http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5268408 Updated: June 9, 2010, 5:46 PM ET Sources: Decision likely Friday All signs are pointing to a Nebraska move to the Big Ten. A source close to the Nebraska program told ESPN's Chris Mortensen that athletic director Tom Osborne informed athletic staff members within the past 24 hours that the Cornhuskers were going to make the move to the Big Ten conference. A source close to the Nebraska Board of Regents told Orangebloods.com the regents met informally Wednesday and have agreed to move to the Big Ten and that a formal announcement Nebraska is leaving will come Friday -- the deadline set by the Big 12 for Nebraska and Missouri to state whether they intend to leave the conference. University of Nebraska regent Kent Schroeder told the Lincoln Journal Star earlier Wednesday there was a planned executive conference call this afternoon which he believed would include discussion about possible conference realignment. An executive call does not involve all board members, just the Executive Committee, which consists of board chair Bob Phares and fellow regents Bob Whitehouse, Howard Hawks and Schroeder. An athletic director in the Big 12 told ESPN's Joe Schad that Nebraska has had discussion with the Big Ten and that there was a "good chance" Nebraska would join the Big Ten as early as Friday. A Nebraska source told ESPN.com's Andy Katz late Tuesday that a decision on whether to commit long-term to the Big 12 or leave for a potential Big Ten invitation could come Friday and a Big 12 executive told the Omaha World-Herald that Nebraska could decide to join the Big Ten as early as Friday. However, the source told Katz the consensus within the athletic department is that Nebraska wouldn't separate itself from the Big 12 without some assurance that a Big Ten invitation would come. Katz's source said the direction of the school is leaning toward the Big Ten, but there was no indication of when the Big Ten invitation would occur. The Big Ten has set no date for any announcement in the coming weeks, leaving open the possibility that Nebraska could be left in limbo. NU regent Chuck Hassebrook told The Associated Press on Wednesday morning that he expected conference affiliation to be added to the agenda for Friday's previously scheduled board of regents meeting. Board bylaws allow new business to be added to the agenda until 24 hours before the meeting. Schroeder, a Kearney, Neb., lawyer who has been on the Nebraska Board of Regents since 1998, also said he expects a presentation from university president Harvey Perlman and Osborne at Friday's scheduled board meeting on whether the school will change conferences or remain in the Big 12. "I'm expecting them to tell me the plusses and minuses of remaining in the Big 12 or going to the Big Ten," Schroeder said. But Schroeder, who served as the board's chairman in 2009, says he has no preference for either conference, because in order to do so, he "has to have data presented in a way that would allow him to establish a preference." Schroeder told the Journal Star he suspects the regents might talk about the issue of conference realignment in closed session during Friday's regents' meeting, he noted that there are no votes that come out of such a session. "Obviously any vote is going to be made in an open session," he said. "The question that will come today is: Suppose we have this closed session and come out of closed session, is it an item that needs to be advertised on the agenda?" Schroeder told the Journal Star there have been no previous meetings between regents about the topic of conference realignment. Osborne said in a radio interview Tuesday night that a decision should come soon. "Hopefully we'll get things put together in the next few days," Osborne told the statewide Husker Sports Network on Tuesday night without indicating Nebraska's preference. "I don't know exactly what the time frame is [that] we'll be able to put this thing to bed. But I'm getting tired of it, you're probably getting tired of it, and the fans are getting tired of it." Missouri appears to be falling down the list of priorities for the Big Ten. An athletic director with knowledge of the Big Ten told Orangebloods.com, "Missouri is getting cold shoulder from Big Ten." The Big Ten announced late last year it is considering adding at least one school, and possibly more, to add a league championship game in football and broaden the reach of its cable television network. Its decision has created a ripple throughout the power conferences, causing the Pac-10 to mull its own expansion and threatening the survival of the Big 12, which in addition to Missouri and Nebraska could also lose as many as six schools to a 16-team Pac-10. With the future of the Big 12 up in the air, Texas and Texas A&M boards will be meeting Thursday, according to multiple media reports. The discussion is likely to focus on remaining united on expansion (given Texas A&M's on-again, off-again interest in the SEC) and the Colorado vs. Baylor issue regarding the Pac-10. Information from ESPN Senior NFL Analyst Chris Mortensen, ESPN's Joe Schad, ESPN.com's David Ubben and The Associated Press was used in this report.
