ACC Votes to Accept Louisville

[blazindw]

ESPN is starting to report that the ACC has voted to accept Louisville in all sports. Focus all discussion of Louisville joining the conference here.

[davekay1971]

ESPN is starting to report that the ACC has voted to accept Louisville in all sports. Focus all discussion of Louisville joining the conference here.

This is a step up from Maryland in every way, except TV market (assuming that DC fans actually tune in to watch Maryland suck).

[bjornolf]

This is a step up from Maryland in every way...

Darn, beat me to it. Wow, who ever thought that K and Pitino would be in the same conference?

[rthomas]

7th Big East Team to the ACC. The Big East is truly dead. Long live the Big East.

[Mike Corey]

This is a step up from Maryland in every way, except TV market (assuming that DC fans actually tune in to watch Maryland suck).

While I share your enthusiasm for the improvement in the two major sports, I respectfully disagree.

This is a step down in many areas: the Olympic sports, in academic rankings, in research, in prestige, and as you mentioned, in TV market. Maryland's not coming back, but I will still lament the lack of tradition and geographic sense that this move makes, as well. And now I can stop whining.

I will take a more optimistic approach: Louisville is improving. And since it's now a fellow ACC-er, I'll absolutely root for the Cardinal to rise along with the rest of the conference.

While I think this was the ACC's only play, and that it's a very good thing to add Rick Pitino and Charlie Strong to our coaching ranks--along with Louisville's tradition in basketball--this move is not the same as adding Pitt or Syracuse, both of which were a natural fit to the ACC's university profile (strong academics, research and athletics).

But if this helps to save the ACC, then it's a move that's worth it.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

While I understand there was an academic concession made, I MUCH prefer this to the seeming alternative of UCONN.

If this saves the conference, it is brilliant. If it is simply a delay tactic, at least basketball looks to be solid for the interim.

Good luck Cards, and welcome to the fold.

GO DUKE

[freedevil]

While I understand there was an academic concession made, I MUCH prefer this to the seeming alternative of UCONN.

Agreed.

[Wander]

This is a step down in many areas: the Olympic sports, in academic rankings, in research, in prestige, and as you mentioned, in TV market.

I'll ask again: why should we care about the overall academic/research ranking of a university for a sports conference, as long as the university meets some reasonable and respectable level in its academics (which nearly all Division 1 colleges do)? I've never gotten a good answer to this question.

To me, all that should matter is similarity in the athletics program (both in power level and how the university views/runs/pays for it etc) and geography. Louisville seems to have comparable programs to other ACC schools and is closer to Tobacco Road than FSU, Miami, Pitt, Syracuse, and Boston College (though farther than Maryland).

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Notre Dame, BC, Miami, FSU. This is not the ACC I knew as a young man. But I'll adapt.

As long as I can still yell GO TO HELL carolina! GO TO HELL! and it means something, I'm happy!

[Dukeblue91]

I don't know quite what to think about this.
Even though I thought this was mostly about football, the implications it has to our traditional basketball hierarchy will be huge.
This will shift the Mens BB standings in the ACC in a huge way, the games between Duke, UNC, Syracuse and Louisville will be huge battles every year and it won't be easy to dominate the ACC ever again for any one or 2 teams.
There will be major epic games with some of the best coaches in the game.
I have to say that I never thought to see Rick Pitino in the ACC short of taking the job at NC State.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I like it. Excellent programs in football, men and women's basketball. Their baseball and soccer teams will be challenging for ACC championships. The women bring a lacrosse team, so that replaces Maryland's. (Although I don't see a men's team.) I'm sure they will well compliment the conference in their other non-revenue sports as well.

[ForkFondler]

Soooo, Indiana is a contiguous ACC state, Maryland isn't.

[diveonthefloor]

I'm not an expert in TV markets by any stretch, but exactly how will the loss of Md affect the DC/northern Va market share? Isn't UVa-Charlottesville a strong play in that market?
And won't Louisville capture both the Kentucky, southern Indiana, and southern Ohio markets?

[johnb]

Louisville may be a concession to Florida State and Clemson (+/- Others) to bring in a southern school best known for its sports. As a New Yorker, I was hoping for a local school (UConn now and Rutgers until recently), but it makes sense.

The academic discussion is interesting, but I wonder if it's as much about social cache and elitism than about actual research rank (few of the fans and players are involved in the research enterprise, and through most of the football-watching country, actual research is viewed with anti-intellectual wariness).

One issue is that the ACC doesn't have the flagship state U in the states we share with the SEC (Florida, KY, Georgia), which detracts a bit from eyeball count.

Nevertheless, it'll be good to have new people weigh in on the barbecue debate...

[sagegrouse]

Louisville may be a concession to Florida State and Clemson to bring in a southern school best known for its sports. As a New Yorker, I was hoping for a local school (UConn now and Rutgers until recently), but it makes sense.

