Pretty much because it is very frustrating to be stuck with a situation that is no longer beneficial to the Big East, and may never have been more than marginally so, but remains beneficial to Notre Dame...you have to live with it. You don't have to be happy about it. And when they go around flirting with other conferences it both reminds you of the bad deal you made, but also of what they could have done that would have been hugely helpful to the Big East!
I'm sure my wife feels the same way about still being married to me thirty years later. But she walks around blaming herself for her decision, not me for being who I am. Tomatoe, tomato
Wait - here it comes soon....the next analogy from BL is going to be how he would love to sleep with who is it lately? Jessica Alba I think? But the reality is that no matter how much he wants to, it's not happening. I love when that analogy comes up. Anyway, you're a lucky guy - I guess I"m not at that stage of marriage yet, four kids, and many, many years later, my wife still blames me and tries to change me, I think it motivates her out of bed in the morning.....probably motivates her into bed too, come to think of it. Anyway...... is it football season yet?
So you let Notre Dame off the hook for being morally hazardous with the overall health and well being of the conference? I fully understand that our Presidents have been imbecilic in their handling of both the affairs of the conference and Notre Dame's parasitic relationship. But that doesn't mean we can't hold Notre Dame accountable for not putting anything whatsoever on the table.
I truly don't understand that theory. If Company A buys sugar from Company B at $1 a pound, which is the negotiated price that both folks thought was fair at the time, a non-party can "hold Company A accountable" if it turns out they got the better of the deal? What does that even mean?
I would think the original poster when mentioning "we" hold ND accountable he means not a boneyard poster but Uconn and its partners. If the BE at one time decided to have an on going relationship with ND to allow ND to rent a parking space a for its Olympic teams in return for allowing the partnership to rub elbows with the pretty green lepreacon owned by ND so be it; until either side decides it isn't worth it. Temple found out what it was like when the BE decided it wasn't a good deal any more to rent space to Temple for its football team. Nothing keeping the BE from deciding that its no longer beneficial to rent space to the ND olympic sports. A member of the BE (Uconn) can request the other partners to vote the renter (ND) no longer be allowed to rent a parking space for its Olympic teams (sure there is way to do this, most it could do is cost some money, no judge would make the BE keep ND's olympic sports). This is not a deal in perpetuity, just like ND can decide it no longer wants to rent; the BE can also decide it no longer wants a renter (ND). If the renter (ND) is no longer worth having; get rid of them; if they want to offer more "rent" let them (ND) offer up something more. Easy to do; change rules that if any BE team has an NCAA div 1a football team it must play in the BE to be a member of the BE for any sports.
I don't know if Notre Dame flirts as much with other conferences as we see reported. I think the Big 12 and ACC fall over them and they have no intention of joining either. I see leagues trying to pressure Notre Dame and the Irish just sit back and watch. I'm don't know if I agree that Notre Dame is a 'parasite'. They certainly helped the Big East in terms of bowl access and they carry their own weight in the sports where they compete in the league. Notre Dame signed up for this arrangement, if the league's presidents didn't think it was a good deal they shouldn't have made it.
There is something that keeps the football schools from booting Notre Dame. If the football schools moved to remove Notre Dame the result is a full split. There is no in-between now. If the Big East told the Irish they have to join the football league... well I doubt you need to be told what the result of that would be. Now you may think a split is the right move. I don't know because I don't have the same information that the university presidents have. I think sooner or later it will happen and there will be positive and negative aspects. It's funny how much hatred there is for Notre Dame. At this point for the Big East the best thing is for the Irish to stay right where they are. If they make a move it just tips over more dominos that would damage the league. Now Notre Dame doing something may help UConn, but it would certainly hurt the Big East.
The ND hatred is so silly. They joined the 1 power 6 conference that had members that did not play FBS football as members of the league. I don't like certain things about the relationship, like the bowl selection issue, but it's honestly been a good fit for both parties. I think that the problem the BE really faced was that the basketball schools didn't want more members playing basketball and the football schools didn't want the schools that were realistically available. So for different reasons the two factions basically decided to put off expansion until it was too late. TCU should have been invited like 2 years before they actually were. Houston was always a decent fit and I bet if we approached BYU before the defections they would have joined. Boise St. could have been in the mix as well. Imagine if the old BE would have simply added TCU, BYU, Boise St., and Houston to the 8 members that we had. It would have been one of the toughest conferences in America. And we wouldn't have even needed Memphis, Temple, UCF, SDSU, or Navy.
That's not a fair analogy. The relationship is not that simple. This is not a customer relationship we are talking about here.
They are here because of a desire to preserve a balance of power between two different types of members.
I think that is partly true, but Notre Dame has been pretty consistent that they don't want to be part of the basketball half of the conference if there is a split. They have no long term interest in playing in a league of Seton Hall, Providence St Johns, Marquette and DePaul Georgetown and Villanova. If that's the choice, they might as well join the Horizon for everything but football. Save money on travel if nothing else. As I said, I suspect that in 1995 when ND joined it seemed to make sense to everyone. The Big East was in a bit of a down period in basketball and the football league was just getting off the ground. I would bet that secretly the Big East football presidents held out hope that eventually the Irish would come aboard, though it was never stated publicly. There was also a need for a bit of extra prestige on the basketball side with the Thompson, Massamino and Carneseca eras over or winding down and UConn not having completely emerged as the new national power yet. That the world has changed dramatically since 1995 is clear. Notre Dame is pretty much a middle of the road Big East hoop program, football rules the day, and they aren't part of it. You can hardly blame fans, at least, for asking the question as to whether this deal still makes sense for the organization.
