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Message: [QUOTE="WoadBlue, post: 4249255, member: 1145"] I think that 15 years ago, there would have been no doubt that Notre Dame would have refused any connection to pay-for-play/semi-pro. Almost all ND fans back then would have demanded such a position and been very quick to talk about football factories, including Ohio St and Michigan. But today's average ND fan under age 60 is far more libertarian than traditional. And a host of them rather clearly love money as much as any Big Ten or SEC AD. As with Texas Longhorn fans, no matter how rich their school's football program, they always envy anybody else richer and want to upstage anyone who might become richer. Notre Dame football people are desperate to win a National Championship - which means at the top level of competition. If the SEC, the BT, and ESPN and other networks are determined to create this new semi-pro division, then I expect that Jack Swarbrick has already assured them he will fight to make certain that ND becomes part of it. I think it was in 2004 that I first asserted on a Notre Dame board that eventually the changes in CFB would mean that Notre Dame - including football - would be in either the ACC or the BT. I noted then and many times since that ND in the ACC would mean that ND had chosen to try to preserve as much of what was good about the sport before it became all about the largest stadiums and richest athletics departments and when large numbers of private schools and smaller schools had a reasonable chance to compete. And I also said that ND in the BT would mean that ND had chosen to dive headfirst into the money pit, choosing to become a football factory that is a small Catholic school rather than a huge state flagship or land grant. [/QUOTE]

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