until my kid fell in love with PSU. We have tickets to the white out game with some of our Iowa friends.

It's getting crazy in the conference realignment. I think it's good for football and basketball. However, I"m worried about women's sports. My other kid won the Track and Field team national championship this year. It would not have happened if Texas football and basketball didn't cover the cost of non revenue sports.

[Anonymous]

(OP here)

The Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick deserves respect for fighting for Cal & Stanford.

Now it is the moral responsibility of the Big Ten Conference to make an offer to UCal-Berkeley and to Stanford. It can be a low ball offer, but at least the $20 million that the Pac-12 had offered.

Notre Dame is among the classiest institution in higher education. Yes, those folks are sharp business people, but they also are to be respected & trusted.

If Notre Dame football wants to remain independent, then that is its business.

Standing up for Cal & Stanford was/is the right thing to do; now it is time for the Big Ten Conference do the same.

[Anonymous]

(OP again)

You have to love SMU. Those folks love their school and they love their football. SMU supporters put their money behind their agenda. I cannot wait until SMU gets into a Power 4 Conference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(OP here)

The Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick deserves respect for fighting for Cal & Stanford.

Now it is the moral responsibility of the Big Ten Conference to make an offer to UCal-Berkeley and to Stanford. It can be a low ball offer, but at least the $20 million that the Pac-12 had offered.

Notre Dame is among the classiest institution in higher education. Yes, those folks are sharp business people, but they also are to be respected & trusted.

If Notre Dame football wants to remain independent, then that is its business.

Standing up for Cal & Stanford was/is the right thing to do; now it is time for the Big Ten Conference do the same.

Swarbrick deserves nothing of the kind! Let him put his money where his mouth is. If he feels that strongly, he should call the Big Ten and tell them that ND will join the league only if Stanford and Cal are included in the deal. This nonsense of glorifying ND as a classy institution that should be trust and respected is complete BS. Let them remain independent and get shut out of the major conferences and championship series. Then we’ll see how classy they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Text message among ACC members shared by Notre Dame's outgoing AD (athletic director) Jack Swarbrick:

"The notion that two of the very best academic institutions in the world who also play D-1 sports could be abandoned in the latest chapter of realignment is an indictment of college athletics."

"He's [ND AD Jack Swarbrick] absolutely right and that's absolutely fair, but it is not the ACC's job to clean up this mess."

What an absolutely tone deaf, hypocritical tool.

This is an indictment of college athletics! Also, please NBC, give us 70M/year so we don’t have to join a conference.

Isn’t “abandoned” just another word for independent, Jack?

Buffoon.

+1

It’s even funnier that he’s pushing them to join the ACC, a conference that ND feels isn’t good enough for them to be members. Well since ND isn’t among the, “very best academic institutions in the world” I guess it’s kind of understandable. ND feels that they should be the ONLY independent in college football because their brand is so much better than anyone else’s.