Notre Dame Dumping the ACC for the C7?

[moomoo]

I hate to admit it, but it makes sense for ND to bolt the ACC and join the C7 for all non-football sports.  It makes them more money because the historical football rivalries can still happen, and it is equal to the ACC when it comes to the other sports.


Notre Dame To Catholic 7 Or ACC?
Mar 4th, 2013 at 8:41 am by Nick CombsNotre Dame

There has been a lot of talk whether Notre Dame will go straight to the ACC, or join the Catholic 7 for a year or possibly longer. The Catholic 7 is said it will retain the Big East name, but what about all of the non-Catholic schools that are current Big East members? They will likely still be a conference under a new name or depending on what happens they could keep the "Big East" name. Which would be the better fit for Notre Dame? As everyone knows football comes first, which with the new ACC deal they are going to play 5 ACC teams every year. This isn't something Notre Dame wants to do. One of the best things about scheduling any 12 teams is being able to keep the many rivals Notre Dame plays every year (Michigan, which ends this year, Michigan State, Purdue, Navy, Stanford, USC, Boston College, and Pittsburgh). That is 7 teams 8 if you count Michigan. That is basically like a conference schedule in itself (7-8 games). All are great rivalries and many of them go back to the start of Notre Dame football. Like Navy, without the Naval Academy there would be no Notre Dame, because during World War II, as Notre Dame's enrollment dropped to number seen during the Great Depression, the Navy decided to establish a Navy College Training Program on the South Bend campus in the summer of 1943, which provided economic relief and stability.

Jack Swabrick stated on ESPN
If the Catholic 7 is leaving and forming its own conference for next year, they could certainly call us to want to explore our options. And if they were interested in accommodating us, it would certainly be a viable option. We have a lot of respect for those schools and know them well.

The Catholic 7 schools are DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, Villanova and expected additions Butler and Xavier. There are some other A-10 teams in the mix, but none have been offered yet. If Notre Dame would join the Catholic 7 they wouldn't have to worry about playing 5 football games within the conference, because none of these schools have an FBS football team. This means the Irish could go back to scheduling whoever they want. Many of the fall sports like soccer, volleyball, and cross country release their schedules by May or June. Joining the ACC will cost Notre Dame some of its historic rivalries, but if they joined the Catholic 7 then they could keep tradition alive in all of those opponents and still be in a good basketball conference.

[keefe]

I would welcome them joining but absolutely not for just one year. The door's open now and men must make the big decisions.

[Tugg Speedman]

Link

http://slapthesign.com/2013/03/04/notre-dame-to-catholic-7-or-acc/

It was written by a ND blogger

[BCHoopster]

I would welcome them joining but absolutely not for just one year. The door's open now and men must make the big decisions.

This makes to much sense, so forget about it!

[Goose]

Agreed. They are more than welcome but not for a one and done. It would benefit the C7 to have ND join.

[icheights]

So...do you guys not want ND to join for a year out of spite? 

ND elevates the status and competitveness for the league even if it is only for 1 year.  Midwest, Catholic, good basketball team,...so the only reason I can see you guys not wanting them is out of spite.

Horrible reason.

[keefe]

So...do you guys not want ND to join for a year out of spite? 

ND elevates the status and competitveness for the league even if it is only for 1 year.  Midwest, Catholic, good basketball team,...so the only reason I can see you guys not wanting them is out of spite.

Horrible reason.

Wanting continuity is not spite...

[brewcity77]

Take them for 1 year, take them for good. But the only way we will ever have a chance at getting them for good is if we are willing to take them for 1 year if need be. Besides, if they leave, it gives us more time to assess which are the next best options after Butler and Xavier.

[icheights]

Wanting continuity is not spite...

The league is going to be in flux for the next couple of years while they determine exactly who they are going to invite (there is no way this league stays at 9 teams for long).  So the continuity argument is invalid until the league is officially set with invites.

[Goose]

My feeling with one and done is that it is too one sided ND way. Trust me I am not saying no one and done out of spite. IMO the conference needs to take shape and schools leaving after the season just continues the uncertainty.

[Tugg Speedman]

Take them for 1 year, take them for good. But the only way we will ever have a chance at getting them for good is if we are willing to take them for 1 year if need be. Besides, if they leave, it gives us more time to assess which are the next best options after Butler and Xavier.

