No 'probably' about it. ND makes significantly less money as an independent than they would in the Big Tweleven. Jack Swarbrick even said so. when they were in BCS bowls, they had a leg to stand on (not having to share their take) but now that they're turning down the pizza bowl, I'm sure they'd love to have a 1/12th cut of all the big Ten bowl payout The previous AD made the genius move of negotiating it so that ND receives about a third of the money they used to when making BCS games but receives about twice as much as it used to when it doesn't. I think ND's decision on whether or not to join the Big Ten would have a lot less to do with football than it would with academics and such. It's supposedly the ND faculty and some of the administration that most wants to join the league for academic benefit (basically the ones that are annoyed that Notre Dame has a notable football program and yet reap financial benefit from said football program), but the alumni and most of the fans are vehemently against it. IIRC, it went to a vote back in '99 and the faculty voted for it, but the athletic department voted against. Texas is in much the same situation, their faculty would love to be apart of the Big Ten, and if they got the right president in there, they'd definitely go for the Big Ten. I know it's weird for OleMiss to think somebody would consider a school's academics rather than the quality of fake [expletive], but they do.