Filed under "Yeah, duh."
Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick told USA Today that he is "mystified" by the decision of both Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh to abandon the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference:
"I don't understand it," Jack Swarbrick said as a new round of conference hopping in college athletics moved into high gear Sunday. "How do you vote as a collegiate president on something that has the potential to provide some benefit for your institution and the conference you're affiliated with but has a very negative consequence for a host of other members of the academy, as presidents like to call it?
"I'd like to know how much of these discussions are: What's right? What is the best thing for the larger enterprise, and how many other schools would be adversely impacted?"
I don't know about you, but I take some pleasure in hearing the Notre Dame AD talk about schools making decisions for the "greater good" of the larger enterprise. Because using the Big East Conference for a dumping ground for your non-revenue sports and maintaining football independence is in the greater good of the Big East and the rest of college football. Clearly Swarbrick and Notre Dame are miffed by the prospects of the Big East collapsing, which the Irish have used as a home for its men's basketball and Olympic sports since 1995.
It's hard to take pity on the Irish when the basketball-first Big East has now scared off every valuable football-playing member with the exception of West Virginia. And now, it even looks like even the Mountaineers have one foot out the door.
As always, stay tuned.