Notre Dame Declines Big Ten Championship

SOUTH BEND, IN - September 21 (AP) The decades-long game of cat and mouse between the University of Notre Dame and the Big Ten Conference took a surprising turn today as Notre Dame was offered and declined the Big Ten football championship. Reading from a prepared statement, Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delaney (of the Ulster Delaneys) indicated that at the close of play on Saturday conference athletic directors met by emergency teleconference and determined that the best path to national respectability would be to award the championship to the Irish, (4-0), who have eliminated half of the top Big Ten teams from serious BCS contention in a fifteen-day period and hold a three-game lead on all other conference schools.

Within two hours, however, the Big Ten's old nemesis delivered a bombshell. Speaking from an undisclosed location where he was meeting with high school players reconsidering prior verbal commitments to Big Ten schools, Notre Dame coach Ty Willingham indicated that the little school from South Bend, Indiana would decline the championship. Shortly thereafter, Athletic Director Kevin White held a formal press conference at which he announced the school's official declination. White expressed "appreciation" and "respect" for the Big Ten, but indicated that the school's Board of Trustees had voted unanimously to decline the honor.

Big Ten officials were stunned at the rejection. They had already dispatched a conference jet to South Bend carrying official emissary Keith Jackson to present the championship trophy. The Hayes Trophy, emblematic of Big Ten football supremacy is named in honor of the fiery Ohio State coach who symbolized the simple, hard-nosed, midwestern values of Big Ten football. The trophy is mounted with a giant Waterford crystal sculpture of the legendary Buckeye mentor rearing back as his withered, balled-up fist lunges toward the throat of an opposing player. The sculpture is mounted on an attractive mahogany base afixed with eleven brass numbers painted scarlet and grey, maize and blue and green and white and ranging from zero to forty-five, symbolizing the graduation rates of players at the various Big Ten institutions.

Off-the-record, Notre Dame officials indicated that they smelled a rat behind the offer. There were indications that legal scholars at the University of Michigan had concocted the Big Ten gambit in the hopes that guileless Notre Dame would accept the championship trophy, thus giving rise to a legal claim of a de facto "gentlemen's agreement" by Notre Dame to join the conference and share its television, bowl and gate revenues with the cash-starved Big Ten athletic departments. When asked about this report at his press conference, White paused and responded with a chuckle, "No dice. . . As usual, we're keepin' every stinking dime for ourselves." Notre Dame has been on guard against potential Big Ten use of the "gentleman's agreement" ploy ever since 1999, when Michigan pulled the quasi-contractual theory out of its voluminous off-the-field playbook in an attempt to stop Notre Dame from playing any games before meeting Michigan in Ann Arbor. Said one Notre Dame official, "There are just so many tremendous gentlemen in the Big Ten that it gets confusing. We have to be careful we're not making agreements with them every time we talk."

Aside from financial concerns, the Notre Dame coaching staff also feared Big Ten affiliation. Members of Willingham's staff indicated that if they were required to load up on games against Big Ten opponents it would limit opportunities to play power teams such as San Jose State, Wake Forest and Cal Berkeley, thus decreasing Notre Dame's strength of schedule and damaging its BCS chances. Said one assistant coach, "You can have your games against Michigan and Purdue, but if you want pollsters to respect you you're going to have to strap it up against the Utah's and Cincinnati's of the world, or else the pollsters are going to penalize you. I think Lloyd Carr spoke for a lot of coaches around the country, when he pointed out that you really need to be concerned about strength of schedule and the BCS."

This latest rebuff of the Big Ten comes three years after Notre Dame declined a formal invitation to join the conference. Sources indicate that at that time certain conditions demanded by the Big Ten undercut the deal. Notre Dame balked at the Big Ten's demand that the famous mural on the University's library be renamed "Touchdown Jalil." Big Ten officials felt that the new nickname, while minimizing Notre Dame's image as a religious school to make it more acceptable in the secular humanist Big Ten, would also make a nod to the multiculturalism so popular at large state schools. Notre Dame's refusal to accomodate by eliminating this sign of Western hegemonism and patriarchy was met with great unease in progressive Big Ten hotbeds like Madison, Wisconsin.

