The shock is off ... okay? Or maybe the Trojans and Browns are still getting used to the Big Afternoon Games 9 a.m. PT!. The fourth weekend of July is upon us so we are going to assume that there is a few days off in rearranging. We need it USC and UCLA are required. They need time to buy parks hire tutors for five-hour plane rides and add cheese yogurt to their taste buds. This is the lasting effect of the two West Coast icons leading to the Big Ten.
Now its time to consider the next steps.
Notre Dame is a point of conversation until it decides it isnt. With the conference membership its ongoing dance is almost a century old. The Pac-12 is already on record as it aggressively seeks to expand. Big 12 has not revealed any plans if any. It could be at 12 ready to go in 2025 or as industry insiders are suggesting financially select as many Pac-12 schools as possible and possibly make Pac-12 a trash can of history. Send in
Then there is the ACC which until the next notice looks increasingly weak. If all this sounds cruel then we should get used to it. The shock should stop ... right?
This is the latest from Reliance Trenches.
Nothing happens until Notre Dame decides
Pac-12 presidents and athletic directors met by phone on Friday but does Pac-12 have any power? Unless Notre Dame decides its future there is probably no such thing. Sources told CBS Sports that Big Ten was for now until the Fighting Irish decided whether they wanted to join the conference.To persuade Notre Dame to jump into the Big Ten a source suggested that Stanford could be invited as a kind of competition partner. The two schools have met 24 times in the last 25 years and the series was stopped only in 2020 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
In this scenario Notre Dame will have at least five traditional rivals Michigan Michigan State Purdue Stanford USC as partners in the Big Ten Conference. With an attractive conference schedule as well as three annual non-conference games the Irish could easily continue their Shamrock Series of one-sided games across the country.Big Ten can stop there at 18 or move on depending on the SECs intentions. There is a growing realization that a combination of Clemson Florida State and Miami could move to the SEC. It assumes that any of these three will bring pro rata equal value to the teams already in the league. The media rights fee is $ 80 million- $ 100 million annually.
Breaking the ACC grant of rights may require a significant eight-figure exit fee assuming the agreement has not been successfully challenged in court. However such fines can be financed over a period of years while new schools suffer annual losses.Does that force Big Ten to take a hard look at North Carolina and Virginia? Both were on the radar of then-commissioner Jim Delaney two years ago before the league finally added Maryland and Rutgers.
With or without Notre Dame an industry source questioned the
value of Big Ten in inviting Oregon and or Washington. The source called both schools twiner
not big enough to justify an $ 80 million-$ 100 million annual media rights fee
but clearly better than the other Pac-12 schools.
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