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Is The Big Ten Trying To Force Notre Dame To Join The Conference? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Guyes Tomorrow Morning for Sunday, March seventeenth, from your host
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  Tom Moore, the Akron game in one hundred and sixty seven days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and fifty eight days. Today you're going to
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  be getting an episode of the Daily Huddle podcast. Garrett does a great job
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  with that show. It's basically the sister version of this show on our other
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  site, Saturday Glory, that focuses more on national college football. Well,
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  Garrett does a daily morning podcast stopping if you've heard this one focused on college
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  football for the most part. So all right, So day's episode is about
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  Notre Dame, and Notre Dame is one of those few things in the world
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  of college football conference realignment that would make a lot of sense Notre Dame joining
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  the Big Ten, lots of traditional rivalries with teams like Michigan and Michigan State
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  and Purdue and Ohio State, good geographic fit. It all sort of makes
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  sense. So this is a very interesting episode that Garrett did a couple days
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  ago that I really enjoyed talking about whether the Big Ten and was maybe sort
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  of figuring out a way to get Notre dame in its conference as a part
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  of this whole conference realignment thing. It would, unlike a lot of things
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  in this whole conference realignment thing, actually make a whole lot of sense.
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  So hope you guys enjoy this. If you do, make sure you subscribe
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  to the Daily Huddle podcast. You can find that wherever you find BUCKYE Weekly,
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  wherever you find Buck Guys Tomorrow Morning. It's with all of our other
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  shows. You can just search Buckeye Huddle and you'll probably get it that way.
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  You can also search Saturday Glory. You can find it that way.
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  Make sure you check out Saturday Glory dot com as well. I'm a fan
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  of the TV show Ted Lasso. I enjoyed each episode every season, how
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  quotable it is. And one of my favorite quotes from the series is be
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  curious, not judgmental. And it's something that I've dealt with in my personal
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  life professional life, where somebody's asking you a question and they know the answer,
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  and so they're not information seeking, they are accusing in question form,
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  and I don't I don't like dealing with that. I don't like having to
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  handle those sorts of questions. But I think sometimes it's fun to be curious
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  and not judgmental. Sometimes you can become judgmental by being curious. And the
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  reason I bring up be curious not judgmental is because when you have that mindset
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  of being curious, wondering, questioning, asking, you can kind of start
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  to see things between the lines or get in your head maybe some ulterior motives,
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  et cetera. And one of the things I'm questioning right now is does
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  the Big Ten have ulterior motives in fighting for and angling for more spots in
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  the college football Playoff alongside the SEC than the ACC in Big Twelve That supposedly
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  the fourteen team playoff is going to be finalized sometime very soon, and the
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  Power five Conferences and Notre Dame are going to be in agreement on what the
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  structure is. And when you put that in your head of the power power
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  four conferences, I guess I should say Power four Conferences and Notre Dame are
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  going to be in an agreement. That brings up some curiosity. Is the
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  Big Ten using the SEC as a shield, Because I think you could argue
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  that the Big Ten has ulterior motives in this situation where if you ask yourself
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  just off the top. Okay, what do the Big ten and SEC get
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  out of having more guaranteed spots and in their wishes, more guaranteed buys in
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  the college Football Playoff. Well, one, they get more teams into the
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  College Football Playoff, which is an inherently good thing for those two brands as
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  a whole, and it's an inherently good thing for the member schools of those
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  two brands Undeniable two. And it all goes back to, like I think
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  sometimes people argue that, you know, people are driven by power, which
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  is I think true at some point, but you have to get something out
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  of that power. Right, Generally it's great, Generally it's money. You
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  are motivated to get more money. So the Big Ten at SEC are motivated
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  to get more money out of the College Football Playoff. How do they do
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  that. They grantee more access for their teams into that dance, into that
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  party. And when that party is handing out millions of dollars to people who
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  come through the door, you want to make sure you've got more people coming
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  through that door. So that makes logical sense that the Big Ten at SEC
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  want what's best for their teams and then also financially want what's best for their
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  teams and themselves. But the long running thought process in Notre Dame has stuck
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  by this that they will not join a conference until or unless their current TV
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  rights deal puts them behind the eight ball where they're not in the same financial
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  stratosphere as the other power players in college football in two as long as they
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  still have access and a pathway to win the national championship, so much so
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  that they're willing to look past the idea that the top four slots in the
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  twelve team playoff we're going to be reserved for conference champions. Therefore, the
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  best to Notre Dame could ever be seated was number five, and they were
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  okay with that. But if we ever got to that situation that we've talked
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  about before on the podcast of the SEC and Big Ten taking their ball,
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  going home and saying, you know what, to hell with the college football
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  Playoff. We're going to have our own little tournament over here on the side,
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  and it's going to matter more than the college football Playoff. It's going
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  to be the de facto national championship of college football. Well, then Notre
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  Dame's hand is forced, and in your mind, do you picture Notre Dame
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  becoming a member of the SEC or a member of the Big Ten. It's
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  a pretty simple thought. So is the Big Ten working in conjunction with the
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  SEC in a best of both world scenario where either the options are we team
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  up with we tag team partner with this huge entity over here, and I'm
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  in a win win situation. Either I get the amount of teams that I
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  want into the College Football Playoff, a guarantee slot with whatever else I want
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  because we could team up go do something over here, or if we're forced
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  to team up and go do something over here, there's that force Notre Dame
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  inside my conference, which leads to increased revenue for everybody in the Big Ten.