Outstanding. Blow the whole thing up, let's see some ridiculous super-conferences. If Nebraska goes, then Mizzou will go along with them. Then they might as well bring along three more schools, probably Pittsburgh, RU, and another BE program. After Nebraska and Mizzou go, Texas will have no choice but to bail for the Pac Ten, and that means A&M, OU, OK State, Tech, and Baylor/Colorado will go along with them. After that, the SEC will have no choice but to add four schools and go super, and that means Florida will have to get over themselves and allow UM and FSU to join up (probably with two of Clemson, VTech, and GTech). And the best part of it all? When the three superconferences decide to dump the NCAA guidelines and create a new governing body. Chaos reigns supreme.
I hate this idea, also can someone explain to me why none of these conferences want to take a team from a non BCS conference (outside of Notre Dame). I dont understand why a team like Boise or TCU wouldnt want to move to a BCS conference. Hell why not break up the independent league and redistribute those teams.
Because they suck for one thing, they want schools who'll make them money not lose it. WTF is the independent league? You mean Army, ND, and Navy? They're not together hence the independent part. They chose to not be in a conference. ND for power and money and Army and Navy because the Patriot league is not in the FBS.
Those teams don't suck... they don't have 40 years of tradition like Ohio St and Nebraska. They have won 4 BCS Bowl games and excluding the Boise/TCU game in which was more of a screw job because they were afraid of both of those teams beating up on more BCS teams so they force them to play each other. Utah has detroyed two teams from power conferences including Alabama who was ranked #1 less then a month before that game and who won the title with essentially teh same team this year. If they sucked wouldn't the BCS want to prove it by having them get crushed by teams like Florida or Texas? Why didn't they make Utah play another undefeated team in Auburn when they killed Pitt? Why wouldn't they let TCU or Boise play Florida? Because they were afriad of them that's why. Lets see in the past decade.... BYU has beaten Oklahoma as has TCU and Boise. Utah beat up Michigan, Alabama and a few PAC 10 teams, lowly Wyoming won at Tennessee and even UNLV who suck won at ASU who was ranked in the top 15 at the time. The MWC was 5-1 last year vs the PAC 10. Hell one of the greatest CFB games ever played was Fresno and USC. All that being said I truly hope that the Texas politicos slime Baylor into the new Pac 10, I can say with a strong degree of certainty that the MWC would be all over Colorado. They may not want to come to teh MWC but they are a perfect fot for us. Being based in Denver our network would salivate over the idea of Colorado in the MWC. They would probably end up calling the shots (although they'd be an afterthought in every other conference they joined) They have a football title and opening up California to recruiting would help them tremendously.
They suck as in they don't add anything in any other sports. A couple of decent years doesn't just entitle them to a spot in a BCS conference. It's all about the money which either school doesn't bring if they get added. There's a reason why Iowa St isn't going to get any invites to a BCS conference once the Big 12 dissolves, they suck as recruiting region and have a small tv audience. Colorado got their invite. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5270048 With Nebraska apparently headed to the Big Ten, the Pac-10 is poised to become the Pac-16. Colorado already has received an invitation to join the conference, while five other invitations will be extended to Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
So lemme get this right? because Notre Dame was good when Knute Rockne was coaching them they deserve a spot even though they've sucked since Lou Holtz left? You obviously have no idea how good those Utah football teams were and comparing them to Iowa St shows you don't know what your talking about. You can say they suck all you want but most college football fans realize they were every bit as good as the teams that won the titles those years.
Notre Dame has $$$ from NBC and is seen nationwide along with high academics hence why the Big Ten keeps begging them to join every other year. What exactly does Iowa St. bring to the table? This must be hard but sucking refers to profit making as nobody wants a team from nowhere as it doesn't benefit the conference. People want Texas for the recruiting and the TV money that they would bring which smaller schools do not. The MWC could be a BCS conference if they manage to get Boise St., Kansas, and Kansas St. but who knows how that will play out.
