I think something like that is the ACCâs only play. My suggestion was a merge with the Pac12 with east and west coast divisions and some (sparing) inter-divisional play, but thatâll get less interesting if we donât make the move and as that conference disintegrates.
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How is the Big12 ahead of the ACC on the conference realignment with tthe moves they are making? Colorado with UConn and Arizona rumored next.
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What fun for Colorado and Texas Tech big Monday hoops games at UConn at 9pm
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Just wait for the UCLA Rutgers Noon games.
Or when Gonzaga has to travel across the entire country for all of its basketball games in the big east
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From what I hear, the Big 12 commish is higher on UConn than the rest of the league. Rest of league prefers Arizona (or ideally Arizona, Arizona St and Utah)
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I would one hundred percent go with Arizona over UConn for the Big12. Travel makes much more sense, AZ is still a very good basketball addition, and while AZ football is bad, you arenât adding the catastrophe that is UConn football. Some AZ fans might travel to an away game in Texas, Oklahoma, or Kansas. Canât imagine a single UConn fan will ever do so. And same arguments generally apply for ASU and Utah even if theyâre not as great in basketball.
All that said, thinking about the fact that the conference has now committed itself to having an eastern-ish branch with Cincinnati, UCF, and WVU⊠I guess thereâs a little logic to it to get them some more closer competition. But⊠still seems a little ridiculous.
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As far as the existing ACC goes, I feel like Clemson is the first domino to drop if the league is going to break up.
Theyâre a legit football power, and will need SEC revenue to keep up with the big boys there, along with Michigan, Ohio St & Penn St.
If Clemson goes, all hell will break loose, and where does UVa sit in the pecking order for the SEC or Big â10â? Iâd think #2 behind UNC, but who knows? How highly regarded are FSU & Miamiâs football programs today? Is Duke basketball enough of a draw/wildcard to keep them at the table?
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As far as Iâm concerned the Big 12 is trash at this point. The crown jewel of the thing is KU basketball. From a football perspective (what I believe the conference was founded on) itâs dead. The conference that brought us Bedlam, the Red River Shootout etc. will now feature a UC program that is likely about to hit a downturn a Houston program that never really took off, and I guess the face will be Mike Gundy⊠good luck with that.
As several have mentioned I believe the path forward for the ACC is through basketball and being the first to the punch for a basketball super conference. However, as I mentioned last night, I really think they are in a good position (despite their best efforts) to take advantage of the landscape once everything settles. We should all know by now nothing is permanent in this landscape. And if the ACC can develop a strong package, enticing Pac12 expats and Big East programs shouldnât be hard.
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Maybe we erred as a society by deciding to send our future conference commissioners to business school rather than to geography school.
The thing that I find most annoying about the whole thing, and was thinking about this b/c of listening to the podcast w/ Eamonn Brennan that @zh00s mentioned, is that the SEC schools/conference have actually exhibited some decent forethought by investing more in college hoops success, and thatâs generally been good for college hoops as a whole, but probably bad for the ACC b/c to some extent this is zero sum, and I donât have a point, so I will just stop typing.
I lied â more typing: I think we (the ACC, and also us as UVa fans) should take some solace/inspiration to what happened to the Big East the first time the hoops schools got âfootballed.â They figured out their core shit (ring-fencing MSG being a big deal), leaned into it, and lo and behold, the world actually came around a bit to that model now that their NIL sponsors donât have to worry about paying out NIL to 10 OLs that fans couldnât pick out of a lineup (well, except for the obvious).
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The SEC is playing Chess and as much as I joke about that conference, youâre right theyâve leveraged their assets better than anyone else out there. And theyâve figured out a way to balance/elevate all of their ships while allowing football to remain the crown jewel.
The Big East comparison of leaning in is great.
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Yeah, you have to respect what the SEC has done. Kings of college football, baseball & even womenâs basketball. Still have Kentucky and several rising hoops programs. Pretty impressive.
And not just 1-2 programs dominating football & baseballâŠmultiple national championships from multiple schools in the last decade.
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Yup and toss in some non-revenue sports gymnastics etc. The SEC took advantage of having 20 teams and found ways to elevate everything.
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90% of their fan bases are delusional Af
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Football will drive basketball. It has already for the SEC as they have been able to invest in basketball coaching salaries and NIL to attract the top talent in both categories.
SEC has passed ACC in recent years in basketball on the back of its media deals with football.
Itâs folly to think you can build the preeminent basketball league without the finances of a strong football conference.
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I agree, but (1) we donât have to build it, just maintain it, or at least remodel slightly, (2) I think our aim for hoops should be to stay in the big boy club, regardless of what happens with football, not necessarily preeminence, which arguably has already been lost.
Iâm not trying to argue that football doesnât drive the bus, and also take up 3/4 of the seats, Iâm just trying to argue that we should remember that, unlike the menâs flying ukulele team, or whatever our official 27th varsity team is, hoops could exist w/o football, so maybe it shouldnât always have to be the tail of the dog, along with the flying ukulele team.
Tbh, the thing that annoys me about all this fantasy football team-esque conference realignment chatter is that I regard football the way SEC fans view hoops: itâs a nice distraction when youâre bored, but please donât let it distract from actually important things like the blue-white game. But then I realize Iâm part of the 20%, not the 80%. Which is fineâŠ
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Thereâs an interesting thought exercise to work through, yes football drives the bus and brings in the big bucks, but we also have models of conferences surviving and inking solid to good deals with no football. The Big East has a nice set up with Fox and they bring no football.
Point being, I believe this could be a yes-and situation. A retooled ACC that has a basketball focus will be enticing to media and if they can bring along a football arm (doesnât have to be world beaters, just competent.) that becomes the icing on the cake. All that said I think the ACC can shift itâs focus to put basketball first and allow that to be itâs decision maker while still bringing football along in a manor that will allow them access to the big contracts.
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And yet one of the Big Eastâs best 2nd tier coaches just bolted for a rebuild in the big ten.
I agree with you and haneyâs points. That said, the money gap will only get bigger with further sec and big ten consolidation. And they have to invest those funds someplace. I worry that the headwinds for a primary basketball strategy will only get greater.
Unless the bubble breaks at some point and the model moves to a more traditional cba model.
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Worth noting that the coach that led a B1G program to their greatest heights in recent memory bailed to go coach a rebuilding ACC team.
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Indeed. The SEC schools might not be the most, um⊠academically respected, but their athletics leadership knows exactly what its doing.
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Weâre here to talk sports. Thatâs the name of the game. Academics are important yada yada yada, but none of us are on this forum because we want to talk Theories of modern relativity. or have a live look-in on Psyc 200.
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