Notre Dame to ACC in everything but football

And the ACC doesn't really need UConn at this point anyway. Unless ND is joining as a full football member there is no reason to add a 16th school.

 

Let me spell it out for you... The teams Jax State plays < the teams UConn plays (sans Murray State). As competition goes, the levels are the same by being different, do you understand this? JSU isn't going to win or lose 3 or more more games a year in basketball because of APR sanctions. Neither is UConn.

 

There is an enormous difference in emphasis and philosophy between the two schools. When UConn's competitors can negative-recruit by saying "you go to UConn and you might be sanctioned right out of the NCAA tournament," that's a big difference. Jacksonville State recruits don't expect to play in the tournament anyway.

They are very different. Jacksonville State plays in an environment where APR sanctions are common. UConn plays in an environment where they are exceedingly rare and thus UConn has a mark against it compared with its competition.

 

Those talks are already going on quietly. Have been for some time. Non-football schools are looking out for their best interest (hoops). This will accelerate the move(s).

 

Makes a lot of sense -- give up the automatic bid and the TV contract. For who? For what?

 

So Syracuse and Pitt are leaving. Isn't Louisville going somewhere too?

I'm sure some major conference would take a few of the remaining football members.

 

I don't care if you believe me or if you think it doesn't make sense.

What matters is that officials at several schools, folks for whom hoops is the No. 1 ticket, don't want to be left playing in a shit league. Thus, they've been looking at the option of forming a league of hoops-first schools.

There have been behind-the-scenes talks/overtures in the last year-plus. ND's move certainly isn't going to shut those talks down or ease the fears of officials at certain schools.

 

To repeat a common SportsJournalists.com argument: Notre Dame (and the Big 10) botched it when the conference first expanded from 10 teams 20 years ago. The Irish should have become a Big 10 team then.

But since that boat has sailed, I guess this is the best they could salvage in South Bend.

Basketball-wise, I think ND was a better fit in the Big East, against other prominent Catholic schools.

But we all know football is driving the bus, and the Irish probably did this to hedge their bets as the BCS goes away. If the four-team playoff becomes limited to conference champs at some point, Notre Dame has an "in" with one of the four top BCS conferences now.

 

I am sure at some point there have been people at those schools saying "screw this football shit, we should just start our own league. That'll show 'em!"

But when they sit down to make a rational decision, and they invite the finance people to that meeting, that's where it's going to fall apart.

 

Pretty sure that boat was never at the dock.

 

If they get the right schools to take the plunge, it will happen.

Despite your protestations.

 

The non-FBS football teams of the Big East should stand pat, maintain the conference name and its automatic bids in all NCAA sports, and let the football-playing survivors fend for themselves.

A basketball conference that still includes Georgetown, Marquette, St. John's, Villanova, DePaul, Seton Hall and Providence, for starters, still has some cache and several more teams that do not play FBS football could easily be found (Canisius? Niagara? Marist? St. Bonaventure? LaSalle? Siena?) to make up a nice, compact, NE, Catholic-school-oriented conference.