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I generally avoid bleacherreport, but this caught my eye:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/370476-did-notre-dame-agree-to-join-the-big-ten-last-month

I don't really buy into this guy's analysis, but his curiosity about this quote from the ND AD:

"Our preference is clear. I believe we're at a point right now where changes could be relatively small or they could be seismic." He went on to tell reporters, "You can each come up with a [realignment] scenario that would force our hand"

He really didn't need to add the part about the realignment scenario. Anyone agree with this article that the ND AD's statement could be intended to start preparing for joining a conference?

If that scenario happens, then you could see a CUSA split geographically. Louisville, Pitt, WVA, UConn and USF would be without a football home. They would probably make entreaties to ECU, Memphis and UCF. They might ask Villanova to move up or add Temple or USM, but clearly they would by necessity have to raid CUSA to possibly survive. CUSA would still be standing with UAB Marshall and the western division at least until the MWC smelled blood in the water. At that point they might make a play for Boise, UH and one other school. At that point they might hit the politics issues. Fresno, San Jose, Nevada all will lean on their Governors require no votes unless their schools get in (aka Virginia Tech and the ACC). And if the Big Ten raids the Big XII for UT and A&M, then TCU, SMU, UH, and Rice will be killing each other for those slots.

EastStang wrote:If that scenario happens, then you could see a CUSA split geographically. Louisville, Pitt, WVA, UConn and USF would be without a football home. They would probably make entreaties to ECU, Memphis and UCF. They might ask Villanova to move up or add Temple or USM, but clearly they would by necessity have to raid CUSA to possibly survive.

If the Big East was raided as you suggest, then the Big East would need to expand to 12 in order to maintain its BCS AQ status. I do not expect to see Temple return to the Big East, and USM brings no television market with it. The Big East would need to expand west.

The guy who wrote this article admitted up front his source is another article. Now, I'm not saying he's wrong, and I agee with a couple of his assumptions, but former Big East Commishioner Mike Tranghese did an intervue lately saying a couple of things that both back up and contradict this guys ideas:

1) The Big East is bracing themselves, waiting for the blow from the Big Ten and will lose anybody the Big Ten offers. If they lose more than one of the main 3 - Syracuse, Rutgers, or Pitt - then Big East football is all but done.
2) If they lose one school the school that will probably get an invite will be UCF. Then probably ECU. Tranghese specifically stated that the BE makes more money in basketball than any other conference, but football is where the real money is and any school that is brought in is going to have to add something in football. Both in terms of football and TV markets, comparatively speaking, Memphis is low. Even Villanova, who won the FCS championship last year, brings more to the table right now in football than Memphis, and they could be playing football with the conference faster than anybody. He said the conference rarely talks about expansion, and when this discussion comes up Memphis is rarely talked about.

I still say Missouri is who the Big 10 go to if they don't get ND.