(05-10-2012 08:51 AM)Wolfman Wrote: I don't think it is about money for ND. Even if they had no TV contract for football I believe they would remain independent. There are a couple of issues that might make ND consider a conference.
Scheduling. As conferences expand, the number of slots available decreases. Timing is also an issue. Everyone has OOC games available at the beginning of the season. Less and less as the season goes on.
ND needs a decent home for their Olympic sports. If the BE were to split along FB/BB lines, would either of those conferences satisfy ND? The popular theory is that ND would stick with the BB conference. I'm not so sure. The question is would ND allow its Olympic sports to a mid-major type conference or give up independence to keep them in a major conference? That is assuming the B12 would not offer ND a BE-like deal? (Olympic sports plus a football scheduling agreement.
Scheduling will not a problem. The PAC 12 allows a scheduling exception for ND. So, there is USC and Stanford every year. One of them is always the last game of the season out on the West Coast.
There will be Michigan State and likely Purdue every year, possibly Michigan on a semi-regular basis. There are deals for series with Texas, Oklahoma, Miami, etc... BYU needs a late season game every year. Navy will play ND every year. So will Pitt, at least 8 years out of 10 if not annually. There is a deal in place to play Syracuse.
What about games with new Big East teams SMU, Houston, Boise State, San Diego State? If all else fails, ND can schedule Cincinnati, UConn, Rutgers.
Olympic sports, while very successful and important to ND, would not be a major factor in "forcing" ND to give up football independence.
As long as ND can find a "good enough" conference home for its other sports (BE, "Catholic League", Big 12, etc..), there is no way those sports would force ND to give up football independence.
Why do people continue to bring this up?