[NU Sports] More conference shakeup reports ...

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Interesting news on ESPN this morning about Pitt/Syracuse applying for the ACC. Gut reactions ...

1) Whew. I'm glad it wasn't the Big Ten (neither brings much besides basketball and a long-gone tradition)
2) Surprised it's not the other way around ... it looked like the ACC was going to be carved up between the SEC and Big East
3) That's gonna be one heck of a basketball league (but still a crappy football league)

... and the biggie for us ...

4) The team with the biggest knot in their stomach right now (perhaps besides TCU, who may be joining a lame duck league)? Notre Dame.

Some thought the Big East absorbing the leftovers of the ACC from the SEC's devouring might finally give the league the backbone needed to say "all in or get out" to the "we get special treatment" Irish ... but some doubted even then they could bargain with the Evil Empire.

So if it's the other way around and the Big East crumbles like the Big XII, then the Irish are the ones left without a chair when the music stops. Unlike their egobrethren from Austin, they don't have a pseudo-network deal in place. They have NBC for football, but that's just for the one sport and might preclude them getting an offer for a pseudo-ESPN branding network for the sports other than football. And Texas has yet to figure out whether independence will work for the non-football sports, as ND realized.

Wanna bet someone's digging Jim Delaney's number out of the waste basket in South Bend just in case?

As for the football ... Iowa and PSU are in some serious trouble this morning. But the big three games are tonight ... MSU and OSU are underdogs on the road and the Illini have a chance to turn some heads when Sparky comes to town.

But first, GO CATS!!! Beat Army!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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