Not raking in dollars and sucking are completely different, Utah, Boise and TCU have proved they can compete with the big schools but yes they don't bring in the money like a Michigan or Oklahoma does. That being said Utah was ranked in the top 25 schools in terms of revenue for the athletics department last year, I believe they were 23rd. (I have not seen this, it was mentioned to me by my friend who has season tickets so I can't prove it). Why do you keep mentioning Iowa St? They're not even in the discussion, so why keep talking about them? The MWC doesn't even want them. You do realize that if the Big 10 ever got ND they would have to give up that NBC deal right? You don't think NBC is going to do what it takes to keep them? ND isn't going anywhere, I'd be shocked if they ever joined a conference unless they faced beig shut out entirely.
Because they were in the Big 12 like Texas and Colorado and has the same regional impact as Boise. Iowa St not being in the discussion is the same reason why Boise doesn't get a BCS conf. invite. It was either them or Baylor but Baylor had a chance to be in the Pac-11/16 so they weren't as bad off as Iowa St. is. As for ND it's all about $$$, ND would lose $5 mil in revenue from just losing the extra home game and a couple mil from the neutral site game. As of now the BTN can't make up the revenue lost. So ND is staying independent for now.
ND may lose even more money when the Superconferences shut them out of the BCS, or whatever postseason they decide to create. The NCAA won't be able to protect them any longer, they need to focus on figuring out how to protect themselves.
Shut them out how? Are the conferences just going to make up their own BCS? No matter what happens there will be an at-large spot so ND will be fine.
Basically the supers can do whatever they want. Not even their own BCS, they could simply make a tourament amongst themselves. And if they include at large bids ND won't have the guarantees that it has now. The simple fact that they'd be rejecting one of the three to stay independent would start things off on the wrong foot.
:rofl: Yea like every other conference won't have a lawsuit if such a stunt was pulled. Even then there will be no tournament, who'd you think stuck us with the BCS in the first place? The Pac-10 and the Big 10 that's who, good luck convincing them of a playoff with NCAA approval.:rofl:
Your right they certainly can do what they want and with the NCAA basically being rendered powerless ND won't be protected like they are now. The plan they want is to basically have 4 Super Conferences with 16 teams each. I read a comment from some president yesterday that said people wanted a playoff and this is the start of it. Even if they don't get a playoff the Pac 10 is already saying they want 2 BCS bids now that they are expanding. Where ND could run into trouble is if the Big East is raided and broken up there is no conference that is going to give them the deal the BE did. Every other team on campus is going to suffer and some sports may not have the ability to stick around because nobody is going to play an independent women's field hockey team in the middle of the conference season. For the Irish this may be about football but the decisions they make now could severly damage the other sports at ND. I think once the dominoes fall ND will have choice but to cave in and join the Big 10 or risk being shut out.
Laugh all you want, if you think that ND's going to get through this with the sweetheart deal they had before you need to pull your head out of the clouds. The NCAA used to have power with the spread of six major conferences all representing the top universities in the country, after the mergers three conferences will now represent those same schools. The power has shifted, the three power conferences can do anything they want. If they want a BCS with just their teams, they'll do it. If they want a 6 team tournament, they'll do that. College sports as we know them are changing. You're absolutely right Rich, ND is going to have to make a move soon. If they can get into the A-10 for all non-football sports they should consider it, the basketball there is about as high as mid majors can get. They will probably end up having to take that conference deal with the Big 10 though and say goodbye to NBC.
What is not being mentioned here is that the NCAA is not going to have any power in all of this. These Big 4 are going to set up a playoff and leave whoever doesn't get sucked up on the outside looking in yet again. At this point it's about money, not tradition, not rivalries, not academics. If the NCAA had any power they would have stepped in already. ND is going to have a choice, it's either get on board or get left behind. It's amazing that the entire landscape of college sports rests squarley on Texas and Notre Dame. Now there is an apparent rift between Texas and A&M which seems to have slowed things down at least for the time being. My guess is once Nebraska makes it official things will move rapidly.
