ND’s biggest state is Illinois (10 players), followed by Ohio (8), California (7), Florida 7), New Jersey (7), and Indiana (6). Pennsylvania and Michigan (3) are tied with Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and Hawaii (!). They’re attempting to have a stronger presence in Texas, as evidenced by moving a home game to San Antonio back in 2009 against Washington St., and at Cowboys Stadium v. Arizona St. in 2013.
I don’t think you take a snapshot of todays roster and draw any conclusions on where ND gets most of its players through the long term.
SEC fans telling Aggie jokes should be rich; like two one-legged men in an ass-kicking contest…
I don’t think you can look at rosters from the last 5 years and come to the conclusion that ND gets its players primarily from OH/MI/PA - that’s all I’m saying.
Wow. That would be great for the SEC. OU/OSU fits as a natural rivalry game right up there with Alabama/Auburn, Miss St/Ole Miss, and FSU/Florida. A&M/Arkansas looks good as another rivalry game.
ESPN is now reporting that it’s Texas A&M for sure with Clemson, Missouri, and FSU “likely”.
http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Texas-AM-leaving-Big-12-conference-to-join-SEC-081311
Hmmm…Clemson has a natural rivalry with South Carolina. Dunno about Missouri…maybe with Arkansas? Think I’d rather have OU/OSU, but any way you slice it is a win for the SEC.
You’re right. I was making more of a historical argument, but its trending away from that.
Also I meant to include Indiana in my list. :smack:
I get your point though - Big 10 country is a major part of the Irish’s recruiting strategy.
Oklahomans can’t get behind that whole “rooting for your rival when they aren’t playing against you” thing. That is crazy shit.
I want the OU football team to go 5-6 every year, so they have to worry about getting into a bowl at all or being forced to go play in the Kraft Fight Hunger bowl on December 9th at 2:30 PM.
It may be crazy talk, but it is more profitable for your conference. I root for all the ACC teams in football and basketball in non-conference games, because I know more bowl games/NCAA bids means more money for Ga Tech.
If this latest round works its way down the food chain so that UMass gets into the Big East where they belong, not the Mid-American, the move up from 1-AA being a done deal, then I’m happy with it. If it means Texas getting a comeuppance, I’m even happier.
First, though I live in Austin and am a tepid UT Longhorns fan, I’m from New York, didn’t go to UT, and have no strong emotional ties to the school.
How do I feel about a potential Aggie defection to the SEC? It seems like a fantastic deal… for the SEC. Not for poor A & M.
The SEC would get two new huge television markets (Houston and Dallas). They’d also get to recruit heavily in Texas (a few SEC schools, most notably LSU, already do). But A & M is already a weak sister in the Big 12 South, which means they’d be perennial doormats in the SEC.
Barring a ACC/BE merger, What I’d like to see:
1.BC back to Big East
2.FSU and Clemson to SEC
3.If A&M jumps to SEC, Big XII takes in Houston, Rice, Tulsa, and the Texas alphabet soup teams (TCU, SMU, UTEP)
4.ND and Mizzou to Big 10
But A&M also gets access to other states, access they don’t have now. It might be a way for them to improve…
Anything’s possible, but I can MUCH more easily picture Gene Chizik and Will Muschamp (who already have a lot of experience coaching and recruiting in Texas) bringing loads of East Texas stars to Alabama and Florida than I can Mike Sherman getting high school stars from Alabama and Florida to come to College Station.
Certainly A&M will have to adjust its recruiting program if they want to be successful in the new league.
As for the other schools, FSU’s administration has now weighed in completely that they have had NO conversations with the SEC. Further, the preliminary leak seems to have forced FSU to emphasize loyalty to the ACC.
It’s beginning to seem that the leak was more of a wish-list than anything else. Further, it seems that the leak may have actually weakened the chances of at least two of those schools (FSU and Missouri) making the switch. It would have been better to have had at least preliminary talks with the schools before the list went public.
If there’s a team on the move, it’s UCF. 2nd biggest school in the country, in a top 20 (and growing) media market, with a brand new 50,000 seat stadium; we’ve played in three of seven Conference USA championship games (winning two of the last four) and we beat Georgia in a bowl game last season.
The team has flirted with the Big East for the last couple of years, which makes some sense; the basketball program is catching up with the football program. Unfortunately, UCF doesn’t have much to offer the SEC, because UF is just an hour and a bit up I-75, and Orlando is UF’s largest fanbase.
Problem with that is, all UCF offers the Big East is a potential rivalry with USF. And all the other plausible candidates for a conference that would be a step up from CUSA already have a good presence in Florida.
Rejected!
