In a stunning turn of events, the Big Ten is no longer just a moniker for the 11 universities that currently fill its ranks.
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish is now officially part of the “Big Ten” conference.

Turbulent Irish-NBC relationship

The process began as early as mid-January 2007 when Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White met with NBC executives for their annual evaluation of their television contract. Unfortunately for the Irish, NBC was not as tolerant of current head coach Charlie Weis’ dismal season as the university was.

Under the current contract which was prematurely extended in 2004 until 2010, NBC Universal pays the university $9 million a year for exclusive rights to their home games. The entire $45 million deal paid off initially as immediately as 2005 when the 9-3 Fighting Irish earned a Fiesta Bowl beat down against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

But despite an even better 10-2 record in 2006, ratings have begun to fall and NBC is suffering the costs. With an even bigger ratings drop, 40% from 2006 and half or 2005 levels, NBC had no choice but to give loads of free ads to companies like Allstate and Procter & Gamble to justify the $55,000 to $ 80,000 rates for a 30-second ad they bought before the Irish season began.

Heading into 2008, NBC is further forced to lower rates to simply entice companies to consider advertising with NBC this season. The Irish just simply isn’t a worthwhile investment for the fourth-place network. NBC’s Notre Dame ratings were half those of ABC’s college football games. “MAC teams make better television than the Irish right now” comments Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal.

When the two parties met earlier this year, talks deteriorated quickly when the topic of reductions in annual payouts to the university was brought up. While no specifics have been revealed, Brian Hardin, director of football media relations for the Fighting Irish was seen storming out of the meeting slamming the door behind him.

Secret Meetings

As early as a week after the NBC debacle, Notre Dame officials begun preliminary, discussions on a contingency plan should the day when NBC does decide to stop televising Irish home football games. Possible scenarios involving competing rival networks were discussed along with the distinct possibility of joining an athletic conference. It wasn’t until initial overtures by Notre Dame to reach out to Fox, ABC and CBS were rejected on the spot and mocked with laughter that the Irish began to seriously consider the conference option.

With their current basketball affiliation, the Big East was their obvious first choice. But it has always been the opinion of Irish fans and especially many on their board of trustees that the Big Ten is a much better fit, competitively and academically than the Big East. They were basically throwing the basketball program under the bus for the good of their football future.

And any unsuccessful attempt to lobby the Big East would blow the entire secret out of the water. Notre Dame officially basically had one shot at this and they went with the Big Ten.

On February 2nd, 2007 a charter twin-jet Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-700 left South Bend Regional Airport at midnight carrying 4 prominent Irish boosters, Kevin White, Juli Schreiber, and Jimmy Clausen headed for Chicago O’Hare International Airport. What happened during that meeting is still relatively undisclosed, but in a surprise press conference held today, the official announcement that the Big Ten will add a twelfth member was disclosed.

Immediate Reactions

When asked about the sudden move by the Fighting Irish, coach Joe Paterno simply dismissed the move as purely financial. “For years I’ve been saying that Notre Dame has gone from being an academic institute to a banking institute. I’ve lobbied for another eastern school to join us in the Big Ten when we made the move, and now they add the Irish. We would have much greater competition if we had added Rutgers, Pittsburgh or even Syracuse, but now that they’ve decided on the Irish, we’re stuck with them.”

Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald was more optimistic about the announcement. “That’s great, Notre Dame has a great tradition and history. We look forward to playing them year in and year out. We are always the team at the bottom of the Big Ten, now with Notre Dame in the conference, we can now look forward to being second to last each season.”

When asked the same question, Michigan’s coach Rich Rodriguez and Wisconsin’s head coach Bret Bielema both asked, “Who?”

Ohio State’s Jim Tressel was unavailable for comment, but in response to email inquiries about the move, he had his assistant mail free copies of Notre Dame’s humiliating loss to the Buckeyes in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl along with bonus extras of all the sacks Notre Dame allowed last season. Unfortunately for the recipients, there were so many bonus extras, it became a box set of 6 DVDs.