Never claimed credibility, and even said...



Still on a slow realignment news day, figured it was worth throwing it out there...and FYI Nebraska and MD/Rutgers were also first reported on twitter. While yes, twitter misses 99% of the time, its also the quickest way to distribute real info too.

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

I get a chuckle out of thinking about how FSU will "get a plan" to attain AAU status. Like you need Michigan and Wisconsin to tell you how to get into something a fellow in-state, Florida system school could.

"Hi, University of Florida? Could you...uhh...let us have some research projects?"

He's too focused on the wrong end of that conference.

ESPN is reporting near agreement on divisional structure and number of games:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/73332/divisions-debate-down-to-indiana-purdue

Seems like the B1G is set for years. They wouldn't overload the East with Michigan State if other ACC teams were coming.

ESPN does not want the ACC further raided by the B10 or by the B12 or SEC.

An ACC made into a leftover division of BE schools is not a hot property.

What makes it worse is that as the ACC becomes weaker FOX becomes stronger.

Just wondering. What would had happened if the Big Ten invited Notre Dame for all sports (including or excluding football) if it was 2011-12 instead of Nebraska?

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

The BiG would not have embarrassed themselves by issuing an invitation which would have been refused.

They did. At least twice. After PSU became #11, Notre Dame was trgeted as #12.
But each time the invitation required Notre dame to join for all sports.

In 1998, the Notre Dame administration was on-board with the move, and a vocal group of alumni (apparently contributors) shot it down.
Some alumni harken back to some grudge regarding something that may have gone on between Notre Dame and the Big Ten in the 1930s (?)
This "preserve our independence" is totally irrational, but the administration is now VERY cognizant of it.

From a financial stand-point, Notre Dame would earn more TV money for FB if they were in one of the Big 5 conferneces.
The structure of the "new BCS" is not very kind to independents, however, they can make the semi-finals with a Top 4,
and they will likely make an Orange bowl appearance now and then (and none of that money has to be shared with conference mates).

Some (me included) think Notre Dame may take a "phased approach" toward becoming a full (including FB) member of the ACC (it may take 20 years).
They have 5 ACC FB games (starting in 2015 ?) and are phasing out their Michigan rivalry game.
To know the long-range plan, watch and see if they re-up with Purdue and MSU, or maybe turn those into every-other-year games.
USC and Navy will likely be preserved as OOC games no matter what....
This phased appraoach (if it is real and not imagined) would be a way of over-coming the alumni resistance.

Notice that many of the B1G expansion stories/rumors come out of West Virginia? Here's one from earlier this month from the Parkersburg News & Sentinel (S. Hemmelgarn, 3/02/2013).

http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/con ... l?nav=5064

Here's a VPI board discussing the earlier UNC rumor & related.

http://virginiatech.247sports.com/Board ... 17116849/2

Someone on one of the other boards couldn't have put it better about how these stories overwhelmingly originate from West Virginia, and how transparent and fan-made they are because of how in EVERY one of them, programs like Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and even Duke are left out to rot, while West Virginia, turned down by the ACC and SEC, lives on in high honor.

That poster nailed it.

I think it's actually a call for help. West Virginia wants to be in the ACC. Desperately. And it needs a conference, ANY conference, to help it get there. First, it's Virginia Tech to the SEC. Then, it's FSU and Clemson to the Big XII. Now, it's everyone from Miami and FSU to the Big XII, to UNC, UVA, and GT to the B1G.

All the while, UMD slipped right by the Appalachian Rumor Trail, and the best the B1G could do after such a prize in UMD was the mighty...Rutgers. Yes, I'm sure the heart of the ACC is screaming "sign me up!"

Believe that is absolutely right.
While the B12 invite to WVU was received gleefully, WVU is finding all the huge travel time and costs; and no close conference rivals, something of a problem. Factors related to recruiting and the impact on olympic-style sports could also be involved. WVU gets a lot of out-of-state recruits off to their east--north & south. They want enough conference movement to get them in a more eastern major conference, or have solid company of more eastern schools with them in the B12.

Does anyone in Indiana care whether Indiana or Purdue ends up in the new West Division?

I'm more annoyed they didn't just move Wisconsin over and call it North/South. I actually looked it up on wiki and technically it would be a true N/S split (Neb is barely north of Penn St and Rutgers). But maybe the Illinois people were upset their schools were split.

Most of the issues are likely logistic. One would have the advantage of being a bus league and the other sentenced to flight.

Big Ten is looking like a world beater right now.

Penn State and the Sandusky cover up.
Maryland involved in a $50 million dollar + lawsuit to switch conferences.
Rutgers and a foul mouth abusive basketball coach situation with at least 4 fired in the athletic office.

College football - GREAT!!!!!!!

However maybe they are trying to keep up with the other five conferences

USC with recent Reggie Bush stuff.
Miami with their ongoing investigation with Shapiro.
Now the SEC - Chizik rumors of payments and grade changes to win the National Championship.

College Football and College Basketball - as much action and press coverage out of season as well as in season.

Big time college sports and corruption - ain't it GREAT.

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SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS - SEC
RUTGERS SCARLET KNIGHTS - BIG EAST / AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE / BIG TEN

At rutgers they also fired the head attorney.

There is also the espn vendatta against Rutgers and the B10

Some big mouth politicans like gov christie and senator sweeney and their financial connections to the break of the state medical school.