Originally Posted by
Mal
Some thoughts:
- Part of what made the ACC "hot" half a decade ago was the addition of what appeared to be two perennial top 10 football programs to bolster the gridiron strength and make the ACC the ultimate double threat, exposing how one-dimensional both the SEC and Big East, and to a lesser degree the Big 12, were. VT and Miami haven't brought as much to the football table as envisioned, and they've hurt the basketball strength.
- Relatedly, in 2005 three different ACC teams had won basketball national championships in a five year span, and a fourth made the title game. Since then we can't get more than Duke and UNC out of the Sweet 16, so we're on the wane in our primary relative strength.
- Big Ten football has improved, in strength at the top and in depth, over the last 5 years. They were losing BCS games consistently a while back, and looked a step behind the others and everyone was wondering if the plodding, slow, physical style of the Big Ten would ever adapt or if they'd get left behind. But, other than the OSU issue, they've come back strongly, competing for the title of 2nd best football conference recently (not winning it, but at least in the mix), and winning some bigger bowl games. PSU's back up, Michigan's slowly climbing, they've added Nebraska right as they become a powerhouse again, Wisconsin's up, even Northwestern's a solid program now.
- Other than the additions of Penn State and now Nebraska, both strategic moves made 20 years apart, the Big Ten's barely changed in the last 75 years. That level of stability makes them look strong. So does their cohesion and lack of public squabbling over such things as expansion and the Big Ten Network. And they look even stronger for not bowing to whatever demands Notre Dame might be making regarding joining.
- I doubt an ACC Network would work as well as the Big Ten network. The Big Ten covers Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, all sizable metro areas that have professional sports, but virtually no college sporting competition from non-Big Ten schools. The ACC has a private school in a decidedly pro sports town with a number of other colleges to boot (BC), a private school in a terrible college sporting market competing against a huge state university (Miami), a school in a big city where it still plays second fiddle to the main state university (GT), and another big school in SEC territory (FSU). Plus four schools in one state with Charlotte as the largest town. NW and Purdue are the only private schools in the Big Ten and the rest are all huge land grant institutions with massive graduate and research programs, dwarfing even most of the state schools in the ACC. Thus, their alumni bases are huge, and all but one of them are either the only game in town in their respective states in terms of big time college athletics, or they share the market with another Big Ten team (and Iowa's got Iowa State pretty well beat, I'd say).