Re: Conference Realignment Thread v. 2017
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 8:37 am
Bill Marsh wrote:crussomd wrote:Hi all, Longtime reader first time poster but I had to register to add to this thread. IMO you are all setting your goals way too low. UCONN who the hell needs them? We don't need a middling academic state school who has delusional dreams of grandeur regarding their football program regardless of how good their basketball program is (was).
I say we stay exactly where we are and if we are so lucky that the ACC implodes down the road maybe we can hope to have Duke and Wake fall into our laps. Maybe ND stays independent in football and joins us in all other sports. If we are going to change the league that is working so great it has to be for some scenario like that. In a scenario like that I would even consider adding an academic superstar school like (hopkins) along with the other 3, even if they don;t currently play D1 basketball.
We should build a brand around all private schools with great academics and great fun to watch basketball. I love college BB but in the end it is about the entire university and we should seek to not only grow the basketball tradition but raise the caliber and reputation of the schools we associate with.
Eventually I would like to see the majority of our schools all play FCS football and compete in the big east against each other for bragging rights. We are never going to compete with the ohio states and alabamas of the world and it is a big waste of time, money and energy to try. But if we all has competitive fcs programs; would i drive down from CT to Nova to see the wildcats play the hoyas for a homecoming football game. Damn straight.
The ACC will not implode. They have won the war.
The competition between the ACC and the Big XII for the 4th position among the power football conferences has been one of the undercovered elements of realignment. The ACC was brilliant in its strategy and outmanuveured the Big XII at every turn.
When realignment began in 2010, the largest major conference was 12 schools. The PAC-10 made an effort to split off 6 schools from the Big XII and jump to 16 members. The effort failed, but the PAC-10 expanded to 12 with Colorado and Utah wile the Big Ten expanded to 12 with Nebraska. In the process theBig XII shrunk to 10, but 12 became the new standard.
In 2011, the Big XII was looking to rebuild itself to 12 and was looking for candidates. They seemed oblivious to the possibility that conference's might expand beyond 12 and seemed to think that they would have the pick of what was out there. Rumors circulated that they were interested in Pitt of the Big East. In light of their eventual addition of West Virginia, the Pitt rumors see, very credible in retrospect as the 2 would have made perfect travel partners and would have brought an established rivalry. Before the Big XII acted, the ACC swooped in and grabbed Pitt along with Syracuse to expand to 14. With its focus myopically on football only, the Big XII added WVU without a travel partner and added the next best football program TCU, ignoring Louisville and leaving the Mountaineers on an island.
At the same time that the ACC beat the Big XII to Pitt, the SEC also decided to expand to 14 by first poaching Texas A&M from the Big XII and then Missouri. Before the Big XII had returned to 12, they were back down to 10. Fourteen had become the new standard and a year later the Big Ten also expanded to 14 by adding Maryland and Rutgers. The ACC responded by replacing Maryland with Louisville, sealing the Big XII's fate as a conference of 10 with West Virginia on an island with no geographic rival and travel partner.
Throughout this period of uncertainty, there was very much competition between the ACC and the Big XII. There were rumors that the Big XII would add Notre Dame, but the ACC moved first with a deal favorable to ND's interests. There were rumors that the Big XII would move into Florida by convincing Florida State that its football interests could be better met in the Big XII. But the ACC met FSU's needs by strengthening its football with the addition of Louisville instead of UConn and kept Florida State in the process.
Internal fighting weakened the Big XII while smart planning and unity advanced the interests of the ACC. The ACC has clearly emerged as the stronger conference going forward while the Big XII continues to be plagued by rumors of potential defections, starting with Oklahoma. There will be no ACC implosion suddenly making Duke and Wake available as basketball-only candidates. The ACC is now strong and whole.
Back when the Big East was imploding, the Big XII thought it had a real opportunity to expand into the East, thinking that the other conferences were set at 12. Has the ACC not grabbed Pitt, they might have done it. Imagine a Big XII with Pitt instead of TCU and with the potential to add 2 more eastern schools to Pitt and West Virginia. At the time, the Big XII thought that Syracuse, Rutgers, and Louisville would all be available, and that they could add 2 of the 3. Maybe even Notre Dame. Imagine a Big XII with only 8 out in the Great Plains and an eastern wing if 4-6 schools. That's what they were thinking before the ACC blocked them and the SEC and B1G further thwarted their plans.
The current situation does not seem exactly stable to me. You have the whims of ND. The B1G is still not done. And whether the Big 12 tries to poach two (or more) teams from somewhere or collapses that will have ripple effects on ACC. Vanderbilt in SEC and Duke and WF in the ACC as high standard academic private schools stick out like sore thumbs in those conferences. As someone else mentioned earlier the concussion issue also may have a long term impact on the financial performance of football. Conference realignment may be quiet for a few years but I still do not believe all the dominoes have fallen. The only think I'm sure of is that the B1G, PAC and SEC are the three conferences I would wager big money on for surviving and thriving long term.