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Access to bowls was the main thing Notre Dame got out of its deal with BE football (it clearly wasn't scheduling). Once Big East football basically implodes in 2011, they needed a new home. It isn't a coincidence that Notre Dame announces they are leaving the Big East within a year of Pitt/Syracuse (and West Virginia) announcing they are leaving. It didn't take Nostradamus to see that either. I don't think Pitt was used specifically (UConn would have served the same purpose as it would have forced the Big East to go raiding for ECU or whomever), though it probably was a nice bonus for Notre Dame.You made gargantuan leaps in logic here. Getting Syracuse keeps the ACC together? You think Swofford's goal was to grab Cuse and Pitt to shake Notre Dame? Really? Because I think the whole thing kicked off when Maryland left. If Maryland doesn't leave, then what?
This makes no sense to me. The ACC couldn't offer partial membership and football independence as a lure because ND already had that with the BE. What the ACC could offer was bowl tie-ins and stability(-ish) for the other sports.I may have expanded, but not changed it.
I answered what I thought, that the ACC may have thought that Pitt was a lure. For ND, a bit but not much.
The only real "lure" for the ACC was the ability to have a partial membership and keep football indy with the ACC.
Nothing else (Southern recruiting access, East Coast presence or Pitt/Syracuse vs. someone else) came close to keeping football indy as the main reason to join the ACC.
ALL layed out in 2010....
How the Big Ten Can Get Notre Dame: Target Pittsburgh, Fold the Big East
It is proposed as a possible way for the Big Ten to lure in Notre Dame, and, coincidentally or not, is almost exactly what the ACC did.
What is pretty much the best way to get Notre Dame to join, in my honest opinion?
Find a way to get rid of the Big East (at least in terms of football).
So, if this was the plan, why did they try to expand at first WITHOUT inviting Pittsburgh?
In other words, this is complete BS, and you guys know it.
If you read it, his actual plan is to dismantle BE by taking one of four schools (Rutgers, UConn, Syracuse, Pitt) and thereby forcing Notre Dame to move. He then says in his opinion he'd take Pitt if he could only take one, and then lists his reasons. But he says the basic premise remains the same whomever is taken and specifically says taking BE basketball teams might do more damage to the league in the eyes of Notre Dame than anything. I think the Tobacco Road schools have an affinity with UConn for good reasons, and it's likely Swofford's first instinct was that. But when push came to shove, Pitt had more support so Pitt it became. Notre Dame was shaken loose soon after, to the surprise of no one. Except maybe you.So, if this was the plan, why did they try to expand at first WITHOUT inviting Pittsburgh?
In other words, this is complete BS, and you guys know it.
Yeaaaay! Syracuse and Pitt football. So good!!!
Then you have conference realignment comprehension issues.
Swofford clearly laid out the difference in strategy between ACC and B12.
ACC was looking long term with their additions in terms of markets and building a competitive brand. That way they have negotiating leverage with TV.
B12? Did none of that.
This makes no sense to me. The ACC couldn't offer partial membership and football independence as a lure because ND already had that with the BE. What the ACC could offer was bowl tie-ins and stability(-ish) for the other sports.
Sometimes you have to "know when to hold um and know when to fold them"Cuse and Pitt had long term scheduling arrangements with ND, which had value to an ACC that was looking for ways to bring ND tent. Cuse signed the scheduling deal that we rejected.
If UCONN signs that ten year deal with ND instead of making a public spectacle about ND playing at the rent, we are in the ACC right now.
Jeff Hathaway and Phil Austin/Mike Hogan were in charge of that one....yet everyone seems so quick to dismiss these 3 and blame others!Sometimes you have to "know when to hold um and know when to fold them"
The Storrs folks may be the worst gamblers of all time and things generally end badly for bad gamblers .
Do you think the Big East would have survived or remained a valid future partner for Notre Dame had we been invited instead of Pitt? Honestly?
The BE not being a viable option for Notre Dame was the main move. Pitt was just a bonus.Say what? I am saying that if Pitt is the school to lure ND, then why was UConn the first choice?
This seems mostly right, except Rutgers left after the league was dead and buried. The BE was basically dead the moment they turned down their media deal in the wake of Colorado/Nebraska leaving. The ACC and Big XII began having a Mexican standoff on who would react first. Everyone assumed the Big XII would move first, but it wasn't to be. Which actually killed the BE is basically academic. Both had blood on their hands.There were a lot of ways to kill the Big East.
Pitt wasn't the fastest way - they were never a linchpin of the conference. Strategically they made sense because it took a chess piece off the board for the Big 12.
But in reality, any move against the Big East was going to be fatal - it wasn't the ACC's first move that did the conference in, it was the secondary moves by the Big 12 and Big 10 that sealed it. Once that happened, you had no way to back fill and keep the conference alive.
Yep... that was my mistake. I read Swofford and comprehended Bowlsby. I retract my former statement lolI feel like I'm missing something, because extending the GOR and getting a network feel like huge gets.
The Big East eventually committed suicide....the very premise of a polymorphic league with a hodgepodge of basketball and football while the other leagues were all sport, had some disadvantages,
After prime football schools moved out, turning down the the ESPN media deal was akin to taking a bottle of sleeping pills while chugging a pint of vodka.
What I could never understand is why the eight football schools did not use the "get out of jail free" card to split with the other schools and then expand and sign a TV deal as best they could.
That option was available but never exercised prior to the implosion. Was it because the eight football schools could not agree on anything?