Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I was thinking about this over the weekend and I think I would add Hayden Fry to the Ring of Honor. I am not sure Evy belongs there. Evy brought Iowa to the top of the mountain as a coach, and then retired at about age 39 or 40 from coaching, and as Athletic Director, was stingy with money for recruiting, and extremely difficult to work with for coaches, and that started the downward spiral of 19 consecutive years of nonwinning football for Iowa.

Meanwhile, Kirk Ferentz was a Hayden Fry assistant, who later worked as a D-I AA coach in Maine, and then for the Cleveland Browns/Ravens. Hayden Fry in a sense is responsible for, or contributed to, 40 mostly good seasons.

He should be added simply due to the coaching tree he created.

I'm pretty confident the ACC regrets adding Louisville, and also regrets bending over for Notre Dame.

Only the B12 could plausibly add Cincinnati, and probably one more, like Memphis.  I don't expect this any time soon at all, if ever.  I think the conferences panicked when a few expanded and the ACC in particular felt they were missing the boat and made some unwise and imprudent additions.  We don't have that panic today, so folks are using their heads more...

In a do-over, I'm not sure the B12 would want WVU again. That seemed at the time like a desperation play from them, and hasn't resulted in additional additions since that would even help it begin to make sense.

I'm pretty confident the ACC regrets adding Louisville, and also regrets bending over for Notre Dame.

Agreed re: Louisville. Again it might have been a desperation play after Maryland jumped ship. I think at the time, Louisville was an up-and-comer in both football and basketball, but I'm not sure it was known how badly they were cheating to get there and now it's a black mark on the conference--without stellar academics or other intangibles to make up for it.

Not sure they regret Notre Dame. I think they recognize that Notre Dame in other sports and 5 football games a year is better for them than no Notre Dame at all. And their end goal, I'm assuming, is to dominate the alignment such that if Notre Dame is ever effectively forced into joining a conference, that the ACC will be first in line.

do ya think Delany regrets any of the past 4 additions to the B!G?

I actually don't think so. To be honest, I think they were all good additions. Sure, Rutgers hasn't exactly held up their end of the bargain athletically, but it is a very strong university and fits in academically. On the other hand, there is a degree to which conference affiliation drives recruiting improvement and thus athletic improvement, so even a school like Rutgers should over time improve their athletics as the B1G will naturally draw more recruits than the Big East would have done. 

I believe that from top to bottom, academics does [and should] matter in these decisions. I would not support the B1G watering down academics just to secure a school that will bring in the eyeballs and the dollars athletically. It's easy to add a school; much harder to kick one out. If the athletics falter, there needs to be substance left behind. 

I believe that from top to bottom, academics does [and should] matter in these decisions. I would not support the B1G watering down academics just to secure a school that will bring in the eyeballs and the dollars athletically. It's easy to add a school; much harder to kick one out. If the athletics falter, there needs to be substance left behind.

well, UNL was a bit of a watering on academics.  Obviously, UNL's academics have improved since joining the B1G.

Athletics and/or academics can falter.  The support of the conference should help in both cases.

The AAU thing relates primarily to graduate studies and funding.  Some good undergrad schools are not AAU because of that.

I guess it's more important if the school can bring in money than be AAU.

Percentage of alumni who donate make up 5% (regardless of donation size) of the determination of U.S. News 

 I cannot imagine how that will work for them if they find no football home.

So, not performance based.

Plenty of opportunities for independants

It was just a dig at the Noles, but people in each state/area know the pecking order.  People in FL know it's UF 1, FSU 3rd, Miami in the middle (private).  USF and UCF aren't going to show up on any lists, so they're further down still.



I could poke fun about academics with UGA, as Florida generally ranks about 10 spots ahead on these lists, but yeah, that's close enough for them to be basically even.  It'd be like being the older twin, by 4 minutes.  


But between Florida and FSU, there is a schism.