Syracuse and Pitt are the new members. Rumors are UConn and Rutgers could be next up with at least a half-dozen other schools wanting in. Does this proactive move elevate the ACC in your mind?
not from a football standpoint it doesn't. all of this has come from the standpoint that it's all about football...the acc adding syracuse, pitt and talking to rutgers and uconn? yikes. but they're committed to east coast and eastern time zone.
When I think of ACC I think of college basketball. And now UConn might join Duke, well moreso afterwards.
me too. but i thought they were more interested in improving themselves from a football standpoint...from a BCS standpoint. they didn't really do that. pitt has historically been a nice program...but at this point they're a far better hoops school than a football school.
Didn't UConn spend a bunch of money on their football facilities? I bet they can't wait to move to the ACC. Rutgers would be next. The capper is the conference just increased the exit fee from $13 million to $20 million. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first "superconference".
In the last 11 years, they've had 3 national champions in Duke (twice), NC (twice), and Maryland. Adding Syracuse to the mix gives the ACC another champion, and if UConn gets added, that's another one (twice). The ACC could be the conference with 8 out of the last 11 national champions.
Everything will be re-evaluated after the 2012 & 2013 season anyways, but only off the 2008-2011 seasons. That evaluation will also use teams in conferences as they currently are, meaning that when teams move their BCS rankings are attributed to their new conference not their old one, even if they have yet to play a game in the new conference. By the, either the Big East or Big 12 will be defunct removing their BCS auto bid. As most agree that OU/OSU are gone, I would also almost guarantee that there is no way that conference will maintain its AQ standing even if Texas & Missouri decide to stay in the conference unless they recruit TCU and likely Boise St. That would leave 4 Auto Bids, as MWC will not qualify unless they can they can get TCU to stay and do really well this year.
For some reason, I feel like the ACC is where Texas belongs with the Big 12 disintegrating. Easier on the travel and game times. No changes necessary to the network. I say screw the west coast. It's bad enough the Astros will be stuck out there. I don't want every damn game I watch to start at 9 pm.
ACC wasn't willing to accept the LHN as-is. The fact that they weren't willing to wait 2-3 days for Texas to finalize it's plans showed how interested in was in Texas and its demands. UT games aren't going to be on at 9pm for the most part. The reason the games are on so late is that's what the people interested in the games want since they all live in the western time zone. If Texas or OU is in the game, they'll adjust the start times because the TV audience would be located in the CST. With one less conference, there are more daytime slots to fill, and many of those will be done by the Pac16.
Football games, yes. They'll be adjusted. But basketball games will be late. They're not going to have the mid-week games start at 5 pm pacific.
and then the kids will fly back to Austin, losing 2 hours. yeah, don't pretend it makes sense. that isn't a conference, it's just a loose affiliation of TV markets. that's the wave of the future it seems, with only the ACC countering and sticking with geography as a factor.
There are about 16-18 basketball conference games a year. Half will be at home, leaving about 8-9 road games. Half the schools are are in the Central or mountain time zones, so you're talking about maybe 4 games a year in the Pacific Time Zone. Texas already plays 1 or 2 non-conference games out there, so just replace those with CST games, and you've added maybe 2 or so west coast games per year.
The ACC and Big Ten make geographical sense, though the Big Ten might expand eastward. The SEC also makes geographic sense and adding WVU won't do much harm. It's the Pac 16 that will be spread too thin. 3 time zones! Just imagine UT at UO or UW. A middle of the country conference in the south is almost begged for and the Big 12 made perfect geographical sense as it was. Too bad Nebraska and A&M got ticked off at UT.
Interesting theories suggest the ACC is holding out on going to 16 as Notre Dame might realize it's time to join a conference (main reason being they wouldn't be able to schedule tough opponents as much anymore). Like Texas A&M, Notre Dame would be looking for a way to differentiate from its Big Ten neighbors. UConn + Notre Dame to the ACC would be mighty interesting. Still, I think whatever remnants of the Big East and Big 12 will have enough power to remain highly competitive. The Big East could always survive as a basketball-only conference (currently eight teams, including Notre Dame).