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  I think it's I don't think it's unreasonable to question whether or not the
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  Big Ten is looking at this going because supposedly, you know, they've got
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  a cat. We we're only gonna take twenty teams. We're only gonna do
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  twenty, which I think is ridiculous. At worst, they're gonna stop at
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  twenty four if slash when the ACC implodes, and they'll take cal Stanford,
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  Notre Dame, Florida State, probably Georgia Tech in like North Carolina or Virginia,
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  and then the SEC might scoop up some of the other remnants. But
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  don't be prized. If at some point that eighteen team conference becomes twenty four,
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  you get a bunch of sixteen divisions in that that's another topic for another
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  day. If you are the Big ten, can you see a scenario where,
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  if you play your cards right, Notre Dame is forced to join your
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  conference. The answer to that question is unequivocally yes, that you can see
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  that path, and if you play your cards right now, you have to
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  play them right because Notre Dame has their own set of cards. But you
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  know what's important to Notre Dame financial stability, financial competitiveness, and access to
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  the national championship. You hold the cards to one of those things. But
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  when both of those things matter to the athletic department, the administration, the
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  university, their fan base, coaching staff, both of those things matter.
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  It's not just a we will stay independent as long as we're still making money,
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  or will stay independent as long as we can win a national championship.
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  It's both. They are tied together, and if you can separate one of
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  them, if you can take one of them, away. It's somewhat malpracticed
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  to not do that, correct, because it is one hundred percent whether the
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  fan bases will accept it immediately or not, It is one hundred percent in
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  the Big Ten's best interest to have Notre Dame join the conference. You cannot
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  argue otherwise from a perception standpoint, from a monetary standpoint, from a rivalry
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  standpoint, from a we need to find as many big games as possible to
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  produce for our television partners, from a competitive standpoint, from a brand standpoint,
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  from an academic standpoint, it makes all of the sense in the world
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  for the Big ten to want Notre Dame in the conference now. So far,
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  Notre Dame hasn't reciprocated those feelings. But if their hand is forced and
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  they have to join one of the four current ships that are still available,
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  Big ten, SEC, ACC or Big twelve, which one do you think
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  they're doing now? The natural response is they've already got a relationship with the
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  ACC. Does the ACC feel like a ship that is floating on top of
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  the water right now with no potential perils in sight? No, No,
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  it does not. And I think I think it's probably a bit much to
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  argue that the Big Ten is operating solely under the idea that you know,
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  we'd be willing to torpedo the ACC to get Notre Dame into our conference.
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  I don't think it's that deep. I don't think that, you know,
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  the Big Ten is having their lawyer's pill for through the ACC grant of rights
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  to find a way to get Florida State out of that conference. Because the
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  first time somebody figures out the way out of that contract before twenty thirty six,
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  that thing is going down like the Edmond Fitzgerald. It is out of
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  here. See ya, Does anyone know where the love of God goes?
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  When the waves turn the minutes to ours? It's gone and vanished like a
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  fart in the wind. And Notre Dame in some of the other schools in
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  that conference will immediately bolt to the Big Ten in the SEC. Don't be
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  surprised if there aren't already somewhat contingent offers out there of Hey, Miami,
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  Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson. Things go
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  south for you. We've got the framework going here if you want. Don't
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  be surprised if but I just think there could be an ulterior motive there in
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  how the Big Ten is swanging that thing around in negotiations, because if you
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  can get to that win win scenario, and if Notre Dame doesn't join a
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  conference, you're still good like if you don't get I don't think getting Notre
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  Dame to join the Big Ten is the priority. I think the Big Ten
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  is prioritizing access to the College Football Playoff and money. But money is grown
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  in a couple of different ways. One guaranteed spots into the College Football Playoff,
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  you get your cut of that revenue. And then two, if you
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  can bring Notre Dame into the fold and you don't have you're not up against
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  a time grunch by any stretch of the imagination. You just signed rights deals.
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  You get you a billion bucks a year. But that's the next step
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  to expanded revenue for the Big Ten is adding a program like Notre Dame.
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  And don't mistake it for one second that if the Big Ten can get that
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  done, if they can get that horse in the barn, there will be
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  hard chest something to the point of bruising, because there are several schools inside
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  the conference that want it and know that it's a natural fit and know what
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  a financial windfall it would be for their universities to make that happen. Be
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  curious, not judgmental. I'm curious of whether or not the Big Ten.
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  It's sort of hidened behind a shield with the sec to say we want the
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  same thing. We are both working under the same guys that we want as
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  many access points to the college football playoff. And then when you get behind
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  that shield a little bit and go. And by the way, if we
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  do this right, the prize pig is going to be in our barn.
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  They're not going to balk at that either. I'll do it for today's episode
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  of The Daily Huddle. Appreciate you making us a part of your day,
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  them out the channel. I'll see you on Sunday here on The Daily Huddle
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  with Saturday Glory