(03-15-2014 09:04 AM)arkstfan Wrote: [ -> ] (03-15-2014 08:32 AM)TerryD Wrote: [ -> ] (03-15-2014 08:12 AM)krux Wrote: [ -> ]...that doesn't give a fugg about "cultural fit"? I was reading about how conferences have lost their identity due to expansion, specifically the ACC becoming a Frankenstein conference.
When Louisville plays UNC next year I see that as two all time great programs playing each other. I really don't think any fan is watching that game thinking "Well, this is fine and dandy but I'd rather be playing ECU (or Cincy in Louisville's case) because they're more mid-atlantic"
Do people really care about these things and why?
I sure don't, but my perspective is far different than most. I don't care about conferences or "cultural fits".
I favor intersectional rivalries, anyway.
As a fan of a football independent and former basketball independent, my favorite matchups historically were football games against Southern Cal and basketball games against UCLA and Kentucky.
If ND has to be affiliated with any conference, I prefer one that stretches from Boston to Miami and has a mix of Northern/Southern, private/public schools over a regional, homogeneous one.
The latter just seems geographically limited and a bit boring to me. Just my take.
Yet Notre Dame has arguably gone with the cultural fit in its decision making. First with the Big East that offered a significant number of similar institutions then with the ACC that keeps Notre Dame prominent in its historic second home of the Northeast.
Agreed to an extent. But, it is not a conference limited to one unique, certain geographic region (Midwest, Great Plains, Southeast) with all large, land grant, public institutions.
It is a 1,500 mile long conference with schools in the Northeast and Southeast with a presence in the Midwest (ND, Louisville) and has private schools like Duke, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest along with public ones like Florida State and North Carolina.
It has Northern schools like Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College along with Southern schools like Clemson and NC State. It stretches from Boston to Miami and now over to the Louisville and South Bend/Chicago areas.
It has basketball powers like Syracuse and North Carolina and football schools like Clemson and Florida State.
If it could add schools like Texas, BYU and Stanford, that would be all the better from my point of view.
But, don't get me wrong. I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies when ND was an independent in football and basketball, playing teams all over the country. It didn't matter what the "culture fit" was. I prefer it that way and wish it still existed.
Heck, if ND football had to join a conference my real preference would be a recreation of the old Fifties concept of an "Airplane Conference" that stretches from coast to coast.
But, I really don't like the idea of conferences at all and so the idea of a regional, "cultural fit" is a sort of alien concept to me. I prefer intersectional rivalries where Alabama would play Southern Cal one week and Ohio State the next. Texas would play Notre Dame one week and then Florida State the next, and so on.......
We all come at these issues with our own background, experiences and perspective. Mine never involved regional, like minded opponents only.
But, I certainly understand that others have a different perspective and viewpoint.