Does the Big Ten have any interest in expanding in this direction?

[VTUK]

Why would anyone want to join the Big 10? That is the rust belt of America. People and money are leaving Big 10 country everyday.

Not to mention, the football and basketball are AWFUL to watch. Sloooooow ... plowhorse crap.

No thanks!

[Hateful Hokie]

only 3 conferences have ever done what you're talking about. The SWC with Texas, the BigEast with Miami, the BigEast with Notre Dame, and the Big12 with Texas. i wouldn't wish the results of those situations on ANYONE. the Big12 may be the sexy conference to talk about this week, but underneath the sheets, it's as bad as it's ever been. a solid league doesn't have Nebraska, aTm, Missouri and Colorado abandoning ship.

i'm fine with ND being an independent, but i don't want them in my league if they will be receiving favorable treatment. it's not haughty, it's simply a choice of a level playing field vs preferential treatment. giving any program, existing or new, special treatment is nothing more than a band aid for what must be an axe wound. it's not sustainable.

the exception would be if the special treatment was contractual and short term, meaning ND joins in 2013 but we allow them to operate under the NBC deal through 2015 at which point it expires and they move their media rights under the same umbrella as everyone else.

also, if the "special treatment" were actually just a league wide change, i'd be ok with it. ie splitting the 16 team league into 8 team divisions where only your 7 division games counted in your division standings. we could still all play cross-over games, but they would be rivalry games or schedule fillers, not impacting division standing. that would leave ND (and theoretically the rest of us) room for 5 OOC games if we chose to use them that way. as long as it's across the board, i'm ok with it. that said, i might require ND to play a rotation of all 8 teams from the other division so everyone gets a home and home with them once every 16 years or something, but i would be ok without that provision.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--this position makes no sense--at all. The 3 scenarios you gave are totally uncomparable with "preferential" treatment for Notre Dame in the ACC. For one, ND already makes way more money/revenue as an independent through TV, ticket sales, and retail than most other schools. What the ACC would be doing is asking them to join with us and to 1) potentially take a pay cut and 2) to give up everything that's made Notre Dame Notre Dame in terms of a national schedule and 3) isolate themselves geographically.

If the ACC wants ND I have no issue--at all--trying to let Notre Dame keep as much of its tradtion and national exposure as possible to mitigate the major cons associated with joining a conference, so long as all ACC schools are better off as a result. Other than pride, what logical reason is there to be against "preferential treatment" for Notre Dame if all ACC schools are better off financially and athletically? It's pride, nothing more.

And personally, as a VT alum, I'd love to have the national exposure of playing Notre Dame at 1 pm on NBC national on a regular basis. That's good for Virginia Tech. If that's good for Virginia Tech then that's good for me. I could care less if ND earns $22 million per year and we only get $19 million. So? That's $2 million more than we would have otherwise gotten and it wouldn't come with a game on NBC national.

[gern]

dumb question but what exactly does B10 get adding ND? it's academics always struck me as more liberal artsy than the diploma factories that are the rest of the B10 (even NW is ~20k students between grad/undergrad). their fb has only been meaningful over the last 40 years when holtz cheated, everything else has been a "meh" at best. their hoops is cute. some nice nonrevs but expansion ain't about them at all.

what does nd give b10 that they don't already have? heck, they get 2 games a year w/ nd anyway without having to pay for them.

[hokiefan86]

For one, ND already makes way more money/revenue as an independent through TV, ticket sales, and retail than most other schools. What the ACC would be doing is asking them to join with us and to 1) potentially take a pay cut and 2) to give up everything that's made Notre Dame Notre Dame in terms of a national schedule and 3) isolate themselves geographically.

