I made the strategic error of wearing my yellow (Maize) rain Jacket to an NU Michigan game, and sitting among Michigan fans I was accepted among the shouts of "Guh bluh", until I stood up to cheer, GO Cats!
Bloody Monday
- Thread starter TheC
- Start date
I'm confused, is this not a college football forum, do you mean Navy's graduation rate? Everyone.
Shelf life? Nagy had no business being on the shelf to begin with. He’s a terrible head coach, hired by a terrible GM. Have you watched the Bears lately?
Fitz had a terrible season but his track record is plenty enough for me to give him the benefit of the doubt. And with how college football is changing, it’s not wise to pass judgment on him yet.
Sounds like you need a new team to root for.
You didn't survive the Dark Ages at NU, they remain an existential threat. Barnett, Walker and Fitz have transcended them, miraculously. Whether the DA re-emerge will depend on NU's response to the new realities of college football. However, the worst thing in this situation would not be for NU to join the Ivy League, where they have been aware of the potential for the commercialization of college football for half a century. It may be the only sane league for a University such as NU, with the onslaught of booster money into college football. Either that, or the NCAA is going to need to get their act together. What are the chances of that?
You didn't survive the Dark Ages at NU, they remain an existential threat. Barnett, Walker and Fitz have trancended them, but the Dark Ages remain a looming threat given the recent changes in college football. Will NU respond, by either challenging the NCAA which has gone off the rails or by joining the Ivy League which has been aware of the potential for the commercialization of college football for half a century, by being a leader in restoring sanity to college football?
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I doubt NU would ever join (or receive an offer to join) the Ivy league. I don't think it make sense from a culture standpoint for either side. If any school were to ever receive an invitation my bet would be on the University of Chicago.
I think the idea of teams like Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Wake, Notre Dame, Boston College, etc. forming their own league to try and stay "relevant" is intriguing. Small (under 10k) academically focused private schools who still want to play high-level athletics and pay more than lip service to graduation rates. If Ohio State and Michigan ever left the BIG to join a super conference then everything would be on the table if they wanted to survive in the new world of college football.
It would never happen. The reason each of these schools stay in their league is simple: $$$$$$s. You can bet the rest of the conference members would be happy for them to leave and divide their share of the TV revenue. Put ND aside, they will never join a football conference as long as they can get 100% of TV revenue from some network. Who the heck would care to watch a league of BC, Rice, Vandy, NU, Wake, Stanford, Duke, and TCU, to name the likely private schools I can think of off the top of my head? Even many their own Alums don't care. Far better to be part of a Power 5 league if you ant the athletic departments to be viable.
I agree with a lot of what you say. But the reason the BIG can command that type of money is because of Ohio State and Michigan (and to a lesser extent Penn State) If OSU, Michigan and Penn State left the BIG then so would the TV money. No networks are paying big money for Minnesota vs Indiana or Northwestern vs Rutgers. I think one of the biggest threats to college football is if the top 25 or so teams break away from the NCAA to do their own thing. And let's be honest, if Clemson + the SEC invite any teams from the midwest to join their new league it ain't going to be Northwestern.
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Travel costs alone, especially for the lacrosse, softball teams, etc. make the Ivy League an impossibility for NU. Same with the all-academic conference idea when you factor in all the loss of the Big Ten revenue involved. I was told this was a serious consideration in the Dark Ages (1980s) when we actually played Princeton in football once (Beat them 37-0 and then Princeton cancelled the return match), but it was rejected then and that was long before BTN, the investments in state of the art facilities and the actual proof that NU could still compete in the Big Ten. New challenges are ahead but you either go the way of the University of Chicago did or you try to find a niche in the new reality.
How about an Ivy League East and West:
East--Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Penn, Columbia, Brown, Duke
West--NU, Vandy, Washington U., Chicago, Cornell, Rice, Wake
Just as tough as winning the current BIG West to be honest. I would expect nothing less than every other year West Championships
I agree but you never know what the future plans are from the NU administration. Lots of unknowns
NU can't leave the BIG. We are going to need all that money to pay off this class-action lawsuit! Yikes!!
GTFOH. They have invested millions upon millions in athletic facilities. They will spend millions more on Ryan Field.
This is terrible, and Cornell would cry, and Vandy would never give up that SEC money, and Williams would be so pissed, and Notre Dame would publish a press release saying they did not join the conference even though nobody invited them.
You mean Williams would be pissed because they were not let into the Ivy League? Plus they're only a college. Cornell would be upset since they would be further distanced from their peers. Vandy might like the academic upgrade.
Would your opinion change if OSU/Michigan/Penn State left the BIG to join a super conference?
Maybe? NU pulls in a whole lot of BTN dollars, so a lot would depend on whether that situation changed.
The Big Ten also has a pretty significant academic consortium set up, so that staying intact could keep it together as well.
As presently constituted I don't think NU would ever leave the BIG (they would be insane for even thinking about it). But I also think that if NU was given the chance to join a similar (or superior academic league) that included schools like Duke, Vandy, Stanford, Notre Dame etc., AND the college football landscape had changed then they would consider leaving. The NU faculty (and many if not most of students for that matter) feel no loyalty to Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska etc. For better or worse, the typical NU student didn't grow up rooting for/against these teams and structuring their saturdays around non-NU football games. My take is that an entering NU freshman would be just as pumped to root against Duke as they would be to root against Nebraksa. By contrast, I think Michigan would join a super conference but it would be a huge culture shock to their fans who have grown accustomed to these regional rivlaries.
