Conference Armageddon Roundtable

Instead of worrying about the Mexder futures that were expiring for my trade desk this afternoon, I was embroiled in a heated debate consisting of lengthy emails debating the pros and cons of Notre Dame joining a conference amongst former members of my dorm. Below is a transcript of those emails. My thanks to all those who unknowingly contributed to this column.

For the sake of privacy, the names have not been changed.

Shuttlecock (10:22am)

"ACC anyone?"

La Bamba (10:48am)

"The thought of not being independent is tearing me up inside. It looks awful. I can't go up against 'Cuse again and lose on the reg. They're just too stong. Too good."

Mattare (11:19am)

"Notre Dame still does not have to join a conference based on what's transpired over the past few days. Swarbrick needs to be proactive in finding a good landing spot for our olympic sports, but football absolutely can stay independent if that's the path we want to continue on. The notion that our hand has been forced at this juncture is completely false."

Panzer (11:23am)

"As far as landing spots for olympic sports, I think the pool would work best for the diving team and a sand pit would work well for all long jumpers/triple jumpers. As for the other sports, its not so much the landing that I'm worried about."

Mattare (11:25am)

"That logic is infinitely wiser than any Kevin White used during his tenure."

Sharky (11:42am)

"Say the Olympic sports find a way to work themselves out (landing in pools/sand pits etc) without the need for football to join a conference (is this even possible?).

I still dont think you can say at this juncture anymore we 'can absolutely stay independent', just like Texas can no longer 'absolutely' keep their network without some concessions. I think there are too many variables at play just to say we can remain with our status quo. I think it would be best to get our number one pick at a conference, rather than risk the whole landscape changing with us on the outside. I guess the counter argument could be the BCS right now is the the 6 conferences + ND, why couldnt it be the 4 Conferences + ND. I just think we've lost some sway in the past 15 years of mediocre football/slipping ratings."

C-Loss (12:03pm)

"Setting aside the ND part of this, I don't get why there have to be 416 team superconferences. Because some sportswriter wrote about it? 16 teams makes no sense at all for football, there's only 12 games a year. What's the point of a conference where you play barely half of the other teams in a given year? Why stop at 16, why not 20 or 25? I don't get this magic 16 number.

ND should do everything it can to stay independent in football. My biggest concern is scheduling... If they go to 10 conference games there will be less opportunities for the other teams to schedule out of conference games with us. But a 12-0 ND team is not getting shut out of an 8 team playoff just because they aren't in a super conference. And if they stick with the current 2 team playoff (BCS Champ game), we're not getting shut out unless there are 2 other undefeated teams or we run into major scheduling issues where we have a Boise like schedule since no one wants to schedule ND anymore. I don't think this is likely at all."

Mattare (12:29pm)

"In terms of football: Notre Dame hasn’t been relevant in the national championship race for 15+ years, but we’ve still got more sway than any other school because we still make other schools fistfuls of money. We’re the only sellout at Stanford every other year. We’re one of the only guaranteed sellouts at Purdue, Boston College, and sometimes even Pitt. We just drew over 110k for Michigan. We sold out Penn State (108k?) and North Carolina when we were HORRENDOUS. You realize the Pac-12 has a Notre Dame provision written into its bylaws to provide exemptions so that Southern Cal and Stanford can continue to play the Irish in November (because other Pac-12 schools aren’t allowed to schedule out of conference games after the third week of the season moving forward). Why? Because we make them money and provide big exposure on the opposite coast. You could argue they’re allowing the preservation of the ND-Southern Cal rivalry, but you certainly can’t make that claim about Stanford who we only started playing every year in the mid-to-late 90’s.

Glad C-Loss chipped in on the schedule before I sent this. The scheduling myth is just like the academic standard myth. We will always be able to find teams to play us as long as we’re willing to do home-and-homes for the aforementioned reasons (money and exposure). The Pac-12 has us written into their bylaws to accommodate our November games in California and I bet there will be provisions to allow Oklahoma and Texas to at the very least maintain their current contractual arrangements for games with ND if not permit it moving forward. Northwestern just broke Big 10 protocol and scheduled us in November because we were willing to do a home-and-home. I bet other Big 10 schools would as well. You’re telling me Boise State wouldn’t jump at a home and home whenever we wanted it? Same with everyone who’s left from the Big 12 and ACC. Even look at the SEC: Tennessee played us in November twice in ’04 and ’05. It can be done. It’s going to take work and creativity, but Swarbrick has already shown he’s adept to putting together compelling schedules moving forward and there’s no reason to believe that wouldn’t be possible with these new realignment shifts.

