http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.d...60325/1002




A COLUMN BY TOM DAVIS

Irish wise to shun Big Ten invitation

Notre Dame doesn't need conference to increase its prestige.




The college football version of Tilt-a-Whirl has at least slowed, if not come to a halt, and as Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Boise State stagger off the ride, to the side stands Notre Dame, having chosen never to get in line for such an adventure.

This is precisely where college football’s most tradition-laden program should remain.

The talk about whether the Fighting Irish should have asked – or accepted, if you believe an overture was extended – for a spot in the Big Ten Conference is gone for now. That span could be years, or with the way college athletics work in 2010, more discussion could resurface tomorrow.

Joining the Big Ten and receiving the reported $20 million annual payment for doing so certainly is not a bad deal. Notre Dame could have done a lot of worse things (for example, not checked George O’Leary’s resume, but I digress). But joining a league isn’t necessary for Notre Dame to act upon, nor is it the proper thing.

I’ll be the first to write (and have written) that this football program is not special on the field and hasn’t been for a generation. But don’t tell me Notre Dame isn’t extraordinary as a football program overall, because it is unique in an abundance of ways.

First and foremost, Notre Dame is a national program and the moment it aligns itself with any conference, it becomes a regional one. The Fighting Irish fan base reaches coast to coast, not Angola to Evansville. There is a reason NBC wants Notre Dame as part of its programming and it’s called ratings. Big Ten games are not televised nationally because very few viewers in Seattle care about Wisconsin beating Michigan State.

That national scope has its advantages.

Notre Dame is one of the top revenue producers (a reported $30 million annually) in licensing and marketing fees. That figure would surely take a hit if Notre Dame limited its exposure to the Midwest. People in New Mexico buy Notre Dame merchandise. A guy wearing a Gopher football sweat shirt in Albuquerque only means that Big Lots has had a recent sale.

The Fighting Irish coaching staff also enjoys the luxury of being able to recruit players anywhere.

Former Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis’ two top recruits were from California (Jimmy Clausen) and Hawaii (Manti Teo). Players from 28 states – eight from California and six from New Jersey – fill the 2010 Irish roster.

Notre Dame not only garners exposure via television, but in person as well.

The Fighting Irish will play in sold-out venues that include: the Meadowlands in New Jersey (2010, 2014, 2015, 2016), Yankee Stadium (2010), Orlando (2011, 2014), Landover, Md. (2011), Soldier Field in Chicago (2012), Dublin, Ireland (2012), Cowboys Stadium in Texas (2013), Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts (2013), as well as five upcoming trips to California.

The only way that Ohio State’s Jim Tressel is getting into Yankee Stadium is if he pays to watch A-Rod.

Seriously, what other program can sell out a game in Ireland? What other program would try? Are the critics really suggesting the Irish forgo a biannual trip to the Coliseum in Los Angeles to play in Iowa City?

Lastly, when it comes to academics, Notre Dame isn’t just paying lip service, and that indeed makes it special.

Need proof? Check the latest APR numbers. College officials speak about the importance of academics, but not even one of their own is buying that.

“Who are we kidding? It’s all about the money,” former Purdue football coach Joe Tiller told the Indianapolis Star recently on the topic of conference realignment. “It’s not necessarily what’s good for the sport; it’s all about the money.”

That would be the same Boilermaker program that currently has 36 players majoring in either a physical education-related field or organizational leadership and supervision.

No, Notre Dame doesn’t do dubious majors, and it certainly doesn’t need to align itself with the Big Ten, thus dismissing decades of distinctive existence.


This column is the commentary of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. E-mail Tom Davis at tdavis@news-sentinel.com.

For all of the abuse that Notre Dame gets on these boards & others like it as well as conversations among fans across the country, they've stood up to the Big Ten in their attempt to take over college football - and the rest of college athletics - and said "No."

The Big Ten & the Pac Ten had a plan to form 2 mega-conferences that would control college football by wrapping up the Texas & NY markets between them, that would leave the SEC & the ACC 2 be boxed into the South to battle each other in a death match or to remain as they were & be overpowered by the 2 super conferences.

Two schools stood up to them & defeated them - Notre Dame and Texas A&M.

Say want you want about Notre Dame. They've given the Big East a chance to survive & live to fight another day. Big East Football can stick together if it wants to. It's members don't have to defect to the Big Ten. Because of Notre Dame, they have a choice.

I think I would have preferred the upheaval. Oh well...maybe next time.

The fact that ND told the Big Ten to go pound sand scored points with me. I have always one of the people who believes that their relationship with the Big East was beneficial for the conference, but I've still enjoyed watching them struggle and lose. After this, I'll actually root for them against Big Ten schools and pretty much anyone else outside the Big East.

ND is what, the 3rd or 4th top grossing program with Charlie Wiess stinko football.

Brian Kelly gets things rolling at Notre Dame and the Irish are going to make a huge amount of money.

What we are learning is that its about the overall amount of money a school can make, not necessarily the per school value of its network TV deal.

Texas for instance is willing to accept lower TV returns in order to remain in a league/divison it can dominate.

I'm no ND fan at all (especially after they hired Kelly), but I give Swarbick due props

BJ, sometimes the b@st@rds finish first...

Now if the Irish would just play fair about scheduling Big East teams in football they'd be an ideal partner. I'd love a 4 game, 1-1-1-1 setup, between Rutgers and Notre Dame. 1 game in South Bend, 1 game at Soldier Field (ND gets revenue), 1 game in Piscataway, 1 game at the New Meadowlands Stadium (RU gets revenue.) Or even a 5 game, 1-1-1-1-1 setup where we add a true neutral site game in Philly at Lincoln Financial Field to the other ones or in Landover at FedEx Field or in Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium. That's an attractive series for both programs IMHO. Since we recruit MD & VA so hard it'd be nice to get a neutral site game down there in a year we aren't playing Navy in Annapolis.

I like for Notre Dame to schedule the 3 BEast games each year it promised long ago...