re: Notre Dame and Louisville to be next members of Big 12?

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If this happens, I guarantee that Texas blessed it. Texas is probably pushing for it.

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Texas was willing to get rid of its biggest rival (and in fact did get rid of its second biggest rival) to be the clear leader of the conference. Texas will play second-fiddle to nobody, which they would certainly would be if ND came over in a deal like this.

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Big 12 Basketball is not a significant downgrade...it's a downgrade, though.

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I will concede, you're right about this. In fact, with Cuse and Pitt now leaving the Big East and going to the ACC and (if this deal would happen) Louisville to the Big Twelve, I'd actually say the Big Twelve might be the better basketball conference. However...

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Not sure if this will happen, but I can see it happening.

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Of course you can "see it happening". There's a lot of things that could happen. But I've heard absolutely nothing about this and none of our boards are mentioning it at all, so I highly, highly doubt it.

And as stated earlier, this just doesn't make a lot of sense from the Big Twelve's (i.e. Texas) standpoint. It makes a little from ND's, if they get the scheduling freedom stated, but the ACC still is the better fit, based on academic prestige, type of universities (only one private school in the Big Twelve, 5 in the ACC), geographical reach (ND is already a midwest school. Big Twelve wouldn't add much. But the ACC would add the East Coast, all the way from Florida up through New England), other sports (basketball, baseball, lacrosse), etc.