Texas has some sway, but it pales in comparison to ND’s brand—that’s not hubris or arrogance, that’s just reality. Swarbrick needs to operate knowing that which would be a stark contrast to White’s approach, which led to be bullied and come out on the wrong side of a deal with—of all schools—Purdue. We can maintain independence, it’s just a matter of whether we want to go to the necessary lengths to ensure it. There’s always going to be a spot for us in the Big Ten if “Armageddon” finally comes. We’re never going to be completely left out in the cold because we would bring too much value for people to just freeze us out—money rules everything and we’re the golden goose. Plus, it’s not like even if it goes to 4 16-team super conferences that a playoff is going to suddenly arise. In order for that to happen the 64 teams would have to break away from the NCAA which isn’t going to happen in this lifetime.

In terms of Olympic sports, that’s the much tougher riddle to solve and where Swarbrick will earn his money. Does he take the bull by the horns and try to spearhead a new conference? Does he attempt to slide into the Big 12/Big East mess? I think that colossal fustercluck is weak enough that ND could flex its muscle and join in everything but football. That obviously isn’t an option for any other major conference, but it’s certainly worth trying in this instance. One intriguing (albeit farfetched) idea was presented a couple years ago on the blog Domer Law.

http://domerlaw.blogspot.com/2010/04/conference-talk.html

I could absolutely live with that conference (with minor tweaks…get out of here Loyola, Chicago) for our Olympic sports. It would require us nuking the A-10 and poaching some other schools as well, but it still intrigues me and most importantly gives us a legit conference with 15 schools that have no D-I football team. Added bonus: the conflict CLoss (a die-hard Hawks fan) would deal with when ND played St Joe’s in basketball."

Sharky (2:34pm)

"You guys keep mentioning money, money, money, but is independence really the catalyst in providing all that money. Without really searching too deep, I feel like our NBC tv deal gives us less in TV revenue then each individual team in the big conferences (Again this is something I've heard, I dont have the facts on that). If you search Forbes most valuable football teams, we are no longer number 1 (It seems like Texas has clearly overtook us in that regard).

Scheduling: I agree won't be a problem, plenty of teams will always want to play us
Brand: Yes I believe we are still number 1, but again, is that really an independence thing?

I think the best thing to do would be to join a 'independent' conference with Texas, Oklahoma, BYU, etc, where we are affiliated with them (meaning we play these teams every year, but there's no conference) and each team does not have to share their revenue. But, it seems Texas is set on joining a conference.

So basically, which I think was my original email way back when today, do we join a 'weaker' conference for our 'olympic' sports, just to remain independent in football. I personally wouldnt, and that's also because I really don't see the perks of staying as an Independent any better than joining a conference. I dont see Independence as meaningful as it once was to ND. The money is in conferences now, and if we could maintain relations with NBC and the ACC, i bet it creates more revenue. Branding: I believe playing in a conference championship game against FSU, ontop of still ending the season with USC would be a huge boost to the ND brand.

The only drawback to the conference is we are maxed out at scheduling 2 awesome Non-Conference games (it would be USC, Navy, one other good team). But within conference play, if it is ACC (we woud play FSU, Miami, VATECH) every year, and if we join Big Ten (We'd play Mich, OSU, Nebraska, Penn State) every Year. I feel like both schedules are ridiculously good (whether its our independent or conference schedule)."

Mattare (3:46pm)

"I’m talking about money for other teams, not us. Money is driving all of this but it shouldn’t govern what we choose to do. You’re correct, the NBC contract makes us significantly less money than how much Big 10 schools allegedly make off the BTN and it’s less than the newly negotiated major conference contracts as well. But we’re not hurting for money and there comes a point where passing up dollars to preserve “the brand” in a specific way becomes more valuable in the long-term.

A good example is Augusta National with The Masters. AN probably makes ¼ of what they could off of The Masters because they want control of every last detail from the times the tournament is broadcast to the camera angles used to the graphics on the telecast even all the way down to terms used on the air to describe fans (patrons) and rough (2nd cut). They could bid out that tournament and come away with an ungodly television contract. Instead they have a one-year contract every year with CBS. They could sell PPV packages that would allow tv viewers to see every shot of every round that could make them an absurd amount of money. They could charge more than $1.50 for a pimento cheese sandwich on the property. They could have more than 2-3 sponsors every year.

Now it’s not a perfect comparison, but I think it works. Notre Dame would stand to make way more money than we do right now if we were in a conference, but we don’t need it. We’d stand to make more money by having seven or eight home games like OSU every year, but it’d be at the expensive of having a good, national schedule. We’d make more money by bullying schools like Wake Forest and Northwestern into playing at neutral sites instead of their home stadiums, but you can argue that’d be at the expense of some code of ethics. How much money could we make by allowing a sponsor to advertise in the Stadium? There’s a reason we don’t.

