[eazyb81]

This is great. Someone posted on tigerboard an SI article on the impending wave of superconferences.........from 1990.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...6685/index.htm

"The '90s are predicted to be moving in the direction of three superconferences, each with a major network," says Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles. Some would quibble with Broyles's arithmetic—the outlines of at least four super-conferences have appeared on the horizon—but there's no missing the gist of his message. Super-, maxi-, mega-, cosmic-conferences are the wave of the future.

Of course, by the time that union could be arranged, Colorado might have bolted to the Pac-10. The Pac-10—or Packed Tent, as it may come to be known—has been rumored to be interested in at least three teams besides Colorado.

What does all this wooing of independents mean to Notre Dame, the mightiest independent of them all? Might the projected scarcity of independent opponents force the Irish into joining a conference as a football-only member? No way. "We've been an independent for 148 years," says Notre Dame athletic director Dick Rosenthal. "We are independent by desire."

Still other, less partial, voices urge caution. "Has anyone seen any of these big dollars yet?" asks former ABC executive Donn Bernstein. "People start talking superconferences, and their eyes get bigger than their stomachs. We're already wall-to-wall football on Saturday. We're reaching a point of oversaturation."

"You trade Rice, SMU and Texas Tech for LSU, Tennessee and Auburn," says one Razorback athletic official, "and you don't have to worry about selling out the stadium—you have to worry about expanding it." Conference-wide, Southwest Conference stadiums were 32% empty last year, while those in the SEC were 95% full.