With all the chips on the table and expansion seeming to be inevitable it looks like the Big East is set to be raided yet again for the second time this decade. They're currently the smallest BCS league in terms of football members. While they have a 16 team mega conference in basketball on the gridiron they're an 8 team league when everyone else is at 10 or more. They've got the lowest TV revenue of the six BCS conferences. They play football games on Friday nights to get exposure, something that all five other leagues don't have to do and wouldn't dare do.
How can they avoid losing Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse or anyone else?
The answer lies in South Bend, Indiana and in the back bone of Big East commissioner John Marinatto.
That's right, Notre Dame is the Big East's answer. It will take some legitimate balls on the part of Marinatto but if he manned up he, in theory, could force the hand of the Irish.
Read more for what the Big East must do to remain intact.
First let's look at the facts:
Notre Dame is top ten in football revenue The Big East has the smallest television contract for football of any BCS conference
That is reason enough for the Big East to look to South Bend as a means of increasing their revenue stream. They would instantly elevate their teams above the ACC with an influx of Notre Dame money. However, as we all know, Notre Dame is in absolutely no rush and has zero desire to share their money with eight other teams. They've got no desire and no reason to want to sacrifice their gold empire for a league affiliation.
So how can Marinatto "coerce" the Irish into the Big East? Well for that we need to look at more facts than just football.
Notre Dame fields 24 varsity level intercollegiate sports 23 of those teams have a Big East affiliation
In pulling four men's sports; baseball, basketball, soccer and lacrosse as well as four women's sports; basketball, softball, soccer and volleyball you can see the Big East running through the Notre Dame schedule. The current schedules combined have 242 scheduled regular season games and of that total there are 122 Big East contests or 50.4% league games. Basically half of the Irish schedules are set in stone yearly because of the Big East affiliation.
As Big East football playing members understand from the pain of trying to schedule 5 non-conference games, scrambling to find one extra game for a football program is not an easy task.
Imagine Notre Dame scrambling to fill 122 games between their men's and women's basketball, soccer, baseball, soccer and volleyball teams. That is an athletic directors nightmare. Sure, Swarbrick can talk tough about the Irish not moving to a conference, not being interested in sharing revenue but the fact is with a Big East ultimatum in hand there would be a lot more to think about.
Losing the Big East basketball tv money would hurt, it wouldn't be crippling but it would be felt. The truly frustrating, powerful blow wouldn't be struck in the pocketbook, rather it would be in the season's of the non-revenue teams.
Swarbrick explaining to programs that their schedules are cut because the football team wanted to remain independent. Mike Brey trying to get games with teams that are in the thick of a conference season from January through March. The loss of the automatic NCAA tournament bids that are up for grabs by the soccer, volleyball and basketball teams. Exclusion from the new Big East lacrosse conference.
Is it bad? Absolutely. It hurts the kids and it would crush a lot of post season hopes for the Irish but that is the beauty and simplicity, Swarbrick can utter one phrase to put the 122 games back on the schedule, "We're joining the Big East as a full member."
It is a shrewd move on the part of the Big East. It is a move that could save the conference from being pillaged by the Big Ten's impending move. Marinatto would have to have a set of cajones on him to pull it off. The league needs Notre Dame to breathe life into their football revenue, they need a major player to galvanize the conference and shut down the Big 10 expansion raiding before it begins.
Do I think it will happen? No. I don't think Marinatto will make the move to shore up his conference, rather he'll sit and watch as some lucky dance partner gets wooed away and makes the Big East a seven team football conference that plays half of their games in the non-conference. Maybe they can pick up UCF, ECU or Memphis to replace Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse of UConn. If the Big East allows another league to raid them; again, then they deserve it because they're allowing Notre Dame to have their cake and eat it too.
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Would any other league allow ND to join their league for 23 out of 24 varsity level intercollegiate sports and not want ND football? Big East set a horrible deal by allowing the present situation to exist and it's high time to fix it. ND consistently shows that it is not a full faith conference member by refusing to add their football program to the league. How can they contractually be bowl eligible in the Big East conference if they are not Big East football members? Seems someone needs to lawyer up on this issue.
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Big East getting jobbed written by michael.felderjr,
December 21, 2009
Fastfinger,
I think that the MAC, Missouri Valley or A10 would allow the Irish in for the other sports but I don't think that ND would "deign" to enter into their leagues.
I don't see what I'm proposing happening, I have to hope that there is some backroom deal between ND and the Big East where the BEast benefits from having them in the league. The situation, to me, seems like the Big East is bending over to benefit a team that isn't doing much to help them. Sort of like telling a girl I'll take you to dinner, I'll rub your feet, I'll pay all of the bills AND I'm totally cool with you sleeping with any guy you want.
Just seems a bit odd from the Big East's side. For Notre Dame though, great move, absolutely great move. Whichever AD brokered this deal is a shrewd, smart man.
I think it was a huge mistake by Notre Dame to not join the Big East. They have been a joke lately and now they don't even have an experienced coach to lead the team.
That is understandable that cash can make people independent. But what to do when one doesn't have cash? The one way is to get the lowest-rate-loans.com or just financial loan.
I have been reading , as many others have, about all of the buzz surrounding the Big 10 expansion, and the domino effect that may take place if it raids the other conferences. I believe that the best solution would be that Notre Dame does join the Big East in football. The Big East could offer Notre Dame a good deal, and allow them to keep it's television revenues in exchange for a smaller piece of overall Big East revenues. Playing ( Big East games would allow ND to keep the traditional rivals(S Cal, Navy, BC, Michigan) and would still give them the rights to Big East bowl ties and BCS championship games when they have good teams. The Big East ties in other sports are already in place, and ND could withdraw in (5) years if they didn't like the deal.
It would be a win win for ND and the Big East, presuming the other Big East teams remain loyal.
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Big East games would allow ND to keep the traditional rivals(S Cal, Navy, BC, Michigan) and would still give them the rights to Big East bowl ties and BCS championship games when they have good teams. 
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 