The Forbes list has us as the #3 most valuable football program (behind Texas and OSU), but if I remember correctly it was somehow weighted to favor schools with bigger enrollments (I’m not quite sure how that makes sense in terms of value, but I do remember someone doing a calculation of money generated per student in the school and ND’s was still the biggest…maybe it was just the effect of the football revenue? I don’t remember, but regardless we still make an absurd amount of money).

I’d love for Texas to join us as an independent, I just don’t think they have the cajones or desire to do it because conference membership is all they’ve ever known.

We’ll have to agree to disagree about the value of being independent. Notre Dame’s national popularity was forged by being an independent. Right now we basically set our own course in terms of scheduling, television deals, BCS provisions, etc. Once you give an inch of that up you can never get it back (see: Kevin White’s beyond moronic BCS concession in 2004 that has to date cost us $8mil). If we regionalize ourselves by jumping in a conference—and that’s exactly what joining the Big 10 would do over time—you kill a huge part of what made ND unique. Instead of sitting at a table of one making decisions that are best for the university and it’s football/athletic programs, we’d be sitting at a table of 16 with 1/16th the power. Sure, we’ll be allowed to keep our NBC contract on this go-around, but when it expires who says the remaining members can’t go “you have to give it up or we’ll boot you and all your other teams from the conference”? Then we’re completely screwed. We still have a ton of leverage and clout right now. That’ll dissipate as soon as we join a conference.

This entire process of realignment is created and sustained by greed. Conferences with 16 teams each and essentially zero geographical ties make little to no sense for just about every sport (the ONLY way they make sense in football is the fact that it makes more money…in every other regard it’s pretty terrible). Why not try to fight this and carve out a niche for all of our other sports that makes sense on every level while maintaining football independence? Swarbrick was a huge player—if not the most influential—in calming the seas last year. It’s time for him to step up and be even more pro-active this time around."

Sharky (4:45pm)

"I still dont think you are painting a picture of why independence has greater value anymore than joining a conference. You wrote: "scheduling, television deals, BCS provisions" as the main three reasons, as well as forging our popularity back in the day, and leverage at the tables.

I think scheduling is still fairly even being in a conference as and independent. Maybe even conference has the edge because its a higher probability we have bigger games during the middle and end of the season, plus a conference championship game.

Television Deals: I'm not good at arguing this point. I just feel like being on 'NBC' doesnt really have as much sway as it did 15 years ago. If our games are on ESPN2, B10 network, yes it doesn't sound as cool, but I feel like more people are going to tune into the b10 network to watch us play Wisconsin, then NBC to watch us play W Michigan. I think matchups dictate ratings now that for the most part. It is cool having inside stories on ND (like our professor, more interviews with our players that nbc has access too), but I dont know if most people really care about that. So my belief is go for the better deal when it comes to tv. I think that should be dictated by money (isn't that originally why we signed up with NBC?)

BCS provisions: You acknowledged our deal sucks now, so joining a conference won't hurt that.

More popular: Yes, being independent back in the day made us more popular. A big reason is because it allowed us to travel across the country. Again, thats not an advantage we hold over others now. Many choose not to play games coast to coast, but really the only way to get more popular is to win nowadays.

I'm just not convinced ND joining a conference ruins our uniqueness. We are unique because we are Catholic (that won't change), we have the most storied history (that won't change), we graduate our players (that won't change), we have a national fanbase (that won't change), we dont have naming rights on our stadium/jumbotron (that won't change), we consistantly have a tough schedule (that won't change). What conference votes will there be made that might not be best for our univesity (scheduling night games/adding a 10th conference game/splitting revenues (but ND doesnt care about the money suppposedly).

Joining a power conference is better for other sports, but that doesnt seem to be much of the focus here. If you are worried about geography, join the Big 10 over ACC."

Julie (5:36pm)

"Do any of you have real jobs?"

La Bamba (5:38pm)

"With 99 weeks of unemployment? Absolutely not. It's called "finding myself."

Mattare (6:10pm)

"I’ll dissect your thoughts piece by piece.

I still dont think you are painting a picture of why independence has greater value anymore than joining a conference. You wrote: "scheduling, television deals, BCS provisions" as the main three reasons, as well as forging our popularity back in the day, and leverage at the tables.

I think scheduling is still fairly even being in a conference as and independent. Maybe even conference has the edge because its a higher probability we have bigger games during the middle and end of the season, plus a conference championship game.

Look at our schedules from the 90’s look at our schedules for the next five years. Ignore the ones drawn up by Kevin White. Teams we’ve played and are scheduled to play: Texas, Washington, Georgia Tech, Southern Cal, Arizona State, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Miami, Nebraska, Northwestern, Penn State, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Florida State, UCLA…talk about nationwide, compelling schedules. Kiss that goodbye in a conference.

