The Big East Should Approach Notre Dame to Preempt Big Ten Expansion

Ever since Barry Alvarez announced his desire for a 12th Big Ten member, the college sports world has been buzzing with expansion rumors. Most of these rumors involve Notre Dame; the rest generally involve Big East schools (specifically Rutgers, Syracuse, and Pitt).

As the Big Ten isn't really considered to have a shot at landing Notre Dame (largely due to the Irish television contracts as well as the additional losses), the most likely scenario, other than no expansion at all, is the Big Ten stealing a Big East school.

The Big East has been here before—in 2004 and 2005, the ACC raid of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College (and nearly Syracuse) brought the conference to the brink of survival. Only by raiding C-USA for Louisville, Cincinnati, and South Florida (as well as Marquette and Depaul in basketball) was the conference able to survive.

They won't be as lucky this time. Another raid of the Big East will cement the conference as a laughingstock, at least when it comes to football. The conference will perennially be seen as a stepping stone for schools aspiring to join the Big Ten or ACC or even the SEC—if it can even manage to survive as a football conference.

For the Big East to survive, they must beat the Big Ten at its own game; they must strike first and land a high profile team as a ninth football member.

The obvious choice is Notre Dame. The Irish are members of the conference in all sports but football, so adding the Irish would add a ninth football member without interfering with basketball or other sports.

Unlike in the Big Ten, where the Irish would be an average program among the sea of Ohio States and Michigans, the Irish would be the undisputed king of the Big East in football. The Irish may only have a 9-9 record against the Big East in the last ten years, but no school, save perhaps Pitt, has the tradition or the past success of the Irish. It would also give the Irish increased access to key recruiting bases like Western Pennsylvania and Florida.

Really, the Irish need a conference as badly as a conference needs them. Given their current state of play, they aren't likely to bring many cards to the table when it comes to renewing their television deal with NBC.

They've been under performing against some of the weakest schedules they've ever played and their TV rankings are some of the lowest they've ever been. And while the rest of the college world is playing for conference championship game births and BCS position at the end of the season, Notre Dame is struggling to even earn their way into the Big East's Gator Bowl birth—hardly a fitting state of affairs for college football's premier program.

A Notre Dame move to the Big East would take a lot of concessions from the Big East—namely, they'd have to let ND arrange their own television contracts and retain the profits for home games, or else grant the Irish a double or triple share of the conference's revenue. There's absolutely no chance that the Big Ten gives Notre Dame any financial concessions to join the conference—it wouldn't be worth their money at this point, to be brutally honest to the Irish faithful.

The Big East is far more likely to offer concessions to the Irish, as they're more desperate to be seen as legitimate, they want an eighth football game without upsetting the balance of power in the conference and they want more attention. Notre Dame football on NBC in the Big East conference adds all of those things.

Each and every school in the conference would be guaranteed a game on NBC against the Irish once every two years, giving programs like Syracuse and South Florida much needed national attention. ESPN would be salivating for more guaranteed Notre Dame games.

The $80 million deal they'd signed with the Big East would seem like a bargain and for the Big East, it would likely mean a bidding war between NBC and ESPN for rights in 2014, with the winner paying out handsomely to the conference.

Most importantly to the Irish, it will mean they are playing for something. Jack Swabrick likes to say that the Irish "value their independence," but all this really means is their television money.

The Irish already schedule a large number of Big East teams each year and playing them for a conference championship and a BCS birth regardless of rank, can only help the Irish. They would still have room for annual games against USC and Navy, in addition to two other non-conference rivals or buyout games.

Quite frankly, if the Big East doesn't sign Notre Dame before the Big Ten poaches Pitt or Rutgers, their viability as a football conference may be coming to an end. The basketball schools would outnumber the football schools and even with the addition of football-playing Memphis from C-USA, the conference would struggle for BCS credibility while attempting to maintain the fragile balance of power within the conference.

The breakup of the Big East into separate football and basketball conferences would almost be inevitable.

In short, Notre Dame and the Big East, already a perfect fit in basketball and Olympic sports, may be a perfect fit in football as well. Each allows the other to be seen as more legitimate and the move preempts the Big Ten from outpacing the Big East and Notre Dame in prestige.

It also finally gives the Irish something to play for—something to look forward to all season other than a potential bowl birth in an exciting place like Detroit or Mobile.

Notre Dame may value their independence, but if they as well as the Big East wish to remain viable in college football today, their destinies may be intertwined.