The Big East / Notre Dame bowl deal, discussed here in the last News and Notes update on April 29th, is now official ... and it continues to be a hot topic with Big East football fans.

The deal is going to happen, although not all the details have been ironed out, and not all Big East AD's have signed the deal yet.  But so far, here's how it breaks down:

• If Notre Dame does not make the Alliance, they will become part of the pool of Big East teams from which the remaining Big East-aligned bowls can pick.

• So far, the bowls which have aligned themselves with the Big East are the Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, FL) and the Insight.com bowl (Tucson, AZ).  The Gator Bowl gets first pick of the non-alliance Big East/ND teams, and the Insight.com bowl gets second pick.

• Other bowls which are reported to be negotiating with the Big East and Notre Dame are the Music City Bowl (Nashville. TN) and the Liberty Bowl (Memphis, TN).

• As I understand it, in order to be picked over another Big East team, Notre Dame must "be within one win of the Big East team."  This means that if WVU is 9-2 and Notre Dame is 7-4, then the Gator Bowl cannot pick Notre Dame.  Notre Dame would have to be at least 8-3 for the Gator to pick them over WVU.

• The Big East gets nothing from Notre Dame.  No scheduling considerations, no revenue sharing, nothing.

• In the latest development (reported by the Charleston-WV Gazette yesterday), Notre Dame cannot go to the Gator Bowl two years in a row.

• The deal will probably be for four years.

From what I've been told by some good sources, the Big East, before it decided to include Notre Dame in the negotiations, was going to have just one bowl lined up - the Alliance Bowl.  The Gator was bailing out, the Carquest was already history, and the Liberty was not interested, either.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, the subject of much scorn, supposedly asked the Big East AD's if they wanted to go it alone at the end of the year and hope for the best, or if they wanted him (Tranghese) to involve Notre Dame and try to line up some bowls.

The Big East AD's told him, "Go for it."

What This Means

So here we are, with the rumored agreement rapidly taking shape, and with bowls suddenly lining up to be part of the mix.  The Big East might actually wind up with five bowl tie-ins after all is said and done, whereas it was going to be just one.  On the surface, this actually looks like a nice piece of work by Mike Tranghese, but in fact, he has given up some long-term leverage for short-term gains, and he was taken to school by Notre Dame in these negotiations.

For one, there is now no reason for Notre Dame to join the Big East for football.  Previously, the Fighting Irish only had one weak spot:  no bowl tie-ins, beyond the Alliance.  Notre Dame was faced with a steady diet of Independence Bowl-type appearances in years in which they didn't make the Alliance Bowls, which is starting to become a common occurrence for the underachieving Irish.  Now, the only piece of leverage the Big East had to get Notre Dame to join the conference (bowl tie-ins) is gone.

Secondly, in exchange for providing the Irish with bowl tie-ins, Mike Tranghese and the Big East got nothing tangible in return.  Nothing.  The Irish will keep their bowl revenue, but more importantly, Tranghese didn't even get scheduling considerations.   If I were Mike Tranghese, I would have asked the Irish to schedule two Big East teams per year, one home and one away, for four years, until all eight Big East teams had gotten to play the Irish.

The bottom line is, Tranghese and the Big East avoided the hard parts of the negotiation, namely, revenue-sharing and scheduling considerations, and got straight to the juicy stuff:  sign the bowls up.

Notre Dame Likes It ... Does Anyone Else?

The reaction from Big East fans around the conference has been one of outrage and anger.  I have cruised WVU, Syracuse, and Pitt message boards, and nobody likes this deal.  It's a slap in the face when an entire conference, including such big-name programs as Miami, Syracuse, WVU, Boston College, and arguably Virginia Tech, has to be bailed out by one team - Notre Dame.

As for me, the whole "Notre Dame thing" doesn't faze me much anymore.   They're a big deal, and people bend over backwards for them.  Get used to it, or it'll drive you crazy.  Sure, I'd like to take a chunk out of the Irish as much as the next guy, but I realized that "hating" Notre Dame is a waste of my time and energy.

As a matter of fact, I find it humorous that four bowls that were turning their noses up at an entire eight team conference are suddenly beating the door down because one team - one more team - has been added to the mix.  Some of the bowls involved, particularly the Music City and Liberty Bowls, will never have Notre Dame visit, and yet here they are, sniffing around the door.

You have to laugh at it.  When Notre Dame says "Jump," the entire college football world eagerly wags their tails and says, "How high?"  That's power.  And the Big East is going to be the beneficiary of it, in whatever warped fashion that is.

What the AD's Are Saying

As for the Big East Athletic Directors, they're all toeing the party line, and in many cases, earning the ire of their fans.  Pitt AD Steve Pedersen, in a recent article in The South Bend Tribune, was quoted as saying, "Everybody's not going to be happy with every situation, but this adds to the overall prestige of Big East football."

Uh, yeah, right, Steve.  If this deal had been in place last year, your Pittsburgh Panthers, who went to the Liberty Bowl, would have sat at home.  But at least we've got prestige.

That same South Bend Tribune article had this quote from WVU AD Ed Pastilong:

"There are good people at Notre Dame,'' gushed West Virginia athletic director Ed Pastilong. "The way we look at it is you're going to be in the Alliance or headed to a good bowl game anyway if you have a good enough football team."

He gushed?  I can almost hear the Beaver saying, "Well, gee Wally, that's just swell!"  Pastilong was ripped heartily on the WVU message board for that one.

Only Syracuse's AD, Jake Crouthamel, showed any irritation with the get-it-like-they-want-it Irish and the whatever-you-say Big East.  With regards to Notre Dame not sharing revenue (or anything else), Crouthamel, who was praised highly by Bill Roth during the HokieCentral interview last summer, said with earnest sarcasm, "God forbid they share it."

That's easy for him to say.  When conference realignments are discussed, the Orange are often mentioned as possibly heading to the Big 10 or the ACC. In the long run, Syracuse probably needs the Big East like they need a hole in the head, particularly if the erosion of the conference's prestige and standing in the college football world continues.

TSL News and Notes Archives