(09-10-2017 03:25 PM)XLance Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 07:04 AM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(09-10-2017 06:57 AM)XLance Wrote:  It doesn't measure up. Once upon a time, Notre Dame served as the gold standard in college football. It was a national program in a regional sport.

"If you lived in this part of the country, you were interested in the SEC, period," said Roy Kramer, who retired in 2002 after 12 years as Southeastern Conference commissioner and moved to Tennessee. "The only other entity with name recognition was Notre Dame."
http://www.espn.com/college-football/sto...notre-dame

What we are seeing are the seeds of "new independents".
Conference networks serve as the base but can't deliver the top matchups that the networks demand for high ratings. Just look at last night as an example:
Clemson v Auburn
Notre Dame v Georgia
Oklahoma v Ohio State
all on at the same time......which did you watch/flip around to see.
Big time heavy weights going at each other, commanding a national audience. So what happens in a few weeks, when what we have to choose from is Georgia v Vanderbllt, Oklahoma v Iowa State, and Notre Dame v Wake Forest.

I think we are headed into a period where we will see multiple "partial conference memberships" where we can and will see matchups on a weekly basis like we saw last night.
Fox's time line is very aggressive but you can get the idea.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-footbal...ame-051616



If you substitute the year 2036 then you have Notre Dame/ACC/LHN/SEC contracts all having expired.
I don't think we will ever get as far as FOX is proposing but we may get close. It could happen with multiple "partial" membership teams that can keep their regional flavor and still be available to play a national broadcast schedule while the conference networks can broadcast the rest.
An example would be if Penn State could play a 5 game B1G schedule to hit all of those high spot games but also play a 5 game ACC schedule to play traditional rivals like Syracuse and Pitt to satisfy the regionalism their fans are demanding.
It gives the networks what they want which is great matchups to broadcast every weekend and regionalism which is what the schools need to satisfy their fans/donors.

The rise of independents works for FBS, but those schools need someplace to put their other sports. That is the lever that conferences would use to force full membership.

I guess we will see if Texas applies for and is granted a Notre Dame type deal with the ACC. In effect Texas like Notre Dame would be a football independent, but play their other sports in the ACC.
For sports like golf or Tennis it could mean only one trip per year fr the conference championships. Baseball would probably be the most demanding (travel wise) for weekend conference series.

Is that a situation that you yourself or the ACC in general would welcome? The football situation has stabilized and Clemson and FSU have been appeased. Is the Tobacco Road group willing to cede further control of the conference just to land the Longhorns?