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+---- Thread: Is not playing Notre Dame beneficial to B1G Midwest recruiting? (/thread-740581.html)
Is not playing Notre Dame beneficial to B1G Midwest recruiting? - Big Ron Buckeye - 06-18-2015 09:16 AM
Total anecdotal evidence here, but it seems like B1G Midwest recruiting is picking up in the conference. Michigan and Sparty in particularly capitalizing on the top end talent in Indiana and Illinois. Sparty is also cleaning up in Ohio by snatching up elite players Ohio State can't fit into their classes.
Notre Dame fancies themselves as a National school and recruit as such but overall I think (but cant prove) their tighter affiliation with the ACC is also good for the B1G in a few ways.
1. It has forced Purdue, Sparty, & Michigan into scheduling other big time opponents. I'm not saying Notre Dame on the docket wasn't sexy but when they are the only tough opponent annually the schedule gets stale. It's refreshing to see Oregon v Sparty IMO.
2. B1G Midwest recruiting seems to be on the up. As I mentioned before areas that Notre Dame has built a decent portion of their recruiting classes especially Chicago seems to be being dominated by Sparty nowadays. There could be many explanations for this phenomena including recent on-field performance, D'Antonio is just a beast, recent street cred of B1G East, de-emphasis by Notre Dame of recruiting midwest, etc. Not sure exactly why but it doesn't seem like Notre Dame isn't raking up as much mid-west talent as they used to.
3. It gives the B1G an opportunity to reclaim a goodly portion of prominence in the midwest as Notre Dame shifts it's focus south. Notre Dame is a fantastic program so much so that natural advantages of B1G schools (# of living alumni, large state school, large media markets) has been minimized because of the large shadow of the Irish. Obviously the Irish are located in the heart of the Midwest and have great presence on the east coast, but all of the cities of their famed "subway alumni" have B1G representation except Boston with the additions of UMD & Rut. Notre Dame is going to get their coverage but with 5 committed games to the ACC plus annual tilts with Navy, USC, and Stanford there isn't much room for the B1G and the Irish don't appear interested in scheduling B1G opponents which I believe is good for the B1G especially if they are not drawing as much talent from the middle west.
RE: Is not playing Notre Dame beneficial to B1G Midwest recruiting? - ohio1317 - 06-18-2015 02:07 PM
1. I doubt playing fewer games vs. Big Ten teams has affected recruiting much. There might be a few recruits from the Midwest that Notre Dame would have gotten that have ended up elsewhere, but Notre Dame's focus has been increasingly outside the Midwest anyway so I don't think you are talking about more than a few a year max. That's not insignificant, but it's also not huge and only partly a result of fewer games vs. Big Ten teams.
2. It agree it's nice to see variety of games. A few breaks in some of those series was something over-due.
3. With #2 said, on average, most the replacement match-ups are poor substitutes for Notre Dame. An occasional break in those series was a good idea. Loosing them entirely is sad, especially for Purdue who is the most unlikely to end up with another game with similar national appeal. Michigan vs. Notre Dame was also one of the biggest non-conference games of the year and having them play someone like Utah this year definitely feels like a poor substitute. All that said, again I agree some variety was nice and needed.
4. I think Notre Dame not scheduling Big Ten as much is a very big negative. There's only a handful of recruiting battles that might occasionally help and that was a big name school off the list to play, one that had the added benefit of being a rival for all 3 schools.
Is not playing Notre Dame beneficial to B1G Midwest recruiting? - Strut - 06-18-2015 04:28 PM
Regarding point #1, I've definitely think there's more excitement now that we're playing Oregon versus ND. I've felt that the series has been stale for a very long time. Actually my adrenaline hasn't been there vs ND since Holtz left. I wish ND well but am glad to see us play Alabama ( oh I forgot they chickened out), but I'd much rather see the FSU's etc of the world!
RE: Is not playing Notre Dame beneficial to B1G Midwest recruiting? - Policiious - 06-27-2015 08:12 PM
Happy that conference members are playing quality teams from outside the region rather than Notre Dame (except NU who being the private U and only 120 miles from South Bend has some reasons for continuing to play the Irish).
ND is an Indy but plays 5 a year vs the ACC. No reason for the B10 to play ND any more than 1 game a year if that
Beating ND I believe certainly helps NU's recruiting