ACC Votes to Accept Louisville

[dukeofcalabash]

Here's an idea, we divide the new Big East Coast Conference into two divisions:

Division One:
Virginia
Wake
Duke
UNC
State
Clemson
Ga Tech

Division Two:
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Louisville
Va Tech
FSU
Miami

We could even call Division One "the ACC" and Division Two "the Big East". Wait a minute - is that my granddad's ACC?

The more things change...

Works for me and I am a granddad!

[opossum]

This was really the ACC's only move other than standing pat. UConn is a non-starter and the non-football Big East schools turn the ACC into the Big East more than it already is. I still hate the ND non-football add. They are laughing to the bank in South Bend.

That said, anyone that thinks this is an upgrade over Maryland are kidding themselves. The only thing Louisville has on Maryland is facilities. I'd still rather have had Maryland stay than let them leave and add Louisville.

I know I'm in the minority, but I think ND joins full time in the next few years if everything else remains calm. They need to ease in, and convince their boosters and fans. This year will help -- one more win by Kansas State and they'd have been out of the title game. They know that. Would a zero or one-loss ACC champion Notre Dame be left out of the four-team playoff? Never.

I think a few weeks ago the plan was likely to stay at 14 until ND agreed to add 2 or three games to become a full football member, then shoot the moon for #16 -- Penn State, Florida, etc. Settle for a combination of Navy (so the one football game Notre Dame is going to play anyway is a conference game, making it an easier sell for them) and a non-football northeast school (Villanova or St. Johns). Or Louisville/Cincy/Uconn as a full member. The Maryland move ended that, as the Big Ten intended. Now, we've added Louisville (the ACC's second school that thinks birds have teeth) for #14. I think Notre Dame is still our #15. Our most likely #16 is a Navy/Georgetown combo, which would have been impossible with Maryland still around.

I love Maryland, Lefty, and all that. I'll miss them terribly and will hate to watch their inevitable decline in the Big Ten. But they chose to leave us, and Navy for football and Georgetown for other sports keeps us around DC (on top of VT, which owns DC if you go by bumper stickers) and would be a fine consolation.

If we add UConn or Cincinatti at this point we're admitting Notre Dame will never join as a full football member. Notre Dame shouldn't be allowed to play basketball in our conference unless full football membership is on the table. I understand they have some work to do bringing everyone they need to around on that, but if push comes to shove (like if anyone else leaves the ACC), they can go back to the Big East as far as I'm concerned.

[kingboozer]

I'm all for Navy coming in but not football only, they need to come all into the ACC. ND was a special situation and opportunity and no one else should be given the sweet deal they got from Swofford. Partial membership is what ultimately doomed the Big East.

[opossum]

I'm all for Navy coming in but not football only, they need to come all into the ACC. ND was a special situation and opportunity and no one else should be given the sweet deal they got from Swofford. Partial membership is what ultimately doomed the Big East.

I think having a teetering near-majority that did not play football in FBS at all is a far cry from going a few years with Notre Dame as a 5/8 football member and down the road having one football only member out of 16 and one non-football member out of 16. 16 out of 17 members would be FBS schools.

The Big East combined all-sports members and all-but-football members on a roughly equal basis. They only reintroduced football only membership after the Pitt/Syracuse departures. The ACC would be pairing one football only school with one non-football school. It would stop there. I don't see the instability.

I'd love Navy as the 16th member of the ACC in all sports after #15 Notre Dame, if that's what Navy and the ACC wanted. I thought there were some physical limits on Navy cadets that caused them to choose to compete at the Division I-AA level for other sports. If I'm wrong, then welcome aboard, Navy! (as soon as Notre Dame joins fully).

[uh_no]

I think having a teetering near-majority that did not play football in FBS at all is a far cry from going a few years with Notre Dame as a 5/8 football member and down the road having one football only member out of 16 and one non-football member out of 16. 16 out of 17 members would be FBS schools.

The Big East combined all-sports members and all-but-football members on a roughly equal basis. They only reintroduced football only membership after the Pitt/Syracuse departures. The ACC would be pairing one football only school with one non-football school. It would stop there. I don't see the instability.

