The last thing I'll say about Notre Dame (unless there's compelling evidence that we should talk about them more in depth), is that I'm sure the conversations that take place won't start with Beebe. They'll start in a conversation between Dodds and Swarbick.
There are maybe three or four schools in this country that demand the kind of attention that Texas and Notre Dame do, so they understand each other. Dodds will ultimately make the pitch as to why the Big 12 fits them better than any other conference (which it does) due to the autonomy and flexibility we're willing to give our elite members.
People can't make the assumption that we'll just invite Notre Dame and that will be that. We would bend over backwards for ND. You can almost guarantee that we'd allow them to continue broadcasting their home games on NBC in the meantime. Their deal with NBC expires in 2015, which is when our first tier rights go up for bid. Then, at that point, can you imagine the kind of money we'd make if ND gives up their deal with NBC and we just put them in our bid? I mean, if we added BYU and some other school, like Air Force, and then got a championship game in there again that could potentially pit ND and UT or OU at the end of every season...Holy God. The money would be absurd.
One thing people don't talk about is the cost of ND being an independent:
http://clashmoremike.com/2009/07/notre-dame-and-the-bcs-the-notre-dame-rule/#. They leave a lot of money on the table every year, and their current arrangement is not as preferential or profitable as people think it is in terms of bowl selection and revenue. Joining a conference like the Big 12, that would allow them to create their own network and own their own media rights, while splitting their expenses with the conference as a whole, would be a financial windfall for them. It would be insane how good this would make their books look.
A lot of people seem to think that the smartest move for ND is to go to the Big Ten, but the fact of the matter is that there, it would be harder to push around a lot of the schools to get the kind of preferential treatment that they desire. But in the Big 12, if you are important enough, we'll let you get away with murder. And their strongest ally would be Texas, and if those two decided to bookend this conference, none of us would complain about anything they did because we'd all be spending way too much time talking about all of the new facility improvements and asinine salaries we'd be paying our coaching staffs because that arrangement would literally rain money on all of us.
Notre Dame may not come here or listen, but they'd be smart to take the call and at least hear what Dodds has to say.