+1

C7 plus Butler X and ND means a 18 game home/home schedule for next year.  Great way to start and then the C7 is not forced to send other invites for a year ... take time and do it right.

The league is going to be in flux for the next couple of years while they determine exactly who they are going to invite (there is no way this league stays at 9 teams for long).  So the continuity argument is invalid until the league is officially set with invites.

+1 again, the new conference will be a revolving door for the first few years anyway.


I'm sure Fox would approve as well.

[ATWizJr]

We cannot allow the new conference to be the one year fall back position of convenience for the Domers  Major diss.

[Abode4life]

I don't know how much additional effort it would be, especially if we retain the Big East name, to keep Notre Dame in the league for one year in terms of branding, schedule, etc.  I wouldn't be opposed to having them for one year, especially if there is disagreements between the C7 on who should be the 10th team.  (assuming we are only going to 10 to start)  They could be a good filler while that is worked out.  I would also like to have them, only with the thought process of wanting to see what else happens with conference realignment.  What happens if other schools in the ACC leave (UNC, UVA, GT, Clemson, FSU)?  That would definitely make Notre Dame think twice about joining the ACC.  If they would want to stay more than one year. then yes i agree they need to be fully committed and agree to a large buyout or something else concrete to help keep them in the league long term.  

The one thing that this blogger doesn't think about, and I'm kinda surprised he doesn't coming from a Notre Dame view, is scheduling for football.  Personally I think the whole reason Notre Dame is going to the ACC is to help ease scheduling issues.  With leagues getting bigger and bigger, leagues are most likely going to want to schedule more conference games.  This leaves less room for other teams to play quality non conference opponents, because everyone wants more home games.  If teams have less room for scheduling home and away series, teams will look long and hard at who they schedule, thus possibly leaving Notre Dame scrambling for quality opponents if they aren't in a league.  If the ACC changes membership, and they are basically playing the Old Big East, that will change their situation.  This has been discussed at length i believe in other threads/on other boards.

The only thing that would concern me if they join the C7 for Olympic sports, is due to changes in football scheduling, are they going to be forced to fully join a football conference?  I wouldn't want to keep their Olympic sports in the C7 for 3-4 years after they back out of the ACC, only for them to realize they need to join a conference for football's sake.  We all know that no other league would accept them in that position unless they are a full fledged member.

[Warriors10]

My feeling with one and done is that it is too one sided ND way. Trust me I am not saying no one and done out of spite. IMO the conference needs to take shape and schools leaving after the season just continues the uncertainty.

This.

ND has a lot more to gain playing one year in the BE/C7 than the C7 does.  Full-time member, great I am fine with, but why split a piece of the pie with another school (assuming you stay at 9 for one year) or split the pie with a school that is only there for a year (instead of inviting a full-time member).  The conference is legit with or without Notre Dame and this conference will be just fine with or without Notre Dame.  We don't need to be a one year parking space for Notre Dame; they would need us more than we need them FOR ONE YEAR.

[MerrittsMustache]

So...do you guys not want ND to join for a year out of spite?  

ND elevates the status and competitveness for the league even if it is only for 1 year.  Midwest, Catholic, good basketball team,...so the only reason I can see you guys not wanting them is out of spite.

Horrible reason.

I don't want ND for one year because there's no incentive for the current C7 schools. Why add a school that doesn't really want to be there for just one year? What is it that's appealing about ND's basketball program anyway? Their lack of a national championship, one Final Four appearance or having only 2 Sweet 16 appearances since 1982? Throw in Swarbrick's arrogant as hell comment ("if they ask us, we'd think about it") and the C7 should tell ND to go pound sand.

[Goose]

Would add if there was a greater than 10% chance ND was waffling on ACC I would put on full court press. One more national name makes conference much stronger. I would not even care if we added SLU if Notre Dame was long term conference member.

[keefe]

I don't want ND for one year because there's no incentive for the current C7 schools. Why add a school that doesn't really want to be there for just one year? What is it that's appealing about ND's basketball program anyway? Their lack of a national championship, one Final Four appearance or having only 2 Sweet 16 appearances since 1982? Throw in Swarbrick's arrogant as hell comment ("if they ask us, we'd think about it") and the C7 should tell ND to go pound sand.

If there is any reason to be spiteful this is it. What an a$$hole.

