You’ll Pry Notre Dame’s Independence Out Of Its Cold, Dead Hands
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was momentarily thrilled and frightened by this Clay Travis post yesterday on the financial imperatives that will soon strike down Notre Dame’s independence:
In 2008, NBC ponied up an extension to the Fighting Irish television contract. USA Today reported that the current contract paid Notre Dame in the neighborhood of $9 million per year. … Why’s that number important? Because in 2008, every school in the Big Ten will clear north of $15 million from the conference, a number that will only increase in years to come. Every school in the SEC will bank, conservatively, $17 million.
Travis then adds in ND’s Big East take to get to $11 million, takes those numbers, adds two and two, and comes back to every Midwestern college football fan’s tantalizing, repulsive dream: Notre Dame joining the Big Ten and dropping the cash-filled nuclear bomb that would be a Big Ten Championship Game.
sportingnews.com
6/17/09
Magnolia Tribune
