Notre Dame is the end game. My guess is that they will look also to add both on the athletic (all sports) and academic sides.....on the east coast that would be schools like UVA, UNC, and Duke (sports history and large endowments and attract a lot of research money). Those schools add states that have large and growing populations and the DC market also.
Likely candidates, my guess they would like to expand into the Southeast, so that just about almost any ACC school would be in consideration. If there is a group of two or three, which would accelerate the liquidation of the ACC, then the GOR will be of little or no longer an impediment.
I think they will hold firm on the AAU requirement (except for UND) due to the BTAA. That will limit who they can get out of the southeast to basically the three schools mentioned plus GaTech. The research aspect is much, much greater than the athletic money.
They could do all that and still not touch the the SEC as the dominant conference.
Notre Dame would be a massive get....and you may want to look at the new B1G TV agreement and its without UND.
I don't disagree....I would guess both conferences doing their best to keep ahead of the game, but who knows. If Notre Dame had joined the B1G years ago....they may have been completely satisfied to stand pat. I liked it at 12 teams and thought that may have been too much.
Although the AAU has always been a deciding requirement, getting a school from the state of Florida which opens a very big TV market and recruiting base may be too much of prize to pass up. With that said does the SEC become pre emptive (despite UF's objections) so as to block such a move.
Not that I think it would ever happen, the interesting scenario would be if the B1G sticks to the AAU requirement and still invites a Florida school. Would UF be enticed by and consider the impact of the billions in research money available?
World is not burning, it’s changing. I don’t think the two conference system is a bad thing. Maybe for us but not the end product of college football.
Eh, I don’t know. SEC is fine where it is, unless its just about bragging rights of who makes a few bucks more. Both will be massive.
The SEC is only fine where it is as long as the B1G sticks where it is. Copious amounts of money and influence are at stake. There's coming a time when the league that falls behind will forever be behind. That doesn't need to be the SEC.
But, you do realize that very few teams are elite year in and year out. Hell, even Alabama, prior to Saban went through dry spells. And they might again after he retires. Usually, networks can count on in-state fans to watch in-state teams. I watched us play Texas A&M last year.
No they have to count on one team rising as one team falls. People watch winners.
Not everyone is a winner all the time. That's life. These things often go in cycles. Ask FSU and Miami fans about that. But a core of fans will watch their teams no matter what.
Well, nothing will decrease overall interest in the end product of college football faster than booting a huge number of college football fanbases from the ranks of the P5. Once they no longer have a dog in the fight, they aren't going to tune in as often.
That wasn't that long ago....and Spurrier and Fulmer poking at each other before the game was as much fun as the game itself.
Notre Dame had expressed interest in joining the B1G 95 years ago, but they were turned down because the are a Catholic school. Hard to imagine that today.
It was only a few years ago some P12 schools balked at bringing in Baylor because they were religious.
Then that leaves an obvious choice of which schools should be the next to be acquired.
The Arizona schools could wind up in the Big 12 if a better conference doesn't coopt them first. Those schools are going to be worth having and the SEC needs to commit itself. If the SEC loses out there, then UNC becomes the must-have school from the ACC. If the B1G takes ND and UNC, and the SEC fails to get the Arizona schools, then I suspect the B1G will go around the SEC forever. Unlike the B1G's previous commissioner, their current commissioner has balls.
I know the history and I believe it was the university president at either Indiana or Purdue that "blackballed" them.
