So if the reporters and analysts and bloggers are right, ND would be unhappy with their olympic sports playing in an East Coast Catholic league, and we know they were happy with the current BE configuration. We also know they were working to facilitate the western expansion for football (they were working on Boise and BYU) out of the interest of keeping the football league together. Obviously, they were doing this only to stabilize the league overall, to reduce the chances that UConn, Louisville or Rutgers decided to leave. They were doing this after Pitt, SU and WVU had all publicly stood up and said "we're leaving", and after the catholic schools had supposedly said that they would break off if either UConn or Louisville left.
Don't sell short the influence and input ND had on specifically who we should be adding for all sports. If we add UCF, SMU, and Houston for all sports, ND definitely blessed it well in advance. They replaced road trips in BB from Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Morgantown with trips to Orlando, Dallas, and Houston. Don't be surprised if they schedule a FB home and home with Houston and play the "away" game at Reliant stadium to a split gate. Or a home and home v. SMU to play the "away" game at Jerry World with a split gate. ND is Oz, pulling the strings of the BE from behind the curtain.
This is why the Big East is a joke - because ND should have no say at all concerning football.
the big east is a joke because of the bad football, small fanbases, lack of prestige, and complete lack of trust between member organizations. ND is a symptom, not the disease.
I agree with everything but the bad football part. The Big East has the problem, and it is a huge one, of lacking a dominant program or two...no Texas or Oklahoma or Ohio State or Michigan to always compete for the league championship (except when on probation for something). The PAC 10 went through something very similar in the 1990s pre-Pete Carroll reviving USC. Pretty much anybody could and did win the conference even Washington State. But I think the bowl performance shows that outside the top, when you match mid-level Big East teams against mid-level teams from any conference the big East is pretty much equal or better. the problem is that we needed another Miami. It never materialized.
I agree it has been bad this year. But that happens in every conference from time to time. The difference is that when it happens in the Big 10, Northwestern beat out big names Ohio State and Michigan. When it happens in the B-12, Kansas State beat out household names Texas and Oklahoma. even if all of those teams are just fair, even bad, to the casual fan, the fact that you beat them is a big deal. When it happens in the Big East the winner is somebody you haven't heard of and they beat out a bunch of people you never heard of either. That is a huge issue and has been since Miami left. Had West Virginia or Louisville kept their respective coaches and continued to be major players, and I was really hoping they would have done just that, the perspective might be different. They didn't. so it is what it is.
