(06-13-2019 04:39 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: (06-13-2019 11:33 AM)TerryD Wrote: (06-12-2019 09:57 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: ND has to be the most hated nationwide. There are pockets of folks who despise them all over the country. As an Ohio St fan I want to see Michigan do well OOC so that the conference looks good. I can't say that about the Irish. I will always side with the opposite team in a ND game.
I am your mirror image. :)
I hate the entire Big Ten, though Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State (I say this as one born/raised in Pa.) the most.
And it comes to no surprise that the Big Ten programs you dislike are not only the most successful but most popular. Success breeds contempt.
For most Big Ten fans the animosity with Irish is their persistent insistence at nonconformity. For us it seems a no brainer that a wildly successful Catholic football school be in a conference with the Midwest's (and Northeast's) must successful public schools. ND vs Mich, Mich St, Ohio St, Penn St, Wisc, etc would all be huge television events. But while everyone else zigs the Irish zag.
I totally get the USC rivalry but to me the Big Ten has so much more to offer than playing Stanford, Navy, and then spinning the ACC roulette wheel 5 times
Well..........
Football membership in any conference is a non-starter, for one.
Playing nine games against teams mostly in the Midwest does not comport with ND's goals and perceived status as the national, Catholic university in America, for another.
ND thinks that playing nine football games a year in mostly the Midwest "landlocks" or "regionalizes" them.
ND feels that it has the Midwest covered with six home games a year
ND does put much value in regional rivalries, unlike most schools. ND wants to play games all over the country.
ND believes that a conference of big land grant universities is not a good fit, for another.
It thinks that the ACC, with many other private schools, is a better institutional fit.
ND doesn't trust the Big Ten and believes that a conference dominated by Michigan and Ohio State would not be one that would look to ND's best interests, for another.
Would ND get shoved into the Western Division, for instance? That would not fit ND's goals, at all.
ND would rather play Stanford and Southern Cal than Big Ten schools for a number of reasons, California recruiting for one.
ND feels it owes a debt to Navy for saving it from shutting the doors in World War II, and has promised to play Navy every year unless Navy decides to end the series.
Plus, games against Navy allow ND to play games in large NFL stadiums in places like DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, San Diego, etc., as well as places like Dublin, Ireland. The schools open the 2020 season in Dublin.
There is the deep seated, decades long enmity among ND people towards the Big Ten for Michigan blackballing them in the past and trying to kill its program by trying to get other schools to boycott them.
The Big Ten rejected ND back in the day when ND really wanted conference membership. The thought now is fook them.
The ACC gives ND exposure from Boston to Miami, where ND wants to be.
Finally, ACC membership allows ND football to remain independent, which is a major goal of ND.
For all of these reasons, ND really doesn't want to join the Big Ten in all sports, especially in football.