Exactly! I mean come on. Give me a break. UNC is the worst. Stanford and Cal have grounds to be concerned with travel, but the other 16 schools in an eighteen team league? Laughable.
They should just tell the truth: they are/were holding out for the money to be allocated to them directly or to basketball incentives and that they have one foot out the door. The truly funny thing is that I donât recall hearing much from Clemson, and if anyone has reason to be aggrieved it is them. More or less played Alabama to a standstill at times. FSU has done nothing but whine and complain with far less cause.
Spot on. And you are right Clemson is playing this perfectly. I believe they will be out the door at the same time as FSU, but their athletic department looks so much better in all of this drama.
Completely agree. The current schools might have 1 west coast trip a year at most for each sport, which replaces 1 existing road trip. If UNC is replacing a trip to Boston with a trip to Berkeley for the volleyball team, is an extra 2 hours of flight time each way that harmful to the students?
Now if youâre Stanford womenâs basketball and youâre replacing 4 weekend road trips to UW-WSU/USC-UCLA/UA-ASU/Utah-CU with 8 games at UNC, UL, ND, UVA, Miami, Syracuse, Clemson and VT, thatâs a huge difference.
This indicates to me that UNC thinks that the ACC is on life support and is not willing to prop it up. They know full well where their destination will be and dont think for a moment that backroom talks have not been taking place. It may not be imminent but they know where there their future is well in advance. Their brand is to big not to know.
A no vote tells me that they are not desperate at all.
During all this talk of conference realignment, am I right that UVA is almost always paired with UNC? I remember hearing months ago that we and UNC were allied? As in, we were a package deal. And weâre usually together on hypothetical lists of ACC targets. So am I wrong to not be too worried about a landing spot? Sounds like many of you are also not worried.
It wouldnât surprise me if our athletic department is on the same page as theirs, just a little quieter about it. So far weâve often seemed in lockstep.
That is usually the report. Personally I am nervous. I mean it seems like they have some handshake understanding with N.C. State too (I do not understand the Wolfpackâs no vote otherwise). I just think they will leave us behind in a second if the situation calls for it (for example if the Big 10 wants them and AAU member Miami as a package).
That said the majority mindset that we are in good shape is probably right.
Excerpt from an interview with the University of Iowa president yesterday:
[BIG] University presidents have paid attention to inviting new members who âare comparable in quality on the academic side,â Wilson said. All four of the added schools are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities.
âThe other thing weâre thinking about all the time is how do we elevate the Big Ten brand,â Wilson said. âI donât mean that in a crass way, but just think about Iowa playing football in Los Angeles now, or womenâs basketball. Itâs great for our student athletes. Itâs great for us to advertise the writing university in Los Angeles â where we have a lot of Hollywood alums.â
Letâs welcome our newest members! Sept 1 2024 is Cake day for Stanford, Cal, and SMU. Personally, I think the additions are great for the conference as it will continue to dilute the influence of UNC and NC State.
Lest we never forget what UNC is at heart, its the schoolâs board that decided it was better to admit that it had sham classes for âallâ students and risk accreditation, rather than put itâs precious basketball program at risk. Honestly, perhaps the biggest academic scandal in American higher education. And most UNC grads I know still defend that.
Saw on twitter, ACC has to maintain 15 teams to keep the pay out where it is. If more teams leave, ACC will have to add more⊠This will, at least, benefit the schools that wonât have a place to go.
