Iâd sacrifice VT for South East Austin Community College.
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Funny enough Iâm the opposite. Part of me wants to keep VT around. The rivalry means more when UVa and Vatech are in the same conference. I also donât want to waste an out of conference game on schedule Vatech. In addition in a new super conference system it may not be feasible to schedule them. At that point the rivalry dies.
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Iâve never considered tech a rival. Thatâs only a creation of being in the same conference to me.
Take away UVA and who would their rival be? Across all sports?
Take away tech and UVAâd still have big rivalry type games against a number of different teams in a number of different sports.
Maybe I just donât know much about tech (I donât and donât want to) but a big part of the ârivalryâ is that theyâve owned UVA for 20 years in the only sport they care about. Take away UVA and whoâs their rival? Take away football and do they still have rabid fanbase?
Not much of a rivalry to me.
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Same. Cut VT loose. Let them rivalry up with WVU.
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So, in this vein, itâs been mentioned that 8 ACC schools could potentially overturn the GOR, but that nobody can see 8 teams having an invite from the BIG and SEC at the same time. Well, what if 8 ACC teams decided to abandon the ACC to join with PAC teams of their choosing to form a new conference? The PACâs TV deal is up, so theyâre all basically available.
Conference canât get too big, but if going for 16 teams, could see something like:
East
- Pitt
- Virginia
- UNCheat
- Clemson
- FSU
- Miami
- Georgia Tech
- Louisville
West
- Washington
- Oregon
- Stanford
- Cal
- Arizona
- Colorado
- Utah
- Arizona St (would prefer Texas Tech or maybe Kansas, so invite them, but if they canât get out of BIG12, so be it)
And Notre Dame could do the thing it does with the ACC now where it isnât a full football member but schedules a minimum number of games and participates in all other sports.
While legally itâs probably nonsense, if the ACC teams that joined could steal the ACC Network, the programming on this new network would have live content for all the prime time slots.
(Also yes, Iâd rather like drop Louisville and/or GT for some more attractive options like Cincinnati, but if we need 8 ACC teams to get out of the GOR, then we need 8 ACC teams in the new conference. Also none of this will happen - but itâs fun to hypothesize about).
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ND has a vote. You could get 7+ND, but ND doesnât have to join the new conference.
Also drop Cal and get Kansas and a Texas school. Donât know if you need both AZ schools.
NC State Louisville, et al can join the remnants of the Big XII. BC Cuse â â â â Wake can (re-) join the BE, maybe along with NDâs non-football. VT athletics can die in a fire for all I care.
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Tweet summary so you donât have to look it up. Needless to say, sounds like things are great!
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âACC is in favor of an expanded college football playoffâ, yet didnât the ACC make a point to vote against an expansion to 12 playoff teams and massively piss ND off in the process??? Iâm guessing they preferred for it to go to 8 instead of 12.
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Well you see, that was one of the things we did as part of the Alliance that was very smart and that Phillips is proud of! Itâs gone⊠so well.
In all seriousness, if I remember correctly, the ACC and others were never against an expanded playoff, but they wanted to either A) delay it so that ESPN wouldnât have full control and bidding could be opened up, or B) were opposed to how the SEC wanted to do it and wanted certain restrictions in place so that there couldnât be like 4 teams from one conference. I honestly canât remember the details at this point, but I think it was part of a strategy. Obviously that may have also contributed to the unraveling of things now, but there was some plan behind it at the time.
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I know decisions like that are incredibly difficult, but the foresight of ACC execs really does leave a lot to be desired.
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The one thing I will give them, is that the GOR is fulfilling its mission. Many folks are kind of upset that we have this contractual shackle keeping us tied to a potentially sinking ship, but in fairness, the whole point of the GOR was to make sure we didnât have teams bolting and the conference falling apart. The ACC has been the one major conference not raided or changed since our GOR was put in place.
Probably wasnât great for a number of other reasons and itâs worth debating the pros and cons, but if the leadershipâs sole focus was keeping us all tied together - regardless of whether we were tied together while also falling off a cliff - well, itâs working!
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Yeah, no joke. The GOR has issues, but the ACC hasnât been raised for spare parts yet, unlike the B12 and Pac12.
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I can see perfectly well why the GOR was implemented. While the Pac 12 and big 12 has been raided we have not. It gives us time to get our shit together and we have plenty of pieces in place to accomplish that. Its now time for the ACC to step up to the plate.
We are in charge of our own destiny. If Fla State and Miami get on their A game to go along with Clemson and (bite my lip) Va Tech regains some of its past success its a game changer. NCSU and Pitt is doing what they need to do to hold up their end. We need UNC, UVA, and Ga Tech to do the same.
We dont need a lifeline. We are the lifeline.
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I wish but i just donât see it that way at all.
The end game to all of this will be 2 super conferences 24(ish) teams in each.
Each will hold their own playoff.
& the 2 winners will then play.
Yes, just like the NFL /AFL.
Im not saying this will happen in the next 5 years but imo this will be the final result down the road.
Either way,
The ACC is certainly not the lifeline to any meaningful additions.
Anything the ACC does will be a band aid nothing that will stop impending departures of schools in the coming years.
Yes, I am aware of the GOR.
I honestly have a hard time believing that many of of the current schools would even vote âyesâ to bring in new schools because the majority want out.
This implies the money is tied to winning on the field, which is only slightly true. Much of the value is based off alumni size and location. ACC schools canât just double their enrollment and move their alumni bases to bigger cities through force of will and a winning attitude.
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This is also only partially true - Miami has a smaller enrollment than us, but had a massive fan base in its prime. So I think improving the product on the field can lead to a larger fan base, though youâre right that smaller schools have work to do.
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Idk I think Miami is the best example of my point. All of those Miami fans disappeared as soon as they stopped winning. Not easy to monetize a fan base if they only show up when you are national title caliber.
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Miami is one of the I hate to say unicorn situations. Yes they are small and have a smaller fanbase by alumni standards. But because of their past success and the mystique/popularity of it they are a much larger brand than most schools. Hell ESPN did a 2 part documentary on them which basically serves as a recruiting video. Toss in the ties to the hip hop world and what Uncle Luke did for their lore, they are different. Toss in America Top Team from MMA and Dan Lambertâs support they have large footprint. That doesnât even touch what their NFL footprint is all that makes them feel bigger than they are.
They also have the advantage of many super fans who are willing to go all in on them and are making killings in modern money. Now if the Bitcoin market dies maybe they lose all their funding but at the moment their top 2 alumni donators are printing money.
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I think weâre all in agreement â you can have a Miami situation (not sure Iâd go so far as to say a unicorn, more like they are an extreme example) but itâs not easy or sustainable so weâre at a disadvantage.
Iâll note that even large alumni bases donât mean too much if your team stinks and nobody shows up. Rutgers has almost 40K students - more than any SEC school â but nobody is writing articles about their amazing football fan base.
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Agree all around. Unicorn is not the right word, used it more to mock the use of the term. Miami status is not a goal because it would be nearly impossible to recreate that magic and somehow Miami did it twice which is even crazier.
I think the key takeaway is success breeds fan interest. South Carolina is the only fanbase that I can think of that routinely sells out while have virtually no history to lean on.
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