Been kinda busy for a couple days so I had not had a chance to peruse this thread. So, I am doing some quick catching up.
1) Football vs. Basketball -- Someone asked earlier how football could be so much more of a revenue driver than basketball because there are so many more basketball games to air. Last Saturday, ABC aired an early season football game between FSU and Oklahoma. It was a good matchup, featuring a pair of top 10 teams. But, it was not a big rivalry game nor was it late in the year with something like a BCS or conference championship going to the winner. It drew almost 10 million viewers.
You may recall that 2 years ago, CBS put the end-of-season Duke-Carolina game in prime time. Duke and UNC are THE big names in college basketball and the Duke-Carolina game is often far and away the biggest game of the regular season in college basketball. The game was played in March, jsut as the nation was getting ready for conference tournaments and the big NCAA tourney. This was college basketball's moment to shine! The game drew fabulous rating for a college basketball game. CBS was thrilled. 4.5 million people watched.
So, a somewhat routine Saturday night football game on ABC vs. a hugely hyped, late season rivalry basketball matchup on CBS and the football game wins more than 2-to-1. A better comparison to the Duke-UNC game might be last year's Alabama-Auburn game. It drew 12.5 million viewers, about three times what the Duke-Carolina game did.
How about another comparison? The UConn-Kentucky national championship game in March drew 16.7 million viewers, the most for a basketball national championship in 6 years. By comparison, the Alabama-Texas 2010 national title game drew 30.8 million viewers.
Bottom line-- football is at least twice as popular as basketball... probably more. I wish it was not that way, I really do, but that is just the reality here.
2) Why 14? Why now? -- some people have wondered about why the ACC "rushed" to become the biggest BCS conference. I think this was a smart proactive move by the conference. And the reason is that the ACC knows it can still be plucked of teams by the SEC or Big Ten. While we are certainly a power player in the conference pecking order, we remain vulnerable. By moving to 14 we accomplish two things. First, we give ourselves a chance to boost our revenue/TV dollars when we negotiate a new deal in a couple years and are able to include Pitt and Syrac's markets in it. Those dollars should make us less vulnerable to an SEC/BigTen raid. Second, if the SEC or BTen grabs a team or two, we want to remain a strong conference. If, for example, Maryland and/or FSU were to leave the SEC and knock us down to 10 teams, we would be seen as a conference in trouble. Now, with 2 more strong BCS-calliber schools in the fold, we have a cushion to keep the league impressive in the unfortunate and unlikely event that a couple schools bolt.
-Jason "thanks for patience reading this
" Evans