Notre Dame trustees to discuss joining Big Ten

In the first of its tri-annual meetings, the Notre Dame Board of Trustees will convene in London tomorrow and again on Friday to discuss pertinent university affairs. Among those is Notre Dame's relationship with the Big Ten athletic conference.

Partially in response to a request by the Big Ten, Notre Dame officials will decide within the next two days whether to initiate formal dialogue with the conference in regard to membership or to terminate further talks.

During the past academic year, both parties have conducted preliminary discussions exploring the possibility of Notre Dame's membership, but to date, no offer from the Big Ten has been made.

In a written statement, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said that if the trustees decide to continue dialogue, the conference would contemplate offering Notre Dame membership. "If after the Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 5, Notre Dame indicates a serious interest in pursuing Big Ten membership, the conference's Board of Directors would then consider tendering an offer," Delany said.

Michigan Athletic Director Tom Goss said the University has a significant interest in Notre Dame joining the conference.

"I think they would be a good addition," Goss said. "We already play them in a lot of sports, from baseball to soccer to football. If they came, I know we would sell out the sports we compete with them in, and I think other schools would do the same."

Goss also said other aspects of Notre Dame, including its location and undergraduate academic standing, make the school a good fit for the Big Ten.

"Out of all the school's we've looked at, I think they have become a school that's more value-added if they do come into the conference" Goss said. "I'd like to seem them there."

Notre Dame and the Big Ten have met three other times in the past seven months to discuss issues associated with affiliation, and both parties have conveyed satisfaction with the meetings.

"Regardless of the decision, it will have been a productive venture," said Dennis Brown, Notre Dame's Associate Director of Public Affairs. "It is a good process to go through."

Big Ten associate Sue Ryan agreed that the process has been beneficial to the conference as well as to Notre Dame.

"This has clearly been in the interest of both parties, or (the talks) wouldn't have gone this far," Ryan said.

But although the discussions may have been educational, the idea of a Big Ten-Notre Dame merger has been met with heavy criticism.

D'juan Francisco, the Director of Student Programs for the Notre Dame Alumni Association, said that many alumni are opposed to membership.

"It's beyond football, it's beyond athletics and it's beyond academics," said Francisco, who was a defensive back for Notre Dame's 1989 national championship football team.

"Notre Dame has a brand name. Notre Dame has been independent. Doing something like (joining the Big Ten) would change what a lot of people felt Notre Dame stood for."

Francisco said many alumni feel Notre Dame could lose its identity if it allied itself with large, public universities in the Big Ten. Currently, the private university is 85 percent Catholic.

Although no vote has been taken within the alumni association, Francisco said he expects trustees Beth Toomey and Dave Johnson to vote against further dialogue with the Big Ten on Friday. Both trustees are members of the alumni association.

Brown agreed that losing independent, national status concerns many alumni.

"Notre Dame is in a different situation, in that it has been independent for so long," Brown said. "But it should be understood that we have nothing but the highest regard for the schools of the Big Ten."

The Notre Dame student senate voted unanimously to oppose membership. Pat Foy, chairman of the senate's committee on Big Ten membership, said the vote came down to two concerns: regionalization of the student body and loss of academic focus. Foy said the senate was concerned that emphasis would be refocused on research and graduate studies if Notre Dame joined the Big Ten and consequently the Committee on Institutional Cooperation.

The CIC is the academic parallel of the Big Ten, and also includes the University of Chicago.

Michigan Student Assembly president Trent Thompson said last night that the MSA has no official position on the matter.

Penn State, the last university to join the Big Ten, faced similar decisions in 1990.

"It is difficult to put ourselves in Notre Dame's shoes," said Budd Thalman, Penn State's Associate Athletic Director for Communications. "We did have national prominence, and we still do. The Big Ten is as close to a national conference as exists."

Notre Dame currently competes with the Big East conference in every sport except football, where it is independent. The Big East contains several private Catholic schools, including Georgetown and Boston College.

Notre Dame has also sold the rights to all home football games to NBC through the 2005 football season. But the Big Ten is currently under exclusive contract with ABC for football telecasts.

"I think Notre Dame would bring some star power to the Big Ten," Thalman said. "If you can have your own television network, that pretty much says it all."

Goss said that if Notre Dame is concerned with issues of national prominence, it need only look toward Ann Arbor.

"If I was in their shoes, that would be a question I'd ask myself," Goss said. "'Do I lose my independence? My ability to speak out on national issues? My ability to recruit nationally?' I think all they have to do is look at Michigan.

"We do all of those things - and I think they can do the same."

02-03-99