Television Deals: I'm not good at arguing this point. I just feel like being on 'NBC' doesnt really have as much sway as it did 15 years ago. If our games are on ESPN2, B10 network, yes it doesn't sound as cool, but I feel like more people are going to tune into the b10 network to watch us play Wisconsin, then NBC to watch us play W Michigan. I think matchups dictate ratings now that for the most part. It is cool having inside stories on ND (like our professor, more interviews with our players that nbc has access too), but I dont know if most people really care about that. So my belief is go for the better deal when it comes to tv. I think that should be dictated by money (isn't that originally why we signed up with NBC?)

We have our own national television network. There is one school that has an entire major network devoted solely to it and it’s Notre Dame with NBC. That’s pretty powerful, it’s just that we’ve been so mediocre to crappy over the past fifteen years that we haven’t really taken advantage of it. This is once again about branding, not necessarily grabbing for the biggest wad of money. Was money the original reason for signing with NBC? It was certainly a big factor I’m sure, but it also provided us exposure that had never even been fathomed previously. Things have changed since then (obviously), but I think the NBC deal suits us just fine right now and will be extraordinarily valuable when we start posting top ten finishes consistently again.

BCS provisions: You acknowledged our deal sucks now, so joining a conference won't hurt that.

Kevin White is an idiot. That being said, we still have a specific automatic qualifier provision for ND written into the BCS despite White handing away our boatloads of potential cash. That disappears in a conference.

More popular: Yes, being independent back in the day made us more popular. A big reason is because it allowed us to travel across the country. Again, thats not an advantage we hold over others now. Many choose not to play games coast to coast, but really the only way to get more popular is to win nowadays.

Agreed that winning is the most important thing. But the fact that we “barnstorm” and play all over the country is something that’s unique and once again distinguishes us. Does it help recruiting that we can tell recruits moving forward that we’ve got a game in Texas, California, and Florida (that will be monsters if we’re good) over the course of their four years? You can debate that, but I say it can’t hurt in a world where we need every last inch in recruiting battles.

I'm just not convinced ND joining a conference ruins our uniqueness. We are unique because we are Catholic (that won't change), we have the most storied history (that won't change), we graduate our players (that won't change), we have a national fanbase (that won't change), we dont have naming rights on our stadium/jumbotron (that won't change), we consistantly have a tough schedule (that won't change). What conference votes will there be made that might not be best for our univesity (scheduling night games/adding a 10th conference game/splitting revenues (but ND doesnt care about the money suppposedly).

I don’t know what to tell you if you don’t see how it cuts into our uniqueness. Right now the college football world has provisions in everything that

Independence is a huge part of our identity and that “storied history;” abandoning that moving forward will change how future generations view the history we write from this day on. In terms of conference voting: don’t put your fate in someone else’s hands when you have the ability to completely control your own—which we still do. Joining a conference is the lazy way out. If the spineless Monk Malloy along with an incompetent AD (Mike Wadsworth…though not to the level of Doc White, White has a Phd in incompetence) could stand up to the Big 10 like they did in ’99, then someone with the juice of Fr. Jenkins accompanied by someone with the smarts of Jack Swarbrick can navigate this turmoil and bring us out the other side of it in a way that preserves everything we value.

Joining a power conference is better for other sports, but that doesnt seem to be much of the focus here. If you are worried about geography, join the b10 over acc.

I mean, this entire plague known as super-conferences has nothing to do with other sports. If it did then one of the top five college basketball programs of all-time (Kansas) wouldn’t be sitting on the sideline completely helpless as the new landscape takes shape. What good does this new realignment really bring fans or the student-athletes? Nothing, it’s a giant money grab. There are some delusional people that see this as the next step toward a playoff, which is completely ridiculous.

Notre Dame should fight against what’s become a ridiculously non-sensical trend of super-conferences. Once we take the plunge into them there’s no going back and we head down a path of becoming “just another school.” No, we’ll never devolve into an also-ran and the name will always carry weight, but it will lose something—and that’s something we should fight against tooth and nail."

More Storm Clouds?

Out of all the Big Ten smoke that's emerged this is perhaps the juiciest nugget to date. It comes--from of all places--a Northwestern message board. At first I had reservations about posting it on WNG since it came from Rivals.com and usually re-posting Premium Board info is off-limits; but then I realized none of the Northwestern boards are Premium (which makes sense because there may be only 14 people in the United States who care an iota about Northwestern football and zero of them care enough to pay for a Rivals subscription). This makes everything on their boards available for public consumption.

So without further ado, here it is from poster "PURPLE Book Cat":

"I just had a few beers tonight with a friend who works for the Big Ten here in Chicago. According to him, the Big Ten has focused their efforts on and is getting hot with three schools: Notre Dame, Texas, and Nebraska.

