The Big Ten has just about forgotten about bringing in ND. ND has too much money to share/to lose even though it would make their sports programs better in general. Mizzu is a candidate to bring it to 12 and we all know the "super conferences" is all the rage and the future of NCAA football. In no way will the Big Ten drop a team if they finally have an even number. I always hated, as ND plays in the Big East in basketball, universities joining partial programs into conferences. Imagine if ND was added to the Big East in football. Too bad, even with ther Miami of today, the Big East has second rate network deals. Fla St has received much in their deal for their bball program, but the football conference is a joke. It only makes for excuses when they "have" to play against such cream puffs as they are in their conference. Last year was good to see, but in basketball they beat Duke, so it evens out. There is a good joke told by some ex-players recalling the different religions of their players in a certain touchdown play. I hate ND because they have the nerve to claim Touchdown Jesus! But, more power to them. They should ride that cash cow as long as some network will deliver. They will come calling to the Big Ten and by then, it will be too late.
I seem to recall a Sports Illustrated college football preview issue about 8-10 years back that claimed the most hated college football team in the land was not Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Miami, or any of the other usual suspects... It was...BYU. Really. Alas, PSU92, you don't have my Golden Rodents on your schedule this year to pick up a guaranteed Big 10 W...
Why would they share their bb money with Miami but not Penn State? IIRC, before Penn State joined the Big 10 they basically played a Big East football schedule. I think the only Big East school they didn't play regularly was Va Tech. It would have made a lot more sense to invite Penn State to join rather than Miami.
They wanted to form a football only Big East (they weren't even going to call it that) including PSU. The Big East schools didn't want to let PSU share in the B-Ball $$$$. Penn State going to the Big Ten caused a domino effect. The Big East had to give Miami whatever they wanted or they would would have been out in the cold as far as TV $$$ for football was concerned. The leverage they thought they had with Penn State was gone by that point. Penn State was the #2 draw in College Football for a long time & was allegedly offered a similar package to ND's by NBC. They joined the Big 10 instead. Security for the post JoePa era & improvement in other sports.
I would have liked Penn State in the Big East, instead I deal with Temple. Call that one a push... We beat the Nittany Lions twice over ten games in the 80s and early 90s. Once was in Foxboro with #22 at the helm and the other, the last one (the series kicks off again in 2005/6), Coughlin et al orchestrated the win. We hadn't beaten a big-time team before that game. TC made a whole lot of us believers after that game.
They won in 1985 beating a good PSU team (#1 entering the game) 25-10 in the Orange Bowl. That year OU lost to Miami in Norman during the regular season. Darryl Royal another prince of a guy. Remember reading Dave Meggyesy's book, Out of their League and he talked about how Royal if he didn't like a player would try to make them quit rather than cutting them since they still have to pay for the scholarship. Nice guy.
I'm proud to be able to say that my school boasts an undefeated record against Notre Dame. Of course, we haven't played D1 football since 1939, either. But that's beside the point.
Bill, Ralph, Central Florida, Central Michigan. In big-name college football, all of these are unnecessary details. The Penn State / Miami football thing was a very big deal when I was in BC. Four teams from the Big East -- BC, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Pitt -- wanted a football conference to tie up bowl bids and improve TV coverage. None of the other five teams at the time -- Seton Hall, St. John's, G-Town, Villanova, and UConn -- had a Div I-A football program, and none wanted one. So, the rumor for a while was that these four, plus Penn St and Miami and a couple other Eastern indies (Rutgers and Va Tech most likely) were going to break off from the Big East and start their own 8-team conference. But this would have killed the Big East, so they made an offer to Miami, Penn State, Rutgers and VT to start a football-only conference with the football Big East members. Rutgers and Tech at the time said yes; Miami and Penn State said no. So the deal was sweetened, but for Miami and State only: come in as all-team members. Unbeknownst to Big East Commish Tranghese, Penn State and Notre Dame had offers on the table to become full-time Big Ten members, thus giving them 12 schools and, under the new NCAA rules, allowing them to set up a lucrative football conference championship game. So Miami accepted the Big East deal for all sports except baseball (which remains independent because they start their season much earlier than the conference), but Penn State took the Big Ten offer and ND turned the Big Ten down. To my knowledge, ND was never offered a Big East football deal because it was known they wouldn't accept it. This left the Big East in a lurch: a seven-team football conference isn't worth nuts. So they made a football-only offer to the military academies (both turned down), then as a last ditch to Temple. Unfortunately Temple said yes. Eventually the Big East extended full sports offers to Rutgers and VA Tech, and ND accepted an all-but-football membership. Temple remains football-only because the league wants them out when UConn football gets mature enough to join.
There is another book by an ex-UT player, "Meat on the Hoof," about playing for Texas in the late '60's. This guy wasn't Royal's biggest fan, either. As a fan, I really don't care if the coach is an a-hole, as long as he beats OU.
The thing that pissed me off about guys like Royal and Woody Hayes was that if you ever saw an interview with them they turned on the charm and seemed be be the nicest guys. Hell old Woody, must have been good friends with Keith Jackson, because every other year when ND would play SC in the Coliseum, Woody was invited to be in the booth to talk turkey with Jackson. It was hard to correlate the maniac on the sidelines with this mild mannered guy in the booth. Lost all respect for Jackson and I guess it was Frank Broyles when Hayes sucker punched and choked the Clemson player that made the game ending interception against his Buckeyes. The replay clearly showed Hayes grabbing the player and both Jackson and Broyles feined ignorance as to the events on the sidelines. They couldn't see what the altercation was about or who it involved. Jackson another good old boy hypocrite.
Excellent post. Some stuff I didn't know about in there. Penn State wanted All-Sport membership or nothing. The other reason given for joining the Big Ten was the fact that PSU had more in common academically with Mich., OSU, MSU et al. then Pitt, Syracuse et al. Not sure if that was a real consideration or after the fact posturing.
IIRC, Jackson and Broyles didn't have a monitor in the booth, and were somehow screened from the Hayes incident, at least, that's the excuse I heard Jackson give years later.
I'm Pissed, no notre dame cause of a bye week this weekend. And all you haters have to be loving the 4-0 start. Beautiful stuff!
I know responding to my own post is lame, but just because I am talking out my ass, doesn't mean you mustn't respond. Go Card!
As long as we're talking about things that piss us off (like Notre Dame), I'm disappointed that the misuse of the term bye has now crept into college football. It was bad enough when the NFL started it, but it's spreading. A bye is a free pass where you get to advance without playing a game. For example, in the NFL, if you are one of the 2 top ranked teams in your conference, you get a bye in the first round of the play offs. The other teams have to play to advance to the second round and you do not. What NFL teams have one week of the season, and what Notre Dame had in this quote is a week off. Not a bye. Sorry for being anal grammar guy since I'm sure no one else cares, but this is one of my major pet peeves.
You know, he's right. In the New York Times, they call it an open date. Funny thing, when my brother was playing soccer, I saw his schedule and the second week said "BYE." To which I said, "Well at least you guys will win one game." Since my understanding at the time was that a bye was tantamount to a win.