Another sticking point was the previously-undisclosed monetary commitments conference membership entailed. Notre Dame officials were shocked when they discovered the millions of dollars in premiums required of each conference member in order to maintain the term-life insurance policy the conference has taken out on Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. Said one Notre Dame official, "The folks at Minnesota told us that the Paterno insurance payments alone ate up all of their football gate receipts. No wonder none of them make any money."

Reportedly, Notre Dame also balked at the demands that it bring itself more in line with the curriculum of the Big Ten schools. Notre Dame faculty refused to consider implementing a more diverse curriculum including popular Big Ten majors such as Parks and Recreation, Kineseology, Leisure and Tourism, Opening Child-Proof Caps and Breathing.

The Big Ten likewise rejected certain of Notre Dame's requests, including that Northwestern be required to participate in a "play-in" game against Air Force and Duke to retain conference membership and a non-negotiable demand that Michigan State mascot "Sparty" be banned from the conference. Said Rev. Timothy Scully, Executive Vice President of Notre Dame, "Look, our alumni are pretty family-oriented kinds of folks. We really don't want to join a conference where you have this guy who looks like he just left a Greenwich Village Halloween party roaming the sideline. Kids shouldn't have to see that kind of thing."

The rejection of the Hayes Trophy comes in a year that has seen rising tensions between Notre Dame and the conference schools. Conference opinion was sharply critical of the firing earlier this year of former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie who was widely respected as the first Notre Dame coach since 1963 to uncover a talent gap with Michigan State. Notre Dame's unilateral abandonment of Coach Davie's gentleman's agreement with Big Ten schools to avoid using superior determination, discipline and coaching to win close games was seen as an unfair shift of policy by Notre Dame. Conference officials fear Notre Dame's approach represents an unwelcome change in tactics meant to return to the days of the 1980's and early 90's when Lou Holtz -- widely viewed in the Big Ten as ungentlemanly -- compiled a 20-1-1 record against the Big Ten and defeated the conference champion in five straight meetings. In this regard, the Big Ten has made a formal protest that Willingham's promise to "get back to the business of being Notre Dame again" was unnecessarily threatening and inflammatory.

Notre Dame's rejection comes as a setback for the Big Ten in what had been an otherwise auspicious year for conference schools. In June, Purdue retained the title of owner of "The World's Largest Drum" when a Bosnian effort to unseat it failed in a disastrous construction accident. And earlier this month the Ohio State University announced that the percentage of alumni owning shoes had reached an all-time high of eighty-two percent.

In an attempt to ease the Big Ten's again-ruffled feathers, Notre Dame agreed to place the Hayes Trophy on display on campus for a short period as a sign of respect and goodwill. While the University's athletic display cases in the Joyce Center are already at capacity holding national championship, bowl and Heisman trophies as well as game balls from victories over national powers such as Alabama, Texas, Florida State and USC, Notre Dame officials promised to find the trophy a place of honor, probably next to the trophy for last year's Big East women's lacrosse championship.

I still love Lou Holtz

So do I. I was so happy when he left, not because of the fact we weren't winning as much, but because of the insane pressure he was being put under. The true ND fans still love and appreciate Lou.

As an aside, I was on campus for the first 2 games and during the Michigan weekend they had a great ceremony honoring the Irish b-ball team getting to the CWS. Anyway I saw Gerry Faust there in the stands cheering like all the others. His tenure as coach was a disaster, but he still loves ND. I was suprised and gratified to see that he was mobbed for pictures and autographs after the ceremony.

You may gloat, but I have to remind you that the the Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Fighting Irish like a big bass drum in '94 and '95.

