Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[scooter1369]

Rumor: Clemson to the Big XII?

@CoryFravel My sources confirm an agreement in principle has been reached for Clemson to join the Big12.

 

[MaliBuckeye]

If you want a relatively good, if Texas-centric, check out this stuff from Shaggy.

Here's their 100 page discussion of the B12 expansion.

Here's the three post summary of the 100 page thread. (FSU/Clem for sure, facilitated by WVa- possible Georgia Tech and Notre Dame as well)


Here's another thread that may interest Gatorubet.

Still waiting for ThuJone to weigh in.

 

[Bucknut24]

with FSU?


edit: nevermind, read the thread

 

[jarv]

Cory Fravel on twitter is saying Clemson is on their way to the Big 12. Never heard of the guy, but after reading some Clemson boards, apparantly he's a pretty reliable beat writer.

So if it didn't look like the ACC's days were numbered before the FSU rumors, they certainly are now. I just wonder where a team like Miami is going to end up.

Basically, it looks like the big four are going to take the post season out of the BCS' hands and just use the Rose Bowl and whatever the Big12/SEC are doing to make their own four team playoff. No one is going to vote an undefeated ACC, Mountain West or Big East team national champion over the team who wins that gauntlet. Those conferences are automatically obsolete.

In fact, all of this is basically Delaney's doing. After the success of the Big Ten Network other conferences started seeing how lucrative their TV deals were. They used the threat of starting their own network to get massive contracts from places like ESPN. And the Big 12 almost fell apart after the whole Longhorn Network fiasco. Even smaller teams were looking to jump ship to find more fertile financial ground. And with all of this playoff talk, Delaney wanted playoff games to be played on the higher seeds campuses...but every other conference shot that idea down. Delaney was forced to go to Plan B: Going with the Pac 12 and demanding the Rose Bowl remain untouched no matter what. The Big 12 and SEC then immediately go and establish their own generic Rose Bowl between their conference champions and that's set this whole monster into motion. Teams in other conferences now know that the writing is on the wall...any slot available in the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC is prime real estate. There is no consolation prize. Anywhere else is watching the college football world from afar. We've been hearing rumors of four 16 team "super conferences", and it looks like it's going to happen. I just hope the Big Ten jumps on the teams that can help the conference most, and I think Delaney is planning on doing exactly that.


And to answer the poll (which I've never taken for some reason)...

If there's an all out raid on the ACC this year, there's a couple teams I would like to see the Big Ten picking up. Viriginia and Georgia Tech are both AAU schools. Virginia would help conquer some of the DC market and Atlanta is a huge market as well. Outside of the ACC, Rutgers is brought up a lot, they're AAU and are in a big market as well so I can assume that could happen, but I would rather have Maryland. And of course the new big four conference playoff would mean that Notre Dame either has to join up or never compete for a national title ever again.

Georgia Tech (57th academically, #8 TV Market, 690-461-43 (.596) record)

Virginia (52nd academically, #9 TV Market 616-540-48 (.532) record)

Notre Dame (109th academically...national TV market I guess? 853-301-42 (.731) record)

Maryland (28th academically, #26 TV market. 611–535–43 (.532) record)

If ND refuses to play ball, Rutgers (#37 academically, #1 TV market 617–604–42 (.505) record) is a nice consolation prize.

I think this would be an awesome haul. Much better than what I think any other conference could do.

 

[OSU_D/]

 

[MaliBuckeye]

Allegedly, UVa has reached out to the B1G; VaTech looking at the SEC, ND and GaTech possible for the B12, and no one cares about Boise State.

 

[OSU_D/]

Allegedly, UVa has reached out to the B1G; VaTech looking at the SEC, ND and GaTech possible for the B12, and no one cares about Boise State.

UVA to the Big 10 and VT to the SEC speaks volumes! If ND and GT go B12 then I you'd have to assume the Big 10 goes straight up the eastern seaboard in to hit all the big markets - something like UVA, MD, Rutgers, BC. SEC would win big in this too. I think they'd get a school or two in North Carolina (assuming it this doesn't stop at 16).

Where is PBC tonight?

