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[QUOTE="WoadBlue, post: 4171720, member: 1145"]
You do not understand what I am saying. The BT no more would want to downgrade ND football than the ACC wanted to see Miami football become what we have seen.

What I am saying is that a conference is run as a corporation. There always is Power in a conference; there always is a small group more powerful than the rest of the members. The most obvious example of what I mean is Texas, which was the sole Power in the SWC, and which very quickly displaced every old Big 8 team from any power in the Big XII. Even OU has been just a sidekick to Texas in the Big XII - not in terms of who wins league titles in football, but in who controls the league.

The BT is [B]defined [/B]by gigantic Flagship and/or Land Grant universities. Each of them (save Rutgers, for historical reasons having to do with the northeast) have very old power in state, and regional, politics. BT Power is not limited to scheduling games, not even close. It is true major political and economic power. No small private school can enter into that club and become a power broker within it. If ND also had Duke's basketball history and Miami's baseball history and Syracuse's lacrosse history, it still could not get into the center of BT Power.

In the BT, ND always would remain an outlier in terms of conference power brokers. ND football finally could win another National Championship, and ND still would not be able to more than sniff the power that Michigan and Ohio St have. Both those schools and other gigantic BT members would be more than happy for ND to win football games, and remain no more powerful in league leadership than Northwestern is now.
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