LOL, Huskers fans not OK with Big 10, wished they would have stayed in the BIG 12. Eat **** b****es. You started the mess so enjoy your old man football conference! Link. lol
I think in addition to the exit fee issue, it brings some credibility to ACC football. One problem with the ACC is that there are few name schools involved, so they were going to be clearly left out of the mix with 4 big conferences (SEC, B10, B12, Pac12) dominating. ND is still independent, but with half their schedule as ACC, they are going to be talked about in conjunction with the conference. And it positions the ACC to ultimately annex them if/when they join a conference fully (same thing the Big12 was hoping). I also don't think ND would have joined the conference unless there was some reason to believe they were getting stability and health. The reason they left the Big East was teams bolting, so I don't think think they would join another conference with some of the premiere schools looking at getting out.
Also - most of what we know about why teams wanted out was from that FSU regent's rant. But it turned out much of that wasn't accurate - for example, all the 3rd tier money information about football vs basketball wasn't at all correct.
I think the $50 million exit fee thing is important...but I'm not sure this does much for ACC football when you consider ND was already playing ACC schools 2-3 times per season anyway. You're adding at most 2 more games against ACC schools...one of whom will always be Boston College. So if you're the other ACC football teams, you'll get to play ND occasionaly...once every few seasons. You're absolutely right about the second part...clearly there would be the perception from ND's viewpoint that they were stepping in to stability...which means there were likely discussions with FSU and Clemson folks to that end.
On the $50MM exit fee, if FSU and Maryland voted against it, did it still go through? It seems like something that would have to be unanimous. For example, when there were rumblings about Texas, OU, OSU, and A&M leaving the Big12, could all the small schools have voted 8-4 to raise exit fees to $1 billion?
Also, I'm not sure this is accurate. Of the last 4 years, they've had 1, 1, 3, and 3 ACC opponents. Going forward the next few years, they have 0, 0, 2, 3. http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/future_schedules/notredame_future.htm So now, they are moving to 5 ACC games, compared to ACC members playing 8 ACC games (I assume - not sure how their 14 team schedule is planned) Basically, every team will play Notre Dame every 3rd year - that's a decent boost in publicity, TV coverage, etc for all the schools in the ACC, along with the formation of semi-conference rivalries that could make the ACC more interesting/relevant nationally.
Florida State and Maryland voted against the $50 million exit fee. ACC reportedly needed 9 of 12(or 11 of 14?) votes to pass the fee.
That sucks for schools that get trapped, especially if the exit fee change is immediate. I can see doing it with a 2 year grace period or something, but otherwise, that's pretty crappy and I would suspect legally dubious.
Yup, sucks for those schools, and (from everything I read) the change/fee went into effect immediately.
FSU voting against the exit fee I understand. What is Maryland's play here? SEC? B1G? Independence? They are such an avg school. I'm not sure what they bring to the table that could entice better conferences.
I think it hurts the football program to a pretty big degree. I think the school leaving is a big blow to the conference and is more likely to sway members to leave rather than stay. The conference is royally screwed by the BCS dissolving. They were guaranteed a big payout bowl. The playoff system will not help them at all. When was the last time a Big East team finished the regular season in the top 4? Is a committee really going to value the conference more? HOWEVER, now that the fiesta and sugar bowl lost their tie ins, the Big East could get one of those spots. I wonder if there is a way the SEC, Big 12 championship game could rotate between Cowboys stadium and the Sugar Bowl? Would be pretty great.
It doesn't hurt the football program at all. It's a positive for the ACC and Notre Dame, but it has pretty much zero effect in terms of Big East football. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf-...-losers-out-of-big-east--big-ten-and-byu.html The Big East "lost" something it never had, i.e. a football relationship with Notre Dame.
Big East Football is a part of the Big East. You are looking at it really superficially. Notre Dame was a big part of the conference football or not and the fact they left it says a lot about the value and stability of the conference as a whole.
First casualty from realignment 2012: http://espn.go.com/college-football...ighting-irish-opts-series-michigan-wolverines ND-Michigan is done for now.
One the SEC went to 14, it was just a matter of time until another major league would try to follow suit. Going to be interesting to see if the Big 12 (*cough* Texas) holds firm with their desire to stay at 10, because my guess is that Florida State and Clemson are very much looking around after this.
I feel sorry for Maryland and FSU - they voted against the $50MM exit fees but got stuck with them anyway. There's no way a conference should be able to trap a team in it. But for an athletic department that's bankrupt and cutting sports left and right, I don't know how they even pay an exit fee that's negotiated down.
Meanwhile, the Big East just announced its new divisions this week and must already be going "WTF" if they lose Rutgers and then potentially UConn.