Yes, but as the cheer goes (that was honed to a razor sharp edge during the Faust years):

"That's alright, that's OK, you'll be working for US someday!"

;-)

Just give us a week or two to recover from Cincinnati. :-)

Hey, they stepped up and won in the end, as did the other of the two best football teams in Ohio. Maurice should be back next week, and nobody except the medical staff has managed to even slow him up yet. >:)

-Eric

Just give us a week or two to recover from Cincinnati. :-)

-Eric

I sure do miss the days when Penn State was giving Notre Dame its annual spanking.

Huh? Series is tied overall.

(I've had the distinct pleasure of watching Notre Dame whup PSU in both South Bend and "Happy Valley" (1988 & 1989). PSU has won 5 of the last 8, but ND won their last meeting. My sister went to Penn State, so I do keep a close eye on this one.)

I am glad to see DAME back on track, however, for 30 years I have thought it unfair that if ND can go through the season with only 2 losses, they have a shot at the national title because of the northeastern voting block...one year ND lost to Ole Miss (which only won three games that year) but still won the national title...and this was in the years that ND played a very weak schedule....Again this year, if they only lose one or two, the voters will still have them in the hunt for the title.

Hey Tom! Good to see you again.

Near as I can tell, PSU is for real, as is ND. At most, it looks as though your guys will have 2 losses (FSU and USC). Get past one of those and you'll be BCS-bound; get past both and you'll have to look for PIT to PHX flights.

On our end, we have speed and athletic ability on both sides. A QB who can run the option or pass from the pocket, and another QB who scores TDs on 40% of his touches. And, now that we've spread the field, a pretty productive running attack. We're probably not heading to the BCS, but my guess is Citrus Bowl.

If you ask me, Nebraska is the team that's fallen behind the curve (kinda like PSU two years ago).

and this was in the years that ND played a very weak schedule....Again this year, if they only lose one or two, the voters will still have them in the hunt for the title.

These days no one with two losses is in the hunt for the national title. And tell me the last time ND played a weak schedule.

Again this year, if they only lose one or two, the voters will still have them in the hunt for the title.

Actually, if the Irish continue to win, I will, for the first time in my life, be the beneficiary of affirmative action. The press is on "African-American Head Coach of the Fighting Irish" Ty Willingham's bandwagon bigtime, for no other reason than the color of his skin. It really is a shame.

I knew it was bad when whining weasel Mike Lupica started saying good things about the team. The little runt is too PC to say anything bad.

I am a big Lou Holtz fan and wanted to see them do well while he was there. I don't know the new coach, so for now I am neutral...I am not anti-ND, but anti-northeastern voting block...ND has a long history of over generous voting in the polls...However, I am fair minded, if they are good, they are good...although I think they got a few lucky breaks this year in some key spots, I have been impressed, particularly compared to the performances of the last two years....but if there is ONE team that has shown the MOST dramatic improvement, it is Penn State.

As I said...in those years, they played weak schedules....this was more than 20 years ago....ND was still playing Army, Air Force, etc. They played two tough games a year back then...USC and whatever bowl opponent they drew. Their schedule for the last 5 or 6 years has been very respectful (it is one reason they have not been going 11-1 or 10-2 each year).

Hey, give me a break. I haven't been able to gloat for a few years.

I was happy to see Notre Dame return to having a respectable football team, but after this post, screw 'em.

this was more than 20 years ago

Probably more than 25. Even the year you referrred to (1977), where ND lost to Ole Miss in the second game of the season, they beat Pittsburgh (#7), USC (#5) and Clemson (#15) along with Texas in the Cotton Bowl.

With all do respect, Ohio Stadium is one of the best stadiums in college football and maybe even in the country. It has been renovated with an awesome turf and nice locker rooms and a couple extra thou' seats for more rabid fans (as well as some retarded jerks, but thats another argument altogether). The team that plays in it does pretty well too.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.