While I understand the argument, a few minor notes on this
1) ND currently is making $15M/year on their NBC contract. I don't know what will happen when they renegotiate (their contract ends 2015), maybe they'll spawn a bidding war, maybe their poor ratings lately will keep their value down, but this is pretty close to a wash right now.
2) Ticket sales will always go 100% to the home team regardless of being independent or in a conference. Only argument is if the 'weak' ACC will depress attendance at ND, but that seems unlikely especially since they play so many ACC (and soon to be ACC) teams now.
3) I believe the merchandising/retail also goes 100% to the team. If the ACC requires a split of this, I see your point. But I am pretty sure that is not the case.

So, I'm not sure ND is giving up that much $ wise if they join the ACC. Especially for a school that often says its not about the money.

The real sacrifice for ND is the potential loss of rivalries/schedule.But this comes with being in any conference unless you let them ride like they did in the BE. If that's the case I'd argue that this arrangement doesn't bring enough benefit to the ACC to be worth it. Not making ND sacrifice here, just saying no thank you. , I could see setting up things so only division games count to allow for them to play an wider OOC schedule. Again that allows for 'even handedness' while giving them a way to keep up tradition.

With respect to isolate geographically, true but again that comes with any conference alignment. Nothing the ACC can do to mitigate that one (other than scheduling which I've already addressed).

[Telionis]

Why would anyone want to join the Big 10? That is the rust belt of America. People and money are leaving Big 10 country everyday.

They're the most stable and richest conference in the land (along with the SEC). They have a kick ass TV deal already, and they have comparable academics to the ACC. Finally:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committ...al_Cooperation

[lawhokie]

VT has no law or medical school, which I think are prerequisites. We are not adjacent to a current B10 state, which is also a prerequisite, but a minor one that would be waived for the right school. VT is also not an AAU member, which is ostensibly a prerequisite although Nebraska lost its membership after admission to the B10.

I think the B10 would love to move South: they've admitted that. I think they'd be interested in Maryland, UVa, UNC, and VT, but each school has one or two factors against it.

[Telionis]

VT has no medical school...

http://vtc.vt.edu/

Do you mean on-campus medical school? Cornell's medical school isn't on their campus either.

[Old Line Hokie]

VT has no law or medical school, which I think are prerequisites. We are not adjacent to a current B10 state, which is also a prerequisite, but a minor one that would be waived for the right school. VT is also not an AAU member, which is ostensibly a prerequisite although Nebraska lost its membership after admission to the B10.

I think the B10 would love to move South: they've admitted that. I think they'd be interested in Maryland, UVa, UNC, and VT, but each school has one or two factors against it.

The Big 10 expansion "rumors" have also mentioned Geirgia Tech since they are an AAU member, #36 ranked national university, and in Atlanta (easy city to fly in and out of).

[lawhokie]

I think this is a more interesting link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population

Does it surprise you that North Carolina is now the 10th most populous state. Four of the top ten are south of the Mason-Dixon, and the Big Ten only has four top ten states in its footprint. Of those four, the population has remained essentially flat or actually shrunk in the last ten years.

Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina have experienced huge population surges, as well as a migration of manufacturing into right to work southern states. Next census, Michigan will be out of the top ten. I wouldn't be surprised to see Virginia and NC pass Ohio relatively soon.

So, I think the Big Ten will be surpassed by the SEC some day. Texas A&M already rivals PSU, OSU and Michigan as a research university. I think VT, UNC, UVa, etc. are well-positioned because Virginia and UNC are populous southern states with relatively wealthy populations. It would not surprise me to see the B10 make a move for Maryland, UVa, or, if they relax their academic requirements, VT.

[lawhokie]

I had assumed on-campus, but that's probably another minor condition. The law school would be the major stumbling block, but I wonder why the B10 cares about that anyway.

I don't think any of the B10 requirements are that important except for the academic one. Yet, they admitted Nebraska, and VT is academically superior to Nebraska, is a bigger school, with bigger research spending, and in a much bigger state with a growign national following.

So, call me crazy, but I think VT could be on the Big Ten's list, just maybe not their short list.