(12-18-2021 09:35 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(12-18-2021 08:43 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I think that in a breakaway scenario, you take the 30 Big Ten and SEC schools, plus 10 hand picked others—4 southern schools to join the South division and Notre Dame and 5 PAC 12 schools to join the North. (if you shift Missouri to the North, you have a little wiggle room.)

I am not absolutely certain that ND will join the breakaway scenario, given two things:

1) The statements by AD Jack Swarbrick and school president Father John Jenkins that ND would not participate in a system where the players were school employees, and

2) The historic conflict between academics and football at ND going back a century, specifically the instances when the school administration thought/feared that football was overshadowing academics and placed self imposed internal brakes on the former (cutting scholarships, raising academic standards, forcing coaches out, etc....)

While I suspect that ND wants to keep playing football at the highest level, those two things lurk in the background and at least bring some uncertainty into the equation.

I think that big money, prestige and exposure will win the day, but we will have to see.

^
This is the key.
If Notre Dame chooses to stand firm, others will too.
If the Irish succumb to greed (big money, prestige and exposure) then the 2 X 24 scenario is likely.
It is extremely doubtful that we will ever see an odd number of conferences.