The academic discussion is interesting, but I wonder if it's as much about social cache and elitism than about actual research rank (few of the fans and players are involved in the research enterprise, and through most of the football-watching country, actual research is viewed with anti-intellectual wariness).

One issue is that the ACC doesn't have the flagship state U in the states we share with the SEC (Florida, KY, Georgia), which detracts a bit from eyeball count.

Nevertheless, it'll be good to have new people weigh in on the barbecue debate...

Yeah but Georgia Tech would argue that academically it is far superior to Georgia.

sage

[BD80]

... I MUCH prefer this to the seeming alternative of UCONN. ...

Amen. And now we have picked the BigEast clean of its top basketball programs except for GTown.

The ACC has to be the top basketball conference now, which can only help recruiting. Maybe we'll start winning the ACC/BigWhatever Challenge

[johnb]

Yeah but Georgia Tech would argue that academically it is far superior to Georgia.

sage

And I'd agree, but it's not the school that the average state resident follows regardless of where they did or didn't go to college.

[Channing]

hopefully L'ville can hold onto Charlie Strong ... but I'm not counting on it.

[Mike Corey]

The bottom line for me is that the ACC is weaker today than it was a month ago. You trade the DC-Baltimore TV market for the Louisville-(Cincinnati?) market, and you have a net loss on the one issue that's driving this game of musical chairs.

This seemingly stabilizes things. I am excited about that.

Now let's hold on to UNC and UVa and get back to being able to focus on the games these young men and women play.

As to why academics matter--under one rubric, they don't. But under that rubric, why not abandon all sports save for the ones that generate money altogether?

Academics matter because Duke is currently in a conference that values academics and athletics. It values its student-athletes. It promotes them. Being an All-Academic athlete in this conference means a great deal, and I'm as proud of the fact that our chief rival is an academic standout as I am that our chief rival is an athletic standout.

If that makes me an elitist, so be it. But I want Duke to be a part of a conference that values excellence and striving toward it, no matter the task.

If you need a dollars-and-sense answer, I suppose it would be that the schools producing graduates--Lousville's only graduating half of its students--are the ones producing alums that can feed into all the marketing and TV dollars that seem to matter so much.

That said, Louisville's athletic department is producing an awful lot of revenue right now...more than anyone else in the ACC. But those dollars are a pittance compared to the TV dollars driving all this and keeping things stable for the Big 10 and keeping things uneasy for the Big East.

Where does the ACC stand after today? Hopefully on stronger footing. Let's hope we can continue to withstand these winds of change and continue to move forward even though our core is no more.

[COYS]

I'm not an expert in TV markets by any stretch, but exactly how will the loss of Md affect the DC/northern Va market share? Isn't UVa-Charlottesville a strong play in that market?
And won't Louisville capture both the Kentucky, southern Indiana, and southern Ohio markets?

Since the general realignment thread is now closed, I thought I might post this here. This is an excellent (imho) article that analyzes what the author sees as the folly of conference realignment. In summary, the author makes the point that demand for advertising placement for sporting events is slowly dwindling as more and more people scale back or eliminate cable, use their DVRs, or watch the games using other methods like online streaming. The author also speculates with reason that online viewership is likely to increase substantially over the next few years, ultimately changing the game entirely for the TV ad world. While big games will always draw people to a TV so that they can watch in real time (and therefore, leaving some demand for ads during sporting events), the author questions whether networks like the B1G Network will actually live up to their projected value as consumers of cable programming become less and less willing to pay an extra $3-$5 per month to get a network that shows second-fourth tier sporting events involving colleges that are possibly as far as 1,000 miles away. The valuations for the B1G Network and comparable conference TV deals is creating a bubble that will eventually burst.

So, to answer the question about market share in the DC area, it is possible that in the end both the ACC and Maryland will lose out on market share in the long run. Maryland may lose out because DC-area residents who may have been interested in watching Maryland play the ACC big names like Duke and UNC or regional foes like UVA might be less likely to tune in for games against Northwestern or Minnesota in any sport. Meanwhile, the ACC also loses these games. At the same time, the B1G Network will probably receive a smaller and smaller boost to its revenue assuming that the demand for ad time for third tier B1G games dwindles over the next decade. I think it likely that Maryland ends up gaining virtually nothing for its troubles while the ACC is also stung a bit by the loss of some of its traditional fans.

Anyway, I don't think we can really expect the ACC to pull in as much of the DC market as it once did. Similarly, I'm not sure that adding Louisville will bring in that much revenue, either. In my opinion, both the B1G and the ACC will be hurt in the long term. My hope, however, is that the ACC will remain stable enough so that it can survive this wave of realignment, which I truly believe will pass eventually once it becomes obvious that there really isn't too much long term financial gain for most of the schools that are jumping ship.