I think the concern is that people are suggesting schools such as Georgetown...which is certianly leading down the big east road.

ND might be okay, but the thought that they will eventually join in football I think is a long shot, especially after making the title game this year.

Having a 50/50 split doomed the big east because they couldn't really add more football markets. Right now we have 14 football members, plus the ND mix, so I think we're alright. while I don't think ND will join a conference (which means we'll stay at the same membership), we won't make any moves except to replace teams that leave, and as of now, the only possibility I can see is FSU or clemson to the Big 12. But if ND were to join the Big 10 full time, I think we'd add 2 more (cinci and uconn) and if ND were to join the ACC full time, I think we'd add one of the aforementioned full time...,either way, if ND joins a conference, I think that is the impetus to push us to 16.

[opossum]

I think the concern is that people are suggesting schools such as Georgetown...which is certianly leading down the big east road.

ND might be okay, but the thought that they will eventually join in football I think is a long shot, especially after making the title game this year.

Having a 50/50 split doomed the big east because they couldn't really add more football markets. Right now we have 14 football members, plus the ND mix, so I think we're alright. while I don't think ND will join a conference (which means we'll stay at the same membership), we won't make any moves except to replace teams that leave, and as of now, the only possibility I can see is FSU or clemson to the Big 12. But if ND were to join the Big 10 full time, I think we'd add 2 more (cinci and uconn) and if ND were to join the ACC full time, I think we'd add one of the aforementioned full time...,either way, if ND joins a conference, I think that is the impetus to push us to 16.

I think I was misunderstood. Georgetown/Navy only happens when Notre Dame joins the ACC as a full member.

[A-Tex Devil]

I know I'm in the minority, but I think ND joins full time in the next few years if everything else remains calm. They need to ease in, and convince their boosters and fans. This year will help -- one more win by Kansas State and they'd have been out of the title game. They know that. Would a zero or one-loss ACC champion Notre Dame be left out of the four-team playoff? Never.

Even if Notre Dame got left out of the title game, they would have been in the BCS, which paid $17MM last year. $17 all to one's self beats $17MM split among 14 or 16 teams all day long. So long as the football team has the NBC contract and can stand alone, I can't imagine them sharing that money.

Even if they missed the BCS and went to the Gator Bowl, for instance, they get $2.7MM which is still more than if they split the BCS Championship money.

I just don't see any inventive at all so long as the 4 team playoff doesn't require conference champions, or give conference champions an advantage. It doesn't right now.

[Dev11]

I think I was misunderstood. Georgetown/Navy only happens when Notre Dame joins the ACC as a full member.

The only way Notre Dame joins as a full member is if we get to 4 leagues, one of them being the ACC, and the 4-team playoff being seeded with only conference champions. Until then, they have no incentive to do so, and I would put that scenario at low odds and many years off.

[bjornolf]

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.

Are we losing the DC market? UVA and VT have TONS of alums in the area. I see as many of those games televised here as I do Maryland games.

[bjornolf]

Here's an idea, we divide the new Big East Coast Conference into two divisions:

Division One:
Virginia
Wake
Duke
UNC
State
Clemson
Ga Tech

Division Two:
Boston College
Syracuse
Pitt
Louisville
Va Tech
FSU
Miami

We could even call Division One "the ACC" and Division Two "the Big East". Wait a minute - is that my granddad's ACC?

The more things change...

To be geographically fair to the schools and players, you'd have to do a North and South division split. Move Wake and UVA to the North for FSU and Miami. Either that, or do a football and basketball division.

[ForkFondler]

As an aside, I still don't understand why the ACC Network seems to be disregarded as not feasible. I get that football drives these things, but the BTN shows a few crappy football games each week during football season and has minimal other programming the rest of the year and is hugely profitable. An ACC Network would have a plethora of hugely successful Olympic sports programming to show year-round and I would imagine would be in decently high demand from Virginia (including Northern VA which gets the DC market) to Georgia/Florida. Seems like if the actual product is worthwhile -- and a network that showed ACC soccer, lacrosse & tennis games and some ACC golf seems like a more compelling product than the currently mediocre stuff offered by the BTN -- there should be at least some new revenue in it.