A few things stood out about what he told me. First, contrary to my understanding of the benefits of expansion, the Big Ten is NOT pursuing a playoff system in football. Instead of a playoff, the football teams would all be required to add an additional one or two out of conference game, which would push the regular season back one week or two. The Big Ten wants to maintain the end of season rivalry games at the end of the football season as opposed to adding a playoff.

Second, the Big Ten, Texas and Notre Dame are discussing a special rule to accommodate both of those schools. Instead of playing 8 games, both Texas and ND would play 7 to enable each school to play 6 out of conference games. That's apparently the caveat that brought both to the table, and Texas and ND also want to play each other every year. The tradeoff is that an 8-0 Big Ten team would always trump a 7-0 ND/Texas as conference champion, which is a potential logistical sticking point for the Big Ten and these teams.

But apparently ND and Texas value the extra OOC game more than the conference championship potential, and ND and Texas want to play each other every year making the tie between two 7-0 teams impossible. They're also looking at potentially giving a automatic BCS slot for a 7-0 ND/Texas Big Ten team that loses the conference championship to an 8-0 team as a carrot, where the 8-0 team could still get the at-large but isn't guaranteed.

Finally, the Big East is essentially pushing ND to discussions with the Big Ten. The Big East has presented an ultimatum to ND to play football or get out of the conference for the other sports in order to protect the integrity of the remainder of the conference. Apparently discussions have taken place between the Big Ten and the Big East, and the current understanding is that the Big Ten will not accept any other Big East schools if ND joins the Big Ten. ND also will retain a national schedule, particularly with Texas joining, where it would have the ability to schedule 6 OOC games plus one game with Texas. This means they're picking up only three additional games with Big Ten schools while playing in the conference."

This is really interesting information and I'm sure there's at least some truth to it, but there are a few things that don't make sense to me. Let's break them down:

1. The Big Ten is not pursuing a conference championship game

This cannot be true. This entire expansion is about money, money, and more money and choosing not to host a conference championship game when you clearly are set up for one leaves a boatload of cash on the table.

What to take from this: The powers that be in the Big Ten are somewhat torn about leaving behind tradition (read: end of year rivalry games) and moving into the new age of college football (read: conference championship game and money, money, money). The reality is that money will speak far louder than the Indiana-Purdue and Iowa-Minnesota games.

2. Notre Dame and Texas will have a special rule to accommodate both schools

I have a hard time fathoming that programs as proud as Michigan and Ohio State will sign off on Notre Dame and Texas joining their conference and getting to play by a totally different set of rules. The entire scenario painted about an 8-0 Big Ten team trumping a 7-0 ND/Texas is so convoluted and requires accounting for so many caveats that it doesn't make any sense. The whole BCS automatic bid to the ND/Texas team would require the entire BCS to make a weird exception within a conference. Conceivably, there's a scenario where a 7-0 (12-0) Notre Dame team would go to the national championship but not win the conference championship because Ohio State went 8-0 (11-1). It just sounds too bizarre.

What to take from this: The powers that be are bending over backwards trying to make the two sides (ND/Texas and the Big Ten as we know it) happy, even if it means stepping on some big toes and appealing to the NCAA/BCS to make unprecedented exceptions. Texas and especially ND couldn't care less about winning conference championships in football while teams like Michigan cares about it more than national championships.

(What, you say that Michigan DOES care about national championships more than conference championships? Then explain why they talk about Bo Schembechler being one of the greatest coaches ever when he had zero national championships and lost eight of the ten Rose Bowls his teams played in. They LOVE those conference championship banners up in Ann Arbor because they mask the fact that Bo was the most overrated coach in history. But I digress...)

3. The Big East and Big Ten have had discussions about pushing Notre Dame toward the Big Ten

Now this is somewhat troubling and unfortunately believable. If the Big East feels that threatened--and they have ample reason to be skittish--then it may feel the only way to stay viable is to use Notre Dame as a sacrificial lamb to save itself.

What to take from this: This collusion between the Big Ten and Big East is the only true threat to Notre Dame's football independence. Should this scenario become real it'll be up to Swarbrick to sell the value of the other Irish athletic programs to the Big East or come up with a creative way in which to keep the football team out of both conference without hindering the other sports.

Personally, if the Big Ten really was hoping to force the Big East into delivering Notre Dame an ultimatum I think they screwed themselves by inviting Missouri and Nebraska. With the trio of Rutgers, Missouri, and Nebraska that bumps the league up to 14 teams. One can assume that 16 teams is the ceiling for expansion. The reality is the Big Ten will never completely close the door on Notre Dame--no matter how many times we shoot them down--because they'll hold out hope that one day the NCAA will somehow mandate that the Irish to join a conference (or that the second coming of Kevin White becomes ND's Athletic Director). If that day arrives they'll need to have the flexibility to add Notre Dame because of what ND would mean in terms of added revenue (boatloads), elevated prestige (adding the premier brand in college football), and national footprint (truly national fanbase, ultimate Big 10 Network expansion).

