The Big Ten May Break Up The Big East To Finally Land Notre Dame

Larry Burton (Panama City Beach, Fla.) The Big Ten has done everything but kidnap Notre Dame in various attempts over the years to get it to join. Notre Dame always says "no" as if the Big Ten were an ugly dance prospect at the prom.

Now the Big Ten has come up with a new strategy.

The Big East and Notre Dame are partners in everything but football, where Notre Dame is happy living off the fat television contract they share with no one.

So what if the Big Ten, in an effort to become a super conference, invites Rutgers, UConn and either Pittsburgh or Syracuse to join them with buckets of cash as an incentive?

That would collapse the Big East, send some teams to the ACC who would be scrambling to play catch up with the Big Ten and maybe some to the SEC, who isn't just going to sit idly by and fail to be the superpower of college football. Not without a fight at least.

With the Big East gone, Notre Dame would have to have an affiliation for it's other sports and might be forced to turn to the Big Ten.

It's clearly a case of Notre Dame not wanting to come down from the tree.

So the Big Ten simply chops the tree down.

The Big Ten is also getting ready to court teams from the Big Twelve, such as Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State, Colorado and Texas A&M. Some will be intrigued by the offer and others won't, so that only makes raiding the Big East that much more tempting.

It is thought to be unlikely that both Texas and Texas A&M would be willing to join. The Aggies may be looking at the SEC and getting buckets of desperately needed cash for their cash strapped program.

Other schools like Missouri and Colorado may jump at the chance, while other weigh their options. Don't be surprised if either takes them up on it as soon as this week.

Of course in such matters nothing is sure until the ink is dry, but it does make the offseason a little more tolerable.