Yet Another ND Thread

[CTMike]

First things first - If you react angrily to any suggestion of ND being in a football conference, then move right along. This is just fanciful daydreaming. I'm channelling my inner HuskyFanDan.

Basic premise is this : IF ND were to ever join a conference... would they not prefer to do so on their own terms? In other words - if there is ONE team that could conceivably start their own conference and convince others to join, it's ND.

ND/Army/Navy/Pittsburgh/Boston College/Cinci/Louiville/Maryland/Virginia/Virginia Tech/Rutty/UConn

I don't pretend to know if those are all-sports schools... most are, yes? Anyway, just throwing that out there. Sub in and out as you think ND would see fit. Whatever teams you think fits ND's motives best. The above at least tries to preserve some traditional rivalries while leaving them room to schedule their others.

If ND approaches those teams and says "We are starting an all sports conference and taking it to the open market. You in?" Who says no?

ND (and everyone else) locks up a poopton of money, with most schools getting out of undervalued contracts. Hell, ND could even offer to take disproportionately more money and I still think most schools do this. ND locks up exposure through the entire northeast, their core constituency. You have a well rounded league, a championship game that would make bank, and I think bowls would fall over themselves to affiliate with the league. All sports teams would have reasonable travel. Regional rivalries, traditional rivalries, the whole shebang.

/daydreaming off.

 

[Jericho]

Seems like a ton of work without a huge payoff. They could join and existing confrence and simply lay out their terms. Be much easier than trying to cherry pick schools out of existing conferences (and is there a ton of incentive to leave the Big 10 or SEC?)

 

[junglehusky]

I think they would want a truly national conference. This is a ND fantasy lineup based on their football rivalries - ND/Mich/MSU/USC/Pitt/BCU/MD/Navy/Miami to start with. Then out of a second pool pick 2-6 of the following: UConn/RU/Cuse/Purdue/Wisconsin/PSU/UNC/UVA/FSU/Texas/Tennessee/Army/BYU. Easy huh?

 

[ConnHuskBask]

That's a really good hypothetical.

I think the BE teams say yes in a heartbbeat.

You would have to figure some ACC teams woulld consider it as well (though they have the $20M buyout).

If the conference shenanigans that are going on now and the Miami, VT, BC Big East was intact and you had to be a conf champ to qualify for the playoff I think ND would have joined.

As long as ND has access to the title without a conference, they won't join unfortunantely. (Reallize you already know that, just saying it for hypothetical discussion).

 

[huskypantz]

The only shot at an (successful) Eastern Sports Conference would be if ND and PSU wanted to start it themselves. The who Grant of Rights issue pretty much blows the idea up, though. PSU and ND could add Cuse, BC, Pitt, WVU, Maryland, UConn, Rutgers and maybe VTech for your first 10 teams. Then you decide on whether Army/Navy comes in as an associate member for ND, and you could probably add Miami, Louisville or Cincy depending on the service academies. That is a college sports conference that would capture the collective interest of the major markets in the northeast. Sadly, that ship passed us by in the 80's.

 

[Uptop]

First things first - If you react angrily to any suggestion of ND being in a football conference, then move right along. This is just fanciful daydreaming. I'm channelling my inner HuskyFanDan.

Basic premise is this : IF ND were to ever join a conference... would they not prefer to do so on their own terms? In other words - if there is ONE team that could conceivably start their own conference and convince others to join, it's ND.

ND/Army/Navy/Pittsburgh/Boston College/Cinci/Louiville/Maryland/Virginia/Virginia Tech/Rutty/UConn

I don't pretend to know if those are all-sports schools... most are, yes? Anyway, just throwing that out there. Sub in and out as you think ND would see fit. Whatever teams you think fits ND's motives best. The above at least tries to preserve some traditional rivalries while leaving them room to schedule their others.

If ND approaches those teams and says "We are starting an all sports conference and taking it to the open market. You in?" Who says no?

