Conference realignment: Washington meets with Big Ten about potential move
The latest round of conference realignment seems more likely to focus on the Big Ten expanding its numbers in droves to put themselves in a position to compete with the SEC than it is to see more flagship schools flock to the southeast.
After the additions of Oklahoma and Texas last summer, the SEC has been quiet in conference realignment talks, allowing the Big Ten to scoop up the Los Angeles market with the 1-2 punch of UCLA and USC set to compete with the best of the Midwest (and New Jersey/Pennsylvania/Maryland) in 2024.
In a report Thursday morning, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy revealed that Washington was in talks with the Big Ten about becoming the next Pac-12 defector just a week after Oregon held a similar meeting with the B1G.
According to the report, Notre Dame and up to four Pac-12 programs are being targeted by the Big Ten as the college football conference arms race intensifies with the value of TV contracts skyrocketing in the streaming era:
Washington is latest Pac-12 school to meet w/Big Ten about joining the conference, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. Huskies' meeting w/B1G comes a week after Oregon met w/BIG. Big Ten targeting 4 Pac-12 schools & Notre Dame as new members, sources said https://t.co/CyfWwbzWC9
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 1, 2022
Notre Dame unlikely to lose its independent status in conference realignment
It’s beyond believable that many schools are looking to leave the Pac-12 after the conference sent two representatives to the College Football Playoff in the first three years of the CFP’s existence and has not had one for the past five seasons.
What is a little tougher to figure out is why Notre Dame would abandon their exclusive TV rights contract with NBC and the scheduling freedom that comes with being an independent just to be pigeonholed into playing programs like Rutgers and Maryland every season (presumably) in the Big Ten east.
The Fighting Irish have been able to coast on their unique reputation and legacy while perennially playing whoever they want–aka whichever opponents are most lucrative–for the large majority of its existence, only giving in and joining a conference in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACC folded Notre Dame into its ranks, but that was merely circumstantial.
Perhaps there’s a ‘Just Means More’ bias at work, but the SEC feels like the only conference worth giving up that independence for since games against Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and the like would undoubtedly be a revenue boon that Notre Dame couldn’t get anywhere else.