Adding fuel to the fire, a local sports site here in Columbus votes Notre Dame to be the most relished newcomer to the conference.
Well I’ll be 70 yrs old next month and I would have never thought it would happen in my lifetime but it sure as hell looks like if I make it to 72 or 73, Notre Dame will be a member of the Big 10 conference. It’s almost going to be too good for the powers that be to turn down and for fans and alumni many of the reasons for not joining are going to be gone. When you get offered 5 or 6 times the TV money and still get to play some or most of your biggest traditional rivals every year and an easier path to the playoffs or maybe the only way to the playoffs it’s gotta be the Big 10. Crazy but then again College Football it’s just that nowadays, crazy.
Interesting quote by Aaron Taylor, IMO: "There’s no better poker player in the room than Jack Swarbrick. ND has TREMENDOUS leverage b/c it’s a national brand in a sport that’s officially headed in that direction for the first time."
If Brian Kelly is saying he thinks he did the best he could do at Notre Dame in recruiting he is probably correct BUT that's not the best that could and can be done in South Bend. Marcus Freeman in proving that NOW! ND does have a smaller pool of players to recruit from BUT the right coach and staff can get the players ND needs from that pool. Brian Kelly couldn't
Do you guys watch recorded games? I do, watched last year's USC / ND game. It was a solid win, except for the injury to Hamilton. Next I am going to watch Va Tech game.
If I can't possibly see a game live, I record it and watch it later. Up until now, I haven't gone back months later to watch a recorded ND game.
I use Youtube TV and will record various games that might be on the same time as Ohio State games. Those are available for eight months, which works for me. I have a whole library of key games for the Buckeyes on YouTube Videos as well.
I usually only watch key games. 1979 Sugar Bowl and 1992 Sugar Bowl are 2 I watch every chance I get.
Ref QB recruiting....now that Moore has announced for Oregon, ND may be looking hard at a QB from Tenn named Minchey. He is a verbal Pitt Commit.
With all the talk about the future there is also a lot of talk about the decision to join the ACC. With the demise of the Big East, there was certainly a need to find a home for non football sports. The only conference (allegedly) that would allow membership that didn't include joining full time in Football was the ACC. Now much of the criticism is over the 5 games a year for football. Nobody questions that the ACC hasn't been a good home for the other sports. The ACC alliance also gives us destinations for bowl games. Could a better negotiation had us playing 3 games instead of 5? The most critical of the ANTI-ACC crowd says yes. Would it have been better to have gone with the teams who formed the New Big East? They play all our sports except rowing and fencing.. Could that have been dealt with, probably. What about bowl ties? The Conferences have pretty much locked up all the bowls. Not sure how that could have been worked out. Scheduling? Don't know, when we were in the Big East it wasn't a problem and I don't think we were required to play a certain number of games vs Big East teams, although we did regularly play BC. Pitt. Syracuse, UCONN, and Rutgers. Big thing is that we were more independent something many Irish fans still long for even now.
Apparently the Irish will have a new Baseball coach soon. I imagine that there will be some who are disappointed. Time will tell if he is a good choice, but he's got big shoes to fill.