ND (and everyone else) locks up a poopton of money, with most schools getting out of undervalued contracts. Hell, ND could even offer to take disproportionately more money and I still think most schools do this. ND locks up exposure through the entire northeast, their core constituency. You have a well rounded league, a championship game that would make bank, and I think bowls would fall over themselves to affiliate with the league. All sports teams would have reasonable travel. Regional rivalries, traditional rivalries, the whole shebang.

/daydreaming off.

I had the same dream last week, too. So, you're not alone.

They're already being treated like a conference why not?

 

[UConnDan97]

First things first - If you react angrily to any suggestion of ND being in a football conference, then move right along. This is just fanciful daydreaming. I'm channelling my inner HuskyFanDan.

Basic premise is this : IF ND were to ever join a conference... would they not prefer to do so on their own terms? In other words - if there is ONE team that could conceivably start their own conference and convince others to join, it's ND.

ND/Army/Navy/Pittsburgh/Boston College/Cinci/Louiville/Maryland/Virginia/Virginia Tech/Rutty/UConn

I normally react angrily to the ND suggestion, but because it's you, I'll try to roll with it. Let's assume that ND brass says, "Let's make a conference." I think what they would want to do first is find an influential partner to start off with. I agree with another post that included the name Penn State. Let's say they convince a Penn State to come along with them. Then I think they could approach a lot of the higher-profile teams from your list, and I think that my final list would look like:

ND / Penn State / Pitt / BC / Louisville / Rutgers / Navy / Virginia Tech / Virginia / Maryland / Syracuse / UConn

I'm not convinced that they would want Cincy, and Syracuse would give them 12 (conference championship money). They would have the New York money (Syra, Rut, UConn), the DC money (Navy, Maryland, Va Tech, Va), and they would have the entire state of Pennsylvania (Philly and Pittsburgh captured). They don't want anything to do with Army.

If they chose to add Cincy or Temple after the fact, they could do that too. That conference would get them CRAZY DOLLARS! If it wasn't fantasy, I would call up Swarbrick right now and make the pitch. They would have most major northeastern cities, and they would have a contract that easily doubles what they currently get with NBC. Man, CTMike, you have helped me dream again!!

 

[CTMike]

I normally react angrily to the ND suggestion, but because it's you, I'll try to roll with it.

hahahahaha.... thanks for taking it easy on me man. haha

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I normally react angrily to the ND suggestion, but because it's you, I'll try to roll with it. Let's assume that ND brass says, "Let's make a conference." I think what they would want to do first is find an influential partner to start off with. I agree with another post that included the name Penn State. Let's say they convince a Penn State to come along with them. Then I think they could approach a lot of the higher-profile teams from your list, and I think that my final list would look like:

ND / Penn State / Pitt / BC / Louisville / Rutgers / Navy / Virginia Tech / Virginia / Maryland / Syracuse / UConn

I'm not convinced that they would want Cincy, and Syracuse would give them 12 (conference championship money). They would have the New York money (Syra, Rut, UConn), the DC money (Navy, Maryland, Va Tech, Va), and they would have the entire state of Pennsylvania (Philly and Pittsburgh captured). They don't want anything to do with Army.

If they chose to add Cincy or Temple after the fact, they could do that too. That conference would get them CRAZY DOLLARS! If it wasn't fantasy, I would call up Swarbrick right now and make the pitch. They would have most major northeastern cities, and they would have a contract that easily doubles what they currently get with NBC. Man, CTMike, you have helped me dream again!!

ND doesn't have the muscle to pull anyone out of the Big 10.

If ND was to go this way, they would do my D1 Patriot League proposal, with Northwestern and Vanderbilt. I could see something like:

Northwestern, ND, BCU, Navy, Army, Syracuse

Vanderbilt, Duke, Wake, Georgia Tech, Villanova?, whoever

That league would be good enough for ND to get a bid to the Playoff if it went 11-1 if it kept Michigan, USC and Michigan State non-conference. When the playoff goes to 16 teams, Notre Dame could definitely get bids out of this league.