Big 10 Report: Conference Realignment

[Mr. Laz]

A source in St. Louis familiar with the situation told NewsCenter 16 Thursday afternoon that Missouri will leave the Big XII and soon join the Big 10. Other schools expected to follow the Tigers are Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers and Nebraska.

Many have speculated that such an expansion would include Notre Dame but ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick told me today that the Irish prefer to stay independent in football and in the Big East for other sports. Swarbrick said maintaining football Independence is such a part of what Notre Dame is.

He went on to say the Big East is a great partner for the University in other sports.

"We do have to monitor what is going on," Swarbrick said. "There will be significant shifts. "Hopefully we can navigate them by keeping our football independent and keeping our Big East affiliation because that is what we care about."

The move of Syracuse, Pitt and Rutgers to the Big Ten from the Big East could categorically change the landscape of the Big East itself. Thus, what Swarbrick is referring to when stating the University must continue to monitor what is going on.

The interview with Swarbrick was done before the late afternoon announcement.

http://www.wndu.com/sports/headlines/92447574.html

[DeezNutz]

Whatever happens, we'll be in a power conference. /Self

[teedubya]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

What is going on here.

just trying to keep burst going... it's been a slow news day.

[vailpass]

Big 12 Reading Room: Good stuff from Joe Posnanski and others
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 by Mike Hlas.
Some are looking back, some are looking ahead. Here are a few linked essays from columnists around the country on the impending demise of the Big 12 Conference, with excerpts included here:

Joe Posnanski, SI.com:

But the conference has never felt like a conference. It has always felt like two conferences — North and South — and there was always a lot of resentment between the two. The North teams have long felt, not without reason, that the conference was being controlled by Texas. The South teams have long felt, not without reason, that the North teams were holding them back. Such are the politics of the Super Conference.

Of course, North-South tensions are just another by-product of the biggest factor. The biggest factor is money — and the simple truth is that even with all those Texas television sets, there’s simply more television money to be made per school in the Big Ten and PAC-10 and SEC. The latest numbers indicated that Big 12 schools made $8-to-$12 million this year in television money. The Big Ten will pay its schools closer to $20 million.

Tom Shatel, Omaha World-Herald:

The Big Ten can transform NU in ways that the Big 12 could never dream.

This is about money, sure, but it’s as much about academic money as football money. This would be a rare opportunity — a winning lottery ticket — for a school located in the flyover zone and long known as a football factory. Yes, we know about the academic All-Americans, and academicians will tell you that NU has a growing rep as a research player.

But the potential for research money in the Big Ten — millions — would put NU on a whole different level. A plain-looking campus dwarfed between a football stadium and downtown Lincoln could blossom, to say nothing of a research park where the old State Fair used to live. They might have to start growing ivy.

If he can gain entrance into the club with Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State — and perhaps Notre Dame — chancellor Harvey Perlman will be hailed as a hero by alums, professors and students.

(Nebraska Athletic Director Tom) Osborne already has his statue. But this move would be his greatest legacy, and that’s saying something.

Berry Tramel, The Oklahoman:

Forming this league is much more complicated than was the formation of the Big 12. Here are the heavyweight questions:

→Officiating. Does all the officiating for football and basketball flow through the Pac-10’s current Walnut Creek, Calif., office? And if so, can someone pass Bob Stoops the smelling salts?

Four years ago, Stoops was talking about never again taking the Sooners to a Pac-10 port, after the Oregon debacle (a disputed Oklahoma loss at Oregon in 2006). Now Norman will be a Pac-10 port.

Michael Rosenberg, SI.com:

Does anybody think this makes college sports better?

It makes the Big Ten and Pac-10 bigger and stronger. It makes most of the schools that are involved wealthier.

But better? Are we better off with Nebraska playing Iowa and Michigan instead of Iowa State and Oklahoma? Who wins when Texas, Arizona State and Stanford are all in the same league? How can it be good that Kansas, one of the top five basketball programs in history, is scrambling to find a league, any league?

Fault (or credit, if you prefer) is hard to assign here — so many entities are acting out of self-interest. Nebraska didn’t just decide to get up and bolt and Oklahoma and Texas aren’t trying to screw Kansas basketball. But I will say this: when this all ends, Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe might not have a conference to run, which is just as well, because he has shown no ability to run one.

Ray Ratto, CBSsports.com:

Nebraska’s sensibilities are pretty much those of the rest of the Big Ten. Oh, maybe those wacky kids at Northwestern are a little out of the mainstream, but not much. But if you can find the common thread that binds the 16 projected members of the new Pac-10 without mentioning the word “money” or any of its 300 or so synonyms, then you are 110 years old. Or a history major.
Or nuts.

Texas A&M and Cal? Let’s see, they are both attended by carbon-based life forms …

http://gazetteonline.com/blogs/the-h...ski-and-others

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Crush

Thoughts?

I think this would make a lot of people happy.

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

+

Cool my Knights would have a cakewalk in Football...

[007]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Dude, using people's full names here isn't cool.

Then there are the people that use peoples CP handles on Facebook.

[Sam Hall]

Sounds like Madison, Wisconsin, has a great party-tailgate scene.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by teedubya

hahah...

yeah. All 10 of them.

I don't understand this twitter thing. How do you get that many followers? Somehow I have like 20 followers and I've only twatted once. I don't even know who these people are

[Bambi]

I think the one thing that's being tremendously overlooked is how awful Big 10 football has been the last 10 years.

Got to give them credit for getting the image out there that they are actually a talented football group.

gj

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

I think the one thing that's being tremendously overlooked is how awful Big 10 football has been the last 10 years.

Got to give them credit for getting the image out there that they are actually a talented football group.

gj

Yea Ohio State is so awful they've been to three title games this decade. The Big Ten only sent two teams to the BCS last year and won both games Moron.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

I think the one thing that's being tremendously overlooked is how awful Big 10 football has been the last 10 years.

Got to give them credit for getting the image out there that they are actually a talented football group.

gj

They have been a great football conference the last 10 years. Just 'cuz they make it to the Big game and lose doesn't mean they are horrible. They have almost all extremely conservative coaches that don't try to go vertical and try to make it into a defensive battle. They've shown up in most of the their other bowl games minus the BCS championship.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

I don't understand this twitter thing. How do you get that many followers? Somehow I have like 20 followers and I've only twatted once. I don't even know who these people are

Twatted.

[Bambi]

Delusional ya'll. Those teams are bad. OSU makes title games because of politics

come on already:

sine '08 vs non con ranked teams

No. 7 Oregon* W 26-17
No. 3 USC L 18-15
No. 3 Texas* L 24-21
at No. 1 USC L 35-3

[Mr. Arrowhead]

Wickedson is jealous

[luv]

Originally Posted by Wickedson

I think the one thing that's being tremendously overlooked is how awful Big 10 football has been the last 10 years.

Got to give them credit for getting the image out there that they are actually a talented football group.

gj

This is a new angle. Subtle way of telling anyone who goes that they must suck?