Conference Realignment - May 1

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

The thought of NM State or UNM coming to the Big XII is in my opinion rather laughable. NM State has pretty bad support in football. Heck a year or two ago they made headlines for creating an event that basically involved begging the Los Cruces community to feed their players during football camp. They have a smidgen of basketball history and Rocky Ward is creating a nice little baseball program but let's not go crazy. Missouri State has better facilities, fan support, and location in the realignment game--just using us as an example.

UNM has surprisingly bad football support considering their attendance and enthusiasm for basketball in ABQ. Rocky Long who is a darn good football coach left there largely for that reason and they have failed miserably the last three years. Geographically you love UNM in the Big XII if you are Texas Tech but otherwise I doubt there is much excitement for the Lobos.

[havoc]

Notre Dame to join ACC in all sports except football and hockey.

From press release distributed to the campus:

Notre Dame to join Atlantic Coast Conference; football stays independent but brings 5 games annually to ACC

The University of Notre Dame accepted an invitation today (Sept. 12) to become a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in all sports except football.
Most Notre Dame athletics programs have been members of the Big East Conference since 1995 after previously competing in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, North Star Conference and as independents. Jack Swarbrick, vice president and director of athletics at Notre Dame, said the University will work with the Big East and ACC on a timetable to transfer athletic membership.
“We have monitored the changing conference landscape for many months and have concluded that moving to the ACC is the best course of action for us,” Swarbrick said. “This will enable us to maintain our historic independence in football, join in the ACC’s non-BCS bowl package, and provide a new and extremely competitive home for our other sports.
“We are immensely grateful to the members of the Big East, which has been a wonderful home for us the past 17 years. We also think that the conference has a strong future under the leadership of its new commissioner, Mike Aresco.”
“The ACC was founded on the cornerstones of balancing academics, athletics and integrity,” said Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford. “Our partnership with Notre Dame only strengthens this long-standing commitment. Notre Dame enhances the league’s unique blend of public and private institutions that are international in scope. The collective alumni and fan bases cover the entire country with exceptionally strong roots up and down the Atlantic Coast. This is a terrific milestone in the evolution of the ACC and showcases tremendous solidarity and vision by our Council of Presidents.”
In addition to the athletic component, Notre Dame’s president, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said the ACC offers other advantages.
“The ACC is composed of some of the most highly respected universities in the country, and we at Notre Dame look forward to joining them,” Father Jenkins said. “With a mix of institutions – many of which are also private, similar to Notre Dame in size, and committed to excellence in research and undergraduate education – the ACC is an exceptionally good fit for us academically, as well as athletically.”
Father Jenkins added: “It is our hope that, over time, we will be able to explore the possibility of academic collaboration as well as athletic competition with these outstanding universities.”
“We are committed to keeping the Atlantic Coast Conference a vibrant and competitive league dedicated to ensuring the appropriate balance of academics, athletics and integrity,” the ACC Council of Presidents said in a joint statement. “The addition of Notre Dame further strengthens the rich tradition and culture of the ACC as well as allowing for future academic collaboration and we enthusiastically welcome them into the league.”
As part of the partnership with the ACC, Notre Dame has agreed to annually play five ACC opponents in football and each conference member at least once every three years.
“This approach allows us to help promote ACC football while maintaining our traditional rivalries and a national schedule,” said Swarbrick, who added that Notre Dame will be a part of the ACC’s non-BCS bowl package.
The move to the ACC does not affect Notre Dame’s longstanding partnership with NBC Sports. The change in affiliation is “essentially revenue neutral,” Swarbrick said. “Financial implications were not a motivation.”
Current ACC members are Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Pittsburgh and Syracuse will join the ACC on July 1, 2013.
Among the 12 current ACC institutions, seven rank among the top 38 universities in the U.S. News & World Report survey “America’s Best Colleges” and five are members of the Association of American Universities.
ACC institutions are located in four of the top 10 most populated metropolitan areas in the country and, once Pittsburgh and Syracuse become members, will be in nine states up and down the eastern third of the United States.
Since the conference’s inception in 1953, ACC schools have captured 127 NCAA championships, including 67 in women’s competition and 60 in men’s. In addition, NCAA individual titles have gone to ACC student-athletes 145 times in men’s competition and 104 times in women’s action. Four conference schools won NCAA championships in 2011-12, and two finished in the top 10 in last year’s Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings.
The Notre Dame football team is among the most storied in college sports, with 11 consensus national championships, seven Heisman Trophy winners, and more All-Americans and Hall of Famers than any other program in the country.
Notre Dame’s NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) figure for all student-athletes has ranked No. 1 among FBS institutions each of the last four years, and the Irish football team’s GSR has ranked No. 1 for three straight years.
Within the Big East Conference, Notre Dame has won 116 titles, more than any other school since the University’s entry in 1995-96, including 14 in women’s swimming and diving, 11 in women’s soccer, 11 in women’s tennis, nine in rowing, nine in volleyball, eight in men’s golf, and eight in men’s outdoor track and field.
Nationally, the Irish women’s soccer team and combined fencing teams won national championships in the 2010-11 academic year, the women’s basketball team has played for the national title the last two years, men’s basketball has earned three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, and the men’s lacrosse team has played in the national championship game two of the last three years.
The Notre Dame hockey team will move to Hockey East after a final season in 2012-13 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
###
From: Dennis Brown, assistant vice president for public information and communications