If this is the case--and I believe that's reality whether Big Ten higher-ups and fans want to admit it or not--then the conference will stop expansion at 14 teams. Does it make any sense to add two lower tier football schools like UConn, Pitt, or Syracuse to the conference at the expense of losing out on Notre Dame forever? I don't think so.

By adding Missouri and Nebraska the Big Ten gave away all their true leverage with the Big East. There's no way the Big Ten can crush the Big East by pillaging it further because they'll lose out on Notre Dame forever. As much as it bruises the Big Ten's pride and ego, they will always have to patiently wait and hope for that day to arrive without totally closing the door. If the Big East realizes this they should breathe a huge sigh of relief because their football conference will remain viable and their pride and joy--the best basketball conference in America--will remain intact.

This is all speculation but playing out these scenarios, debunking myths, and trying to get inside the heads of all the different decision-makers is kind of a fun exercise--albeit a stressful one if you're a Notre Dame fan hoping the program stays independent. If the Big Ten does in fact choose to add Mizzou, Nebraska, and Rutgers then it's probably the best case scenario Notre Dame could have asked for in its crusade to stay independent.

The addition of the two Big 12 teams is a strategic blunder by Jim Delany if he was hoping to force the Big East's hand. I think when the dust settles the Big East will survive, Notre Dame will have maintained its football independence, and the Big Ten will act like a jilted 8th grader who was just shot down when he asked a girl out and claim it never wanted us any way.

We'll know the truth about how bad they wanted us though. And it makes the "thanks...but no thanks" that much sweeter.

The Big 10 pops the question (again) to Our Lady

Reports coming out today are saying that the Big Ten has extended invitations to four schools: Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, and Notre Dame. The gist of everything that I've read is that whether they expand to 14 or 16 is dependent on what the Irish ultimately decide. If Notre Dame says yes then they'll seek out another team to make it an even number. If they say no then they'll stick with 14.

There are so many options and things to consider for Swarbrick in this situation and I can't blame him if he goes off the radar for a few days to collect his thoughts.

While I would love for him to just fax Big 10 Commissioner Jim Delany a picture of Dikembe Mutombo giving the Finger Wag, his ultimate plan of action should involve him driving to see Mr. Delany in person, walking into his office, and giving him a heartfelt, well-articulated answer. This would suffice:

Two Dudes, One Post: Big Ten Expansion Edition

It's been three long months since Bill appeared on this site so it was time to lure him out of hibernation with a little Two Dudes, One Post. This edition focuses on the rumors of an imminent Big Ten Conference power play and what it means for Notre Dame, the conference, and the national college football landscape in general.

1. The rumblings of a Big Ten expansion are getting louder and louder. Of course when it comes to We Never Graduate there is one team in these discussions that is of extraordinary relevance: the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Do you want to see Notre Dame join the Big Ten? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.

Bill: Of course I do, then you can't point to your schedule when you go 6-6. They're good for the league. They add value, they have great academics, mediocre football program, and they take the pressure off Northwestern as the nerdiest school in the conference.

Mattare: Absolutely not. I think remaining independent is a huge part of maintaining our identity as the premier brand in college athletics. We're totally unique in the fact that we are the only team that can pull off being independent thanks to our program's history and national fan base. There's really something to be said for that.

Being independent means we have total freedom and flexibility in scheduling and television negotiation rights, it means we don't limit ourselves to being a associated with a single region, and it means that we preserve a tradition that's unparalleled in college football. Scoff and say that clinging to tradition is just an unwillingness to change with the times, but tradition is large part of what makes Notre Dame so special. The ability to survive and thrive as a program without a conference is something we should never surrender.

2. Apparently this expansion could include only one team or it could be as many as five. In your mind what's the ideal number, who are the teams, and why?

Bill: One, and I would like Notre Dame, only because I don't see enough other worthy candidates. The conference is already under fire and I really don't want to water it down. As far as the rumblings that college football is moving towards super conferences--I'll be honest--I don't really know what that means. I like the familiarity that comes with 10-14 team conferences. If we had to take 3 schools I'd opt for ND, Pitt, and Rutgers.

Mattare: As long as it isn't Notre Dame I couldn't care less, but I'll play along with the exercise. I think they should take one and it should be Nebraska. I don't want to deal with the doomsday scenarios of the Big East imploding any longer so to me this would be a nice, quick, easy, and painless transition. The Big Ten would get their title game, Nebraska would generate a lot of excitement and fun new matchups (Nebraska-Michigan, Nebraska-OSU, Nebraska-PSU would all be blockbuster games), and all the people who are chirping about "a new world order" in go back to yelling at people on street corners in New York City.

