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MEGA Conference Realignment and lawsuits Megathread: Stories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations

Hold My Beer said:
Notre's Dame ability to remain independent in football has always relied on the willingness of schools in major conferences making room on their schedules for the Irish.

The current "one foot in, one foot out" 5-game ACC schedule was a direct result of expanded in-conference scheduling and increased TV revenue that made playing ND less of a big deal.

That'll be even more the case when the SEC and B1G zoom even further ahead of everyone else.

Why do they need to provide the Irish a helping hand? Go 9-3 in either of those leagues and a team most likely makes a 16-team playoff, weak non-conference schedule or not

ND needs the SEC and B1G to cooperate a whole lot more than the other way around.

When the ACC unravels, Notre Dame will have only two options:

Join the Big Ten as an all-sports member

Or cobble together an arrangement with the Big 12 or whatever remains of the ACC similar to what the Irish enjoy now

Good luck trying to compete with the upper echelon of CFB by doing the latter
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LMK exactly who they wouldn't be able to play in the future if the B10/SEC added a few more schools?

Unless there is a semi-pro model of P2 schools for football only (which ND would then join), ND will have no trouble making a schedule. They'll just have the 2-3 marquee names play them as part of their out of conference schedule.

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ND's schedule has four SEC/B1G teams in both 2025 and 2026 — and that's not counting us, FSU, UNC and UVA (and perhaps others) — who are likely more likely than not to end up in a 20- or 24-team SEC and B1G if/when the ACC collapses.

All those schools are likely play to nine straight conference games once late September arrives. Why would teams besides USC break up their conference schedules for a home-and-home deal with ND?

Maybe the Big 12 or ACC leftovers make an arrangement to keep ND's independent status afloat and the Irish rejoin the Big East for basketball and non-revenue sports? But that would mean a mostly second-tier schedule in their by far most important sport.

Here a quote from soon to be retired ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick from back in 2022:

"We're getting to a two solar system model here," Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said on Thursday, according to ESPN's David Hale. "You have two suns with all the gravitational pull -- the Big Ten and the SEC. People are going to have to figure out how to align with one or the other.”
 
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Just saw a notice that FOX will have AT LEAST 9 prime time Friday night BIG10 games aired this Fall. The P2 is moving in to take control of prime time viewer slots nationally. This is just the beginning. What streaming ap will the ACC games be aired on?
 
Rickd said:
Just saw a notice that FOX will have AT LEAST 9 prime time Friday night BIG10 games aired this Fall. The P2 is moving in to take control of prime time viewer slots nationally. This is just the beginning. What streaming ap will the ACC games be aired on?
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B1G has how many TV companies for their games vs ACC? I also remember some schools *****ing about playing on Friday nights interfering with HS games.
 
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Hold My Beer said:
ND's schedule has four SEC/B1G teams in both 2025 and 2026 — and that's not counting us, FSU, UNC and UVA — and perhaps others — who are likely more likely than not to end up in a 20- or 24-team SEC and B1G if/when the ACC collapses.

All those schools are likely play to nine straight conference games once late September arrives. Why would teams besides USC break up their conference schedules for a home-and-home deal with ND?

Maybe the Big 12 or ACC leftovers make an arrangement to keep ND's independent status afloat and the Irish rejoin the Big East for basketball and non-revenue sports? But that would mean a mostly second-tier schedule in their by far most important sport.

Here a quote from soon to be retired ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick from back in 2022:

"We're getting to a two solar system model here," Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick said on Thursday, according to ESPN's David Hale. "You have two suns with all the gravitational pull -- the Big Ten and the SEC. People are going to have to figure out how to align with one or the other.”
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With an expanded playoff, teams will be more happy to schedule ND for a big $ and big television audience.

Arkansas, Purdue, UVA, UNC, Michigan St, Miami, USC would all still be tripping over themselves to schedule ND even in an expanded SEC or B10.
 
ssvir said:
Why do you think it is real? b/c Twitter dip**** posted it?

ND is going to make the same amount of money being independent (football + ACC) as the B10 and will likely be at no disadvantage in whatever form the CFP takes. If they don't get an auto bye that means they have an extra home playoff game to make millions more in ticket/stadium/local economic impact.
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Notre Dame may be forced to join a conference. Eventually the BIG and SEC will have the playoff structured just like the NFL with the champion of each playing each other for the championship. That essentially locks an independent out and why all of the talk of ND joining a conference in the first place. This is the big picture.