[LMS]

The Big East is screwed. How long before the Catholic League is brought up again?

[DoubleJayAlum]

The Big East is screwed. How long before the Catholic League is brought up again?

We all say a Hail Mary, or even pray the rosary, nightly.

[LMS]

The Big East is screwed. How long before the Catholic League is brought up again?

We all say a Hail Mary, or even pray the rosary, nightly.

I'm opposed to CU joining an enormous A10, but a new league would have a huge appeal.

[TylerDurden]

The Big East is screwed. How long before the Catholic League is brought up again?

Notre Dame likely won't be part of any Catholic league. I suppose if anyone could pony up huge dollars for exit fees it would be them, but this is from the ACC release:

In addition to extending an invitation to Notre Dame, the Council of Presidents voted to increase the conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. Currently this would equate to an exit fee of over $50 million.

http://www.theacc.com/genrel/091212aaa.html

[BUDude]

The Big East is screwed. How long before the Catholic League is brought up again?

Notre Dame likely won't be part of any Catholic league. I suppose if anyone could pony up huge dollars for exit fees it would be them, but this is from the ACC release:

In addition to extending an invitation to Notre Dame, the Council of Presidents voted to increase the conference exit fees to three times the annual operating budget. Currently this would equate to an exit fee of over $50 million.

http://www.theacc.com/genrel/091212aaa.html

I don't think anyone ever thought Notre Dame would be included, did they? More like Marquette, SLU, DePaul and others.

[TylerDurden]

I don't think anyone ever thought Notre Dame would be included, did they? More like Marquette, SLU, DePaul and others.

Notre Dame was always the key piece to those pipe dreams.

[DoubleJayAlum]

I don't think anyone ever thought Notre Dame would be included, did they? More like Marquette, SLU, DePaul and others.

Notre Dame was always the key piece to those pipe dreams.

I disagree.

While Notre Dame would have been nice, most expected that they will eventually join a league for football purposes. It was the fellow Jesuit schools (Marquette, St Joe's, SLU, Xavier, Georgetown) and the other catholics (DePaul, Dayton) that don't play football or do it at a Pioneer league level that people were counting on for any conference to come about.

I don't see Notre Dame's move to the ACC having any impact on such a league one way or the other. In fact, I'd argue that the strengthening of the A10 recently has significantly more impact.

[TylerDurden]

Notre Dame always has an impact, especially in matters relating to the Catholic schools.

Having them as part of a league is far more than nice, it's a foundation.