3. There are columnists hypothesizing this will have a minimal impact outside the Big Ten while others think that it could send shockwaves that will kill the Big East and reshape the Big 12. When all is said and done, what do you think ends up happening and what impact will it have on the college football landscape?

Bill: At the time I'm writing this I think it only hurts, or should I say destroys the Big East. I don't think Texas or Missouri is happening, I think we end up landing three teams from the Big East at which point it is no more. Maybe they have to form a new conference with Conference USA teams or pick up Temple, Buffalo and Miami OH???

Mattare: I don't think that it's going to be as crazy as some people seem to believe. First of all, adding Texas is a pipe dream and Notre Dame is not budging on their desire to stay independent. The only reason to aggressively raid the Big East for three teams and bury it is to force Notre Dame's into the conference--which in my opinion is a lost cause.

The teams they're talking about adding in the big raid--Rutgers, Pitt, and Syracuse--won't do much to expand the Big 10 Network's footprint much because there are more Penn State fans in Jersey than Rutgers fans and more Penn State fans than Pitt fans in Western PA. Syracuse just waters down the league in terms of football so they'd almost be a burden in exchange for acquiring the Western NY area. I also don't understand why it's a forgone conclusion Syracuse would jump to the Big Ten. Are they that willing to junk their traditional rivals in basketball, their more important sport?

4. Let's make a huge assumption and say the extreme happens--the Big Ten takes five teams, the Big East crumbles, and the other conferences realign. Do you think this makes a switch to a playoff system imminent?

Bill: I do not. What changes with bigger conferences? The BCS still gets to hand out bowl bids to these conferences and all the other bowls would reach new agreements with the new conferences and everyone still gets paid.

Mattare: No. The college presidents and the majority of conference commissioners don't want it and therefore it won't happen. Every year it'll be debated and some years when there are multiple teams that have a case for a shot at the championship (like last year) it'll be more heated, but it'll all be for nothing.

I don't see any sort of "plus-one" model becoming a reality until this generation of college presidents and commissioners retires and to be honest I never see a D-1AA style playoff (whether it be 8 or 16 teams) ever coming to fruition. The powers-that-be don't want to lessen the importance of what is the best regular season in sports and, while they'll never come out and say it, the debates that happen every winter about who should be in the championship are actually great for the sport.

ON TO THE RAPID FIRE FINISH!

Mattare: Tim Tebow prayed his way into the end of round one (the only explanation for the entire world conveniently forgetting his Morelli-esque Senior Bowl performance). How do you see his pro career turning out?

Bill: I think he will earn a job as a starter and have a winning record. 0 Pro Bowls, 0 Super Bowls.

Bill: What happened to Jimmy?????

Mattare: The only explanation is he admitted to running a dog fighting ring during his pre-draft interviews. The silver lining is he landed in the perfect spot with the Panthers. He's going to light it up.

Mattare: How excited are you that the Birds traded up to pass on Safety Earl Thomas and pick a 268lb Linebacker-Defensive End tweener deluxe who went to Michigan?

Bill: Pretty pumped actually. Linebacker might be the weakest spot on our team and I like Graham's instincts...and I heard we liked Nate Allen all along.

Bill: The Skins picked up Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark, so now you have two of my old quarterbacks (Clark and McNabb). How do the sloppy seconds taste?

Mattare: Like mediocrity. The type that takes the gas in big games. Neither have anything on Sexy Rexy Grossman.

Mattare: We both experienced our first bachelor parties last month in Vegas and South Beach. What did you learn that will come in handy at our bachelor parties?

Bill: Two Days max. Any longer and you are shaving serious year off your life.

Bill: Staying with the bachelor parties, how many months could you pay your car insurance if you didn't get VIP bottle service in Miami?

Mattare: The rest of 2010...all for three fifths of Three Olives Vodka with sparklers attached to them. Bottle service is the dumbest thing we did on the trip that I'm willing to post on this site.

Conference Membership Inevitable? I'll Call That Bluff...

Over the last couple months there has been quite a bit of chatter regarding Notre Dame possibly joining a conference for football. This new wave of speculation has been driven by the Big Ten's renewed desire to expand in order to put on a conference championship game at the end of the season. At the very least their actions will shake up the Big Ten's world; at most it could send shockwaves through the entire college football universe. The notion that Notre Dame may be on the brink of giving up its independence has been fueled further by Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick's comments as reported by ESPN.

