Texas A&M Football and Notre Dame: Big East Conference Has Big Opportunity

Big East Conference commissioner John Marinetto has a prime opportunity to shake up the college football landscape and forever change sports programming.

How so?

Entice Texas A&M to join the Big East, influence Notre Dame to start playing football with the rest of the member schools and sign a television contract with the new and improved NBC Sports Network.

Adding Texas A&M and bringing in Notre Dame to play football, along with TCU’s membership, would catapult the Big East to a position rivaling and, perhaps, surpassing the SEC in college pigskin dominance.

If Villanova moves from the FCS to the FBS, the conference would include 12 football-playing schools and finally be regarded as a true BCS participant.

Marinetto needs to create a business partnership with NBC Sports Group boss Mark Lazarus for the Big East to compete with all the major deals ESPN has brokered with the Big Ten, SEC, the Longhorn Network and the Pac-12.

There are a lot of “ifs” but if all of this could happen, the Big East would finally live up to its grandiose name in football. 

A Texas-Sized Advantage

The eight schools currently in the Big East have a combined 12 players from the state of Texas on their rosters this season.  Notre Dame—only four.  Considering Texas, along with California and Florida, typically produces the best high school talent in the country, the small number is one of the reasons Big East football struggles against more athletic teams, particularly in the SEC. 

Having two schools from Texas in the conference would entice top-notch talent from the state to go to a Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh or Notre Dame because they would have the opportunity to play in front of friends and family every year.  Knowing you have the chance to go home once or twice a season is a big-time motivator in a 17-year-old’s thinking process. 

Currently, there are 15 players from Florida on Vanderbilt’s roster.  Not bad for an institution in Tennessee that was ranked 17^th among national universities in the most recent U.S. News & World Report. Probably a big reason for such a nice-sized percentage of Floridians are the many visits to Florida or other states close to Florida like Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. 

If Vanderbilt switched places with a Villanova, I’m sure the rosters would look far different.  If Texas A&M joined TCU in the conference, there’d be a huge shift in the amount of players from Texas choosing Big East schools on decision day.  This would include a Villanova, which reportedly is being shunned by Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse and West Virginia to join the Big East because they feel the school doesn't carry much clout. 

Note to those hater-schools: The Wildcats just won the FCS championship in 2009 and, oh—by the way—the program has produced 82 players who were drafted in the NFL draft and one of those turned into a Hall of Fame defensive end.  I don’t think former Wildcat Howie Long would object to the Wildcats competing in the Big East.  Brian Westbrook wouldn’t either.  If a program can produce amazing players like Long and Westbrook without being Division I, just think what it could do in an elevated state.  

Cheer, Cheer for the Big East, Wake Up the Echoes Calling the Beast

Yes, there’s a mystique.  Yes, there’s Touchdown Jesus.  Yes, the Irish have produced some great talent over the years with 96 All-Americans and seven Heisman Trophy winners coming out of South Bend, more than any other football subdivision school.  And yes, the Fighting Irish have captured 11 national championships, which is tied for first out of all FBS schools. 

But let’s get real.  The last time Notre Dame won a national title was in 1988 and Tim Brown was the school’s last Heisman Trophy winner, a year earlier in 1987.  Ever since Lou Holtz left after the 1996 season—and ultimately hired by a company, ESPN, that has changed college football as a whole—the Fighting Irish have been fighting for athletic players more than anything else. 

The Bob Davie era from 1997-2001 produced losses in the 1997 Independence Bowl, the 1998 Gator Bowl and the 2001 Fiesta Bowl.  The Ty Willingham era (2002-04) saw the Irish lose in the 2002 Gator Bowl to N.C. State.  The Charlie Weis era (2005-09) began with promise with a 9-3 record and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl, where they suffered a 34-20 defeat to Ohio State.  The 2006 season ended with an embarrassing and an eye-awakening 41-14 loss to LSU. 

Weis’ tenure at Notre Dame swiftly went downhill after that with the final nail coming with Notre Dame’s second loss to Navy in three seasons after the Irish had beaten Navy 43 straight times. 

The three aforementioned coaches shouldn’t bear most of the blame, though.  It should rest more so on the administration’s decision to stay independent.  Listen, when SEC schools are winning championship after championship, fans in the stands—whether they’re for Alabama, Auburn, Florida or LSU—are chanting “S-E-C, S-E-C” for good reason.  The conference has the most athletic players and, ultimately, the best teams.  The players from those SEC schools know it and are proud to shout out their conference name, just as much as the fans do. 