 

[jarv]

UVA to the Big 10 and VT to the SEC speaks volumes! If ND and GT go B12 then I you'd have to assume the Big 10 goes straight up the eastern seaboard in to hit all the big markets - something like UVA, MD, Rutgers, BC. SEC would win big in this too. I think they'd get a school or two in North Carolina (assuming it this doesn't stop at 16).

Where is PBC tonight?

I just don't see Notre Dame as a Big 12 team...not that I don't think they would do it (they're completely unpredictable in this mess) but it just wouldn't feel right, especially with their rivalries with Big Ten and Pac 12 teams.

Georgia Tech I could see hopping to the Big 12...but I'd much rather have them in the Big Ten. Solid program (honestly, who doesn't love the Ramblin' Wreck) and having them would help us eat into the SEC's market.

 

[jlb1705]

I just don't see Notre Dame as a Big 12 team...not that I don't think they would do it (they're completely unpredictable in this mess) but it just wouldn't feel right, especially with their rivalries with Big Ten and Pac 12 teams.

The closest thing they're going to get to independence is choosing the conference that nobody thinks is the best fit just to try to prove some kind of point.

 

[billmac91]

The closest thing they're going to get to independence is choosing the conference that nobody thinks is the best fit just to try to prove some kind of point.

Serious question....

With the amount of academic research money the Big 10 universities generate, can Notre Dame really afford to bypass the B1G?

Do the B1G schools share those dollars, or is that more of a dollar amount generated by individual universities that happen to be in the same conference?

 

[jarv]

Serious question....

With the amount of academic research money the Big 10 universities generate, can Notre Dame really afford to bypass the B1G?

Do the B1G schools share those dollars, or is that more of a dollar amount generated by individual universities that happen to be in the same conference?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Institutional_Cooperation

"CIC members engage in $6 billion in funded research, receiving some 12 percent of the total federal research funds awarded annually (18 percent of the National Science Foundation total, and 15.7 percent of the USDA total)."

and on the Big Ten wiki page it states: "Big Ten institutions are also, along with charter member the University of Chicago, part of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which shares a $5.6 billion research fund."

So, I don't know if it's split evenly...but when the pie is that big, even a small slice is huge.

 

[MaliBuckeye]

Four thoughts on why ND might go elsewhere-

• Tier Three TV Rights in the B1G go to the BTN. ND might be able to retain those and market independently with another conference.
• CIC schools do some pretty good stem-cell research. That's a problem for many in the Catholic academic community.
• Another conference would expand the recruiting base and re-emphasize the "national brand" ideal that ND is clinging to
• There are some who think the B1G pissed them off 100 years ago by not offering then, and that's why they haven't been actively involved in B1G expansion.

Just another thought- Other than MSU, there's really not a B1G traditional rivalry for ND. They just re-started the UM games again, and you know they're not going to play Ohio State (). Would you trade Purdue and Indiana for Texas and Florida State, in terms of premier matchups?


That being said, I'd love them to be in conference. My four would be- ND, GaTech, Va, Maryland. If we're getting crazy, you could substitute Missouri or Pitt for a second tier school in that grouping.

 

[Bucknut24]

I know the pickings aren't probably the best, but I just can't get excited about adding teams like MD, UVA, Rutgers, etc when Big 12 SEC are looking at teams like Clemson, FSU, Va Tech and ND

 

[Bucknut24]

I will find hilarious that once the Big East is done all the UCF fans (all 20 of them?) will start bitching again. They finally thought they were in a major conf that they think they rightfully deserve, only then to be still left behind

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Serious question....

With the amount of academic research money the Big 10 universities generate, can Notre Dame really afford to bypass the B1G?

Do the B1G schools share those dollars, or is that more of a dollar amount generated by individual universities that happen to be in the same conference?

To a degree, research and grant applications are coordinated, but schools don't pool and share their research funding.

That being said, joining the Big Ten would be a huge boost to Notre Dame's Ph.D and research programs from the areas where institutions do work to together and faculty cooperation and the ability of doctoral students to attend other CIC institutions for a stretch. ND's faculty knows that which is why their faculty senate voted 34-1 in favor of joining the Big Ten in the 90s but were overruled based on what the football program wanted. Throw that in the face of the next domer alumnus who inevitably starts babbling his academic talking points.