The de facto ACC network is ESPNU. Lots of ACC Olympic Sports on there. No new revenue though because ESPN already owns it under the current contract.

[-bdbd]

I agree with the point of this article, that the Louisville move was done - oh novelty of novelties! - primarily to improve the ACC's poor football product. It wasn't done for the new TV market, or for academics, or even for geography. But it DOES improve our FB product on the field, and as a solid side "bene" also improves the BB one too. In terms of the "trade" of Louisville for MD "products on the field" (plus facillities behind them), I'd take L'ville over MD ALL DAY! That's not to say that we won't miss MD's history, traditions and/or be hurt by the loss of some DC/Baltimore TV sets...

But I think Swofford is finally listening, that the realignment is all about football. and maybe a smidge of basketball. And I am betting that FSU and maybe Clemson and VPI urged the ACC to focus on adding FB quality. Look for the ACC to continue to do things to improve its FOOTBALL product going forward.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201..._a13&eref=sihp

[mapei]

Are we losing the DC market? UVA and VT have TONS of alums in the area. I see as many of those games televised here as I do Maryland games.

But the media coverage (TV, radio, newspaper, social media) of Maryland is greater than that of all other schools combined. It's annoying as hell (particularly as a Georgetown fan, when the Hoyas have been consistently better than MD for most of a decade), but it's a fact. The local media openly root for the Terps, not ever for anyone else unless it's a Cinderella year for a George Mason or GW. VT does get football coverage, but they never get more than the base level - no commentary.

[BD80]

I'm all for Navy coming in but not football only, they need to come all into the ACC. ND was a special situation and opportunity and no one else should be given the sweet deal they got from Swofford. Partial membership is what ultimately doomed the Big East.

Does Navy have a full slate of women's programs?

[kingboozer]

Does Navy have a full slate of women's programs?

10 according to their athletics website, all the basic sports are covered it would appear on the women's side of things
http://www.navysports.com/index-main.html

[Kedsy]

I thought there were some physical limits on Navy cadets that caused them to choose to compete at the Division I-AA level for other sports. If I'm wrong, then welcome aboard, Navy! (as soon as Notre Dame joins fully).

Is there such a thing as I-AA for other sports? I thought it was for football only.

[kingboozer]

Is there such a thing as I-AA for other sports? I thought it was for football only.

I-AA (or FCS) is only football just like FBS-BCS is just football

[ForkFondler]

Most Navy teams would not be at all competitive in the ACC. Navy basketball, in particular. Navy Lax would be a good pickup though.

Georgetown football plays in the Patriot league, but their other programs play in the Big East.. Most Navy programs compete in the Patriot league, but football is currently Independent and has plans to join the Big East. So, they are already essentially splitting a spot in the Patriot league. They could do the reverse split with the ACC.

[ForkFondler]

I agree with the point of this article, that the Louisville move was done - oh novelty of novelties! - primarily to improve the ACC's poor football product. It wasn't done for the new TV market, or for academics, or even for geography. But it DOES improve our FB product on the field, and as a solid side "bene" also improves the BB one too. In terms of the "trade" of Louisville for MD "products on the field" (plus facillities behind them), I'd take L'ville over MD ALL DAY! That's not to say that we won't miss MD's history, traditions and/or be hurt by the loss of some DC/Baltimore TV sets...

But I think Swofford is finally listening, that the realignment is all about football. and maybe a smidge of basketball. And I am betting that FSU and maybe Clemson and VPI urged the ACC to focus on adding FB quality. Look for the ACC to continue to do things to improve its FOOTBALL product going forward.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201..._a13&eref=sihp

Definitely about football AND basketball. Also, it's about fans. Louisville has football fans; more than UConn and lots more than Maryland.

[alteran]

Louisville fans-- any enemy of Kentucky is a friend of mine. Welcome to the ACC-- and of course, a far better kind of 'que!