If Notre Dame joins TCU and Texas A&M in the Big East, the domino effect will take place.  More games will be shown on ESPN or the NBC Sports Network, more kids in the south will watch and more athletic players will begin attending Notre Dame.  And when the Irish win another title, it will add to the program’s legacy while the fans chant, “Big East, Big East, Big East.”

Size Does Matter

Adding Texas A&M, along with Notre Dame, TCU and Villanova, would instantly make the Big East the conference with the most eyes available to watch. 

Notre Dame is near the Chicago market, ranked third in Nielsen’s most recent ratings of top 50 U.S. media markets, and Texas A&M is within the Houston market, which is the 10^th-ranked market in the nation.  With TCU in the Dallas-Fort Worth market (seventh) and Villanova in Philadelphia (fourth), the Big East would create a gigantic advertising portfolio, easily surpassing all other conferences in terms of potential revenue in that area. 

Add to the mix South Florida, which is in the 12^th-ranked market of Tampa, Pittsburgh, which is in a market ranked 22^nd, Connecticut, which is near the 28^th-ranked market of Hartford, and Cincinnati, which is in the 34^th-best market, and the conference’s television presence sounds even greater. 

Not to mention Rutgers and Syracuse, which are situated near the best market of all, New York City.    

Keeping Up with the Joneses

The NBC Sports Channel is set to debut on Jan. 2, 2012, taking the place of Versus.  The network had done a fairly good job with NHL hockey and the other random sports, but now NBC is primed to make a run at being a legitimate, national rival to the four-letter network.  Fans recognize NBC Sports as the programmer of the Olympics, a plethora of Super Bowls, horse racing, golf and NFL football. 

Those faithful to Notre Dame football have a good understanding of the network’s business relationship with the Fighting Irish.  The connection began 20 years ago at a time when Notre Dame was one of the top dogs in college football, as already discussed.  There is a contract through 2015 and supposedly it’s quite difficult to break. 

But the scenarios that have been proffered have included replacing Notre Dame with Alabama and Nick Saban or Florida and Urban Meyer.  Well, Meyer’s at ESPN now and there’s no way Notre Dame’s going to let the contract with NBC go to an SEC school, let alone Saban. 

But make the Big East a 12-team conference with all those media market possibilities, have better athletes elevate Notre Dame back into elite status and suddenly you got something. 

Notre Dame would surely let its contract worth a supposed $15 million a year be replaced by a package for the Big East worth more than the recent $2.7 billion deal the Pac-12 just struck with ESPN and Fox.  The deal works out to $225 million per year—or $18.75 million per school, far more than what Notre Dame is receiving now.  The potential numbers for Notre Dame in a package deal with the Big East would certainly break the $20-million-per-school barrier. 

With the broadcast network, two national cable networks, 11 regional sports networks and digital, the NBC Sports Group would be able to keep its business relationship with Notre Dame while expanding its brand by showing all the other Big East games, similar to what ESPN enables the Pac-12 to accomplish.  It’s a win-win for everyone.

The New Beast in Town

Think of the possibilities. 

With teams near Dallas, Houston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Tampa, the Big East Championship Game would have more panache than any other conference game, bar none.  I’m sure Jerry Jones would love to have a Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M matchup in his pristine palace.  The MetLife Stadium, formerly known as the New Meadowlands Stadium, would fill its seats with a championship contest featuring West Virginia and TCU.  The game would have championship implications and would be another revenue-booster to the conference. 

If…if…if Mr. Marinetto and Mr. Lazarus think outside the box and make it happen, it all would be an amazing change in the sporting world.  

North (Gavitt Division)

Connecticut

Syracuse

Rutgers

Pittsburgh

Villanova

Notre Dame

South (Tranghese Division)

West Virginia

Cincinnati

Louisville

South Florida

TCU

Texas A&M

Sample Schedule for Texas A&M

@SMU

Idaho

@Louisville

@Arkansas

South Florida

@Syracuse

Cincinnati

@Notre Dame

West Virginia

Villanova

Pittsburgh

@TCU (at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day)

Sample Schedule for Notre Dame

@Michigan

Navy

Syracuse

@USC

West Virginia

@South Florida

@Rutgers

Texas A&M

Villanova

@Connecticut

@Cincinnati

Pittsburgh