Let’s dream that Notre Dame sees tge writing on the wall and they realize the need to join a conference.
They look at the landscape and see there will be 3 20 school Power Conferences.
They look at their options
B1G- too much bad blood
SEC- not a cultural fit
ACC- too much dead weight
Then they look to the Big 12 and start to explore IF entry to the Big 12 and the 7 new members (to get to 20) could be in the ballpark of what the B1G and SEC is paying. Say NBC and a few others are interested and the Big 12 Commissioner will allow Notre Dame to have influence in who the Big 12 adds to form this 3rd Power Conference to rival the other 2.
So…they come up with a list that looks something like this.
1-12. Current Big 12 members
13. Notre Dame
14. Stanford
15. Arizona
16. Arizona State or Colorado
17. Virginia
18. North Carolina
19. Florida State
20. Virginia Tech or Pitt
I was reading through the comments section of an article talking about pac12 expansion candidates. One guy actually suggested adding Rice to “bring the Houston market.”
The concensus of the readers of that article was that sdsu could be a good add, boise has potential but has bad academics and fresno st and unlv would work, if necessary. Imagine you’re oregon, utah, or the AZ schools and this is a plausible future.
Anyway… in the case of ND, they control their own destiny like they always have. IF they join a conference, rest assured the deal they make will favor them greatly.
ND is independent for a reason. They could have joined any conference they wanted and chose to stay independent. NBC is looking to give them $75 million just to broadcast their football games. If they make an alliance with B12 like they had with ACC, then the windfall would come to the B12. Unlike any other school, ND can make the CFP without a conference championship.
I can’t think of a current Big 12 school that has a historical rivalry with ND.
Consider, by contrast, how many times ND has played the following B1G schools:
Michigan: 43 times
Michigan State: 77 times
Northwestern: 49 times
Purdue: 85 times
Penn State: 19 times
Illinois: 12 times
USC: 89 times
Indiana: 29 times
Nebraska: 16 times
Iowa: 24 times
Wisconsin: 17 times
In short, the vast majority of ND’s “traditional” rivals…are BIG TEN schools!!! Navy (92 times) and Stanford (34 times) are almost the exceptions that prove the rule!
By contrast, the only Big 12 schools that I could find that have played ND 10 times or more are OU (10) and UT (12), … AND THEY’RE LEAVING!!!
NO WAY ND drops independence to join the Big 12. Their fans and boosters would not take kindly to playing those Big 12 schools and dropping all of their traditional/historical B1G enemies.
ND would probably be facing a fan REVOLT if they did that!!!
Although they have this long-standing “culture” of independence, ND really belongs in the B1G.
They’re already a B1G member for hockey. Why they did the dope deal that they did with the ACC instead of either the same deal, or full membership in the B1G remains one of world’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
CBS is not looking for a scheduling alliance for ND and B12, they are looking for games to lead into or follow ND game. They could do a 3pm start for a B12 game and a 6pm start for ND. Or maybe a late fall noon start for ND followed by a B12 game. That would be pretty cool to have say UH v BYU as the lead in to ND v U Michigan on CBS.