[MUMonster03]

For everyone dreaming that ND will stay they will not. The entire reason ND joined the Big East in the first place was they gave their other sports a home AND gave the football team tie ins to the Big East bowl games without having to play Big East schools. If ND is not aligned with a football conference and misses the BCS or soon to be playoff being a complete independent made their bowl choices very slim and costed them millions of dollars.

ND is joining the ACC to follow the same model except this time the ACC was smart and is making them at least play some of their schools to have access to their bowl tie ins. ND was smart and saw that the Big East as a football conference was no longer viable and therefore secured bowl births in the future for years when they are not in the national title hunt.

[chapman]

We cannot allow the new conference to be the one year fall back position of convenience for the Domers  Major diss.

Agree.  One year does nothing but make the C7 look desperate to accommodate a program that is good, but nothing special.  Also not exactly a display of strength and unity to take a "filler" because you can't agree on which school should join now and which should wait a year.  


Jersey Guy covered it anyway, not gonna happen:

Forget the part about Notre Dame being part of the Catholic 7 for a year. A large segment of the  Catholic 7 group really doesn't want the Irish as a one and done participant.

They can consider full New Big East membership an open invite should they figure out an alternative to their football bowl issue, which seems to be the biggest reason for the ACC tie-in.  But since Brey had already said they knew the split would come, they've probably already looked into that.

[The Process]

As much as it pains me, if ND would say "we want in permanently" and then agree to a massive exit fee (so they can't easily try to jump Louisville/Cuse/Pitt/ND style (or attempt to jump a la UCONN/Cincy style)) then I'd be probably on board with this.  I highly doubt that they would be down with this, though. MUMonster03 hits a lot of that on the head.

But a one-year deal?  Not a chance.  They can go pound sand if that's the case.

[Tugg Speedman]

ND has a lot more to gain playing one year in the BE/C7 than the C7 does.  Full-time member, great I am fine with, but why split a piece of the pie with another school (assuming you stay at 9 for one year) or split the pie with a school that is only there for a year (instead of inviting a full-time member).  

So ND is not worth 10% (1/10) of one year for the conference SoS attention but being forced to take Richmond/Creighton/SLU in a hurry to get to 10 is a better deal?  Take ND, get to 10, and take your time on how to expand.

Remember we have the BE name.  So ND is going from the BE to the ... BE.  Only MUscoop posters think this is a one-year rental.  The other 310 million people in the United States think this makes perfect sense (for ND to be part of year 1) and does not to make the conference unstable (and I still contend that "stability" is used by posters to sound smart but means nothing)

[kmwtrucks]

ND was one of the reasons we are in the Big East. Fox is going to throw more money at a 12 team league with ND then a 10 team league.  Lets goto 11, with X, Butler, Creigton, ND and SLU and make FOX Happy.  Are you guys aware of the type of deal they are giving us?  Then add 1 more in a year.

If MU is getting over 3 mil from FOX per year we owe it them to put the best 12 on the table to Thank FOX.  Allot can change.  What if over the next year ND enjoy's C-7 and a few of the Big ACC schools leave?

[Abode4life]

Agree.  One year does nothing but make the C7 look desperate to accommodate a program that is good, but nothing special.  Also not exactly a display of strength and unity to take a "filler" because you can't agree on which school should join now and which should wait a year.  

Obviously you wouldn't say "hey Notre Dame is staying in the Big East so we can figure out whats best for us."  The only people outside of the C7 who would say this is a stupid move are people who want to see the basketball only league fail.  And either way they will hate no matter what we do.

[Aughnanure]

I would welcome them joining but absolutely not for just one year. The door's open now and men must make the big decisions.

This. Really hoping the ACC gets picked apart soon to make ND balk. They deserve for how much instability they've caused over the past decade plus (even if it has greatly benefited MU). It'd be fun to see the hunters become the hunted.

[Abode4life]

So ND is not worth 10% (1/10) of one year for the conference SoS attention but being forced to take Richmond/Creighton/SLU in a hurry to get to 10 is a better deal?  Take ND, get to 10, and take your time on how to expand.

Remember we have the BE name.  So ND is going from the BE to the ... BE.  Only MUscoop posters think this is a one-year rental.  The other 310 million people in the United States think this makes perfect sense (for ND to be part of year 1) and does not to make the conference unstable (and I still contend that "stability" is used by posters to sound smart but means nothing)

I agree with ND going from the BE to the BE.  If we keep the name, this isn't an issue.