Big 12 whispers getting louder

CHICAGO

Landscape changes. What worked before won't necessarily work now.

College athletics is a fluid entity in terms of the precarious present.

Time for each school and conference to get selfish. Longtime
relationships be damned.

Courtships. Flirtations. Back-room deals.

Anything's fair game.

Football's the big enchilada, but Notre Dame's brand can stretch
beyond the grid.

This week, commissioners of all of college athletics' major
conferences — and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick — hashed
out a way to make their football product more palpable to the public.
The cries are for a playoff. Four-team? Plus-one? Who knows?

In the football discussion, Notre Dame is more than just a sidebar.
All indications are that the Irish could maintain their bargaining
chip, allowing them to remain an independent. They're likely to have a
path to a title without conference affiliation.

That's the national news. That's the meat-and-potatoes for Irish fans;
the main course.

Soup and salad comes in the form of a report that the Big 12 could be
the new home of all Notre Dame sports other than football.

A Rivals.com website that covers the University of Texas,
orangebloods.com, has reported that two anonymous Big 12 Conference
sources have confirmed that Notre Dame will announce the departure of
its Olympic sports from the Big East as soon as this summer, thus
ending a relationship that began in 1995. Next stop would be the Big
12.

Along with the move of the Olympic sports, the report said Notre Dame
has agreed to play at least three, and as many as six, Big 12 teams in
football in upcoming years.

The Irish will face Big 12 favorite Oklahoma this season.

“I thought maybe (Big 12 commissioner Bob) Bowlsby and I should really
hold hands up there to really fuel that,” Swarbrick said, referring to
the figurative group hug (for the media's sake) all Wednesday's
participants went through on stage after their meeting. “I have no
idea what prompted that. It is not based on any discussion, any
meeting, anything that we have done.”

Swarbrick didn't say it's not going to happen.

“I've said all along there were three important factors for us,”
Swarbrick said. “One is the resolution of the postseason, football,
which we are closer to. One is the resolution of our media
relationship, which we are in the homestretch of. And third is the
stability of the Big East, which we get more information on every day.

“Pieces of (the state of the Big East) are starting to fall into place
that will put us in a time and a place where we'll look at it and
decide what we're doing.”

Ah, hah! The caveat. Stability? C'mon, in the next two years the Big
East will go from a 2012 Escalade to an '85 Yugo.

The Big East is hardly the conference Notre Dame joined in '95. Miami,
Virginia Tech and Boston College bailed years ago. Syracuse and Pitt
will leave in a couple years.

Replacements will be Central Florida, San Diego State, SMU, Houston and Navy.

Conference USA-East?

The most striking similarity between the Big East and Big 12 is that
both have outposts in Manhattan — though one is in Kansas, the other's
in New York.

The Big East's men's basketball power ratings will take a hit. Trade
Syracuse for Central Florida and what's left? Pitt for Navy?

These whispers have circulated for several weeks. Confirmation by two
Big 12 sources adds a little fire to that smoke, even if Swarbrick
worked so hard to douse the embers Wednesday.

“I can't imagine what triggered the account,” Swarbrick said. “There
was no conversation. There was no 'something' that would cause it to
be written today. I have no idea.”

The Big 12 arrangement would be a cozy one for both sides.

Common sense and financial concerns would make the Big Ten a much more
logical arrangement. However, the Big Ten's stance has been
all-or-nothing all along, when either party expressed an interest —
football had to be part of the deal.

If there's validity to the report, the Big 12 seems willing — like the
Big East was — to roll the dice, get Notre Dame's foot in the door
with the other sports, and hope that sooner or later Irish football
feels compelled to abandon its solidarity.

Not a bad gamble, given the way everything is changing.

The only glitch could come when money — especially TV money — is discussed.

Notre Dame's football contract with NBC runs through 2015. In the
framework of the Big 12, Texas has its own Longhorn Network, which
generates a good chunk of cash above and beyond the shared Big 12
payout (which has been reported to be about $20 million per school for
football).

Logic suggests Notre Dame wouldn't settle for an equal piece of the pie.

That's not the Notre Dame way.

Would there be room for two “sweetheart deals” in the world of Big 12
football? With the coup of having two of the game's most popular
brands — Notre Dame and Texas — in the same neighborhood, it might be
worth investigating.

Fodder for thought. Interesting speculation.

A whisper that has some legs.