This entire situation is being overblown by people picking out certain lines of Swarbrick's remarks and not looking at the entirety of what he was saying. There are a lot of rumblings going on right now so of course Notre Dame is "monitoring the landscape." At the same time Swarbrick understands the history and tradition of Notre Dame Football and how important its success is to the rest of the University (something Mike Wadsworth and Kevin White never grasped). He's "monitoring" the landscape in case something absolutely crazy happens that really would force ND into a conference. The only thing big enough to do that is if there's a total realignment where D-I suddenly becomes 5-6 super conferences with the champions getting automatic bids into a playoff and if you're not in a conference you're left out in the cold. Frankly, there isn't a chance in hell that's going to happen--and, ironically, one reason is the Big Ten resisting a playoff and clinging to the tradition of Rose Bowl berths.

Swarbrick is far sharper than Kevin White. Over the course of his tenure as athletic director, White did everything he could to give away leverage little by little instead of showing a spine and holding ground. One example is the absolutely moronic BCS deal he cut that's already cost us $10mil. Another is how he allowed ND to be bullied by Purdue (PURDUE!?!?) into a long-term playing arrangement deal on their terms. Kevin White did more long-term damage to our football program than the previous four coaching failures--three of which he was in charge of hiring by the way.

We need to adopt the Augusta National attitude of sticking to our guns and not feeling the need to grab at every dollar that becomes available to us. Bill Simmons wrote (correctly) that Augusta could charge $79.99 to get all-access coverage on the internet so that you can see every hole of every round and they would've probably made MILLIONS more. They don't need the money though, just like we don't need the Big Ten's money. And let's be real: the ONLY reason to join the Big Ten would be for (short-term) financial reasons.

The biggest myth of this entire scenario is that somehow Notre Dame could be "forced" into joining a conference. That's absolute non-sense. People infer that in the new BCS there won't be a spot available for an independent such as Notre Dame. Really? If stipulations are put in so that minor conference teams like Boise State and TCU can qualify what makes people think an exception for the sport's premier brand won't continue? This argument has ZERO merit unless some sort of totally new playoff system develops where only automatic bids get to play (which is as likely as a Kevin White statue going up next to Notre Dame Stadium).

Others say that with a major conference realignment Notre Dame will be frozen out of scheduling any games of consequence once the conference seasons start, pointing to this year's slate (filled with five non-BCS conference games) as proof of how difficult it is to schedule even before this huge shakeup. The reality is the difficulty we're experiencing in attracting quality opponents is due to a self-created hurdle. The only reason we're having issues finding higher profile games is the newly adopted 7-4-1 format. The neutral site game is a fantastic idea to provide even more exposure for the football program in different locations across the country, but if we wish to do it then our scheduling needs to be 6-5-1 to allow the flexibility to play higher-profile opponents more consistently.

You better believe there's still a long, long list of teams that would be ready to come to South Bend and play in September, October, or November...as long as the Irish promised a home-and-home series. Using the 7-4-1 model doesn't allow for that because we're locked into three road games each year (Michigan-Purdue-Stanford in odd years, Michigan State-Navy-USC in even years), meaning there is only one away game open and three home games to fill with teams not requiring a return game.

That is where the real shift in the college football landscape as it relates to Notre Dame has been; the allure of coming to South Bend without a return trip the next year just doesn't exist for major conference schools anymore. That is where Notre Dame must adjust and it's philosophy must change. Instead of attempting to bully teams like Rutgers and UConn into playing "home games" at neutral sites off-campus Notre Dame should do the fair and reasonable thing and schedule the games at their normal home stadium. Swarbrick also needs to return to a more national and diverse schedule instead of locking ourselves into arrangements like the mini-Big East slate through 2020 (thank you again, Dr. White). One of the major reasons Notre Dame has remained independent is it allows the ability to schedule whoever we want to play. White's philosophy during his time as AD pigeon-holed Notre Dame more and more. That's the trend Swarbrick needs to stop.

This entire debate has only been rekindled due to the fact that the Irish have been irrelevant in the national title race for so long. When ND is on top we have more clout than anyone, we make more money than anyone, and no one can force us to do anything. The Big Ten is circling Notre Dame right now because the program is going through the first prolonged dry spell in its history. Make no mistake, Notre Dame Football will be back. Will it be soon? All Irish fans hope so. But even if Brian Kelly doesn't prove to be the answer eventually there will be someone who brings the Irish back to the summit.

The key to Notre Dame weathering this most recent storm as the product on the field gets back on track is remembering who we are and not allowing others to chart our course. Recently we've been using our clout in all the wrong places (bullying smaller programs) and not exercising it where we should (with the BCS). Notre Dame needs to change with the times; but that means adjusting it's scheduling philosophy, not joining a conference. When it comes to overtures from the Big Ten, Big East, and whoever else Notre Dame must stand it's ground.

The reality is there will never come a day where the NCAA totally freezes out Notre Dame. If we call their bluff they'll show a hand that has no true leverage. I trust Jack to know that.