This is not because a Twitter dip**** posted it either. It is the BIG/SEC’s future plan.
 
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5NC4 said:
Notre Dame may be forced to join a conference. Eventually the BIG and SEC will have the playoff structured just like the NFL with the champion of each playing each other for the championship. That essentially locks an independent out and why all of the talk of ND joining a conference in the first place. This is the big picture.

This is not because a Twitter dip**** posted it either. It is the BIG/SEC’s future plan.
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Yeah, the belief that the Big Ten and SEC will perpetually cut ND a break will be debunked soon enough.

Why would the two remaining power conferences go out of their way to make things work for a school that wants to play by its own set of rules?

As the saying goes, Notre Dame will either get right or get left
 
Hold My Beer said:
Yeah, the belief that the Big Ten and SEC will perpetually cut ND a break will be debunked soon enough.

Why would the two remaining power conferences go out of their way to make things work for a school that wants to play by its own set of rules?

As the saying goes, Notre Dame will either get right or get left
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There is a reason the new AD at ND is the former Chairman of NBC SPORTS. Pete Bevacqua will get ND into the B10 as one of the major steps in the P2 formation.
 
Rickd said:
Interesting comment by one of the Nole alum attorneys on their "realignment saga" thread on Warchant. "In depth legal analysis (of this case) is largely a waste of time. The new CFP format and medial deal planned and dictated by the P2 and the media networks is the road home for FSU". He believes the major network media moguls will be laying out their "P2 program matrix" and doing the associated
horse trading regarding media rights etc necessary to make it happen. Some in that framework expect that P2 to evolve over a couple of years to two 24 team conferences (as highlighted above). IF that happens then it is feasible that the GOR buyback issue simply goes away and any team leaving the ACC simply pays the conference exit fee of $120M. Lot of varied opinions on who goes in "wave #1" and "wave #2".
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This is probably the least expensive realignment for all parties. When the SEC and B1G get together in their meetings, it should be about coopetition where they put a draft board and start picking teams they want without fighting each other over them. SEC can let B1G have ND and they'll take Clemson. Just go down the list and pick and they can drop dead weight like NCST trying to latch on to NC. NC would have the option to be in or out of the P2, but the SEC/B1G alliance won't have to worry about picking up a school neither wants or needs.
 
Rickd said:
There is a reason the new AD at ND is the former Chairman of NBC SPORTS. Pete Bevacqua will get ND into the B10 as one of the major steps in the P2 formation.
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Do you really think they chose him to get into the B10? I'd say they chose him because they anticipated continuing to stay independent as long as they could and this would entail negotiating TV deals for the school. If their end game was just joining the B10, I'd think they'd want someone with actual experience in migrating a school into a new conference.
 
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CaneinBroward said:
Do you really think they chose him to get into the B10? I'd say they chose him because they anticipated continuing to stay independent as long as they could and this would entail negotiating TV deals for the school. If their end game was just joining the B10, I'd think they'd want someone with actual experience in migrating a school into a new conference.
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Disagree ... the P2 is all about optimizing programming while maintaining historic rivalries ... "migrating" a school into a new conference in this case just takes a phone call. Everybody wants ND.
 
Rickd said:
Disagree ... the P2 is all about optimizing programming while maintaining historic rivalries ... "migrating" a school into a new conference in this case just takes a phone call. Everybody wants ND.
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Agreed. It just takes a phone call and they would be ceding control of their TV negotiations to the conference as a whole if they are becoming a full member. What's the need for a former network exec if it's going to be negotiated by somebody else?
 
CaneinBroward said:
Agreed. It just takes a phone call and they would be ceding control of their TV negotiations to the conference as a whole if they are becoming a full member. What's the need for a former network exec if it's going to be negotiated by somebody else?
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Just believe the AD WILL be involved in that situation to some extent in the media deals ... and having a guy on board that UNDERSTANDS media deals is important. Very likely that the ACC schools wouldn't be in the current mess with the GOR / ESPN media contract (that nobody has been even able to see) if the schools had more media savvy AD's when all of this went down.
 
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