Interesting gossip out of Ann Arbor this morning. This information is 3rd hand so take it with a grain of salt but the Michigan Regents are apocalyptic over how the Big Ten is handling the Harbaugh situation. The decision to drop the punishment less than 24 hrs before a huge game on a day they knew the courts would be closed due to holidays, feels dirty. They are very upset at how some of the lower revenue schools are pressuring Tony Pettiti into this action at the potential harm of the over all brand of the Big Ten. Apparently, there were also rumbles of discontent from how the Big Ten handled the Pac 10 additions and several schools felt strong armed and leadership was extremely poor.
They held an emergency Regent meeting under the premise that it was to discuss the upcoming court hearing over the injunction but the meeting quickly devolved into what Michigan's future in the Big Ten looked like. They discussed several options.
So what does this have to do with NC State football?
One of those options was to review their grant of rights in the Big Ten and determine if another conference would be a better solution, which is just nuts as Michigan IS Big Ten football. The first thought was obviously the SEC as the money is on par with what they have now, but this was also quickly dismissed as they believe the academics of the SEC are not prestigious enough. Only option left was ACC which was also viewed poorly due to $$$. However, the topic was not completely dropped as there is apparently another Big Ten football school that has been repeatedly upset at Big Ten leadership.
They thought there may be a long shot at convincing Penn State to switch conferences as well due to those grievances, their long term rivalries with Pitt and Miami, and location. If they could convince Penn State then they feel as though they would have a good shot at convincing Ohio State and Mich. St as the Big Ten would be losing 2 of its top 3 revenue generators. Notre Dame's natural partnership with the conference also helps although they feel as though they would not be able to convince ND to align with a conference due to their lucrative independent contracts. With UofM, OSU, Penn St, and Mich. State they feel they could renegotiate the ACC television right deals to get more in line with their current pay outs, although they recognize it probably be less due to the financial headwinds of television networks
Also they do not want to play Stanford, Cal or SMU so not sure how that would work. So in summary, Michigan is exploring a conference realignment but only if they can convince Penn State and Ohio State to join them and Sparty would come along for the ride.
Remember, this is all over Scouting, which every school with a budget does. Michigan got caught cause the dude was dumb and the NCAA and Big Ten had an axe to grind with Harbaugh. But remember when Dave was pissed Clemson had computers on the sideline and Clemson was all, naw man that was totally just social media, we promise wink wink. Well imagine if the ACC told Dabo he would have to sit out the remainder of the games that year while they investigated, the year they went to the National Championship game. They didn't do that, they called up Dave and told him to shut up and they will deal with it. They told Dabo, stop cheating so obviously and get the computers off the field. Brand matters.
So who's ready for some ACC championship games between Ohio State and Michigan?