Originally Posted by
Steven43
Agree. There absolutely are fixed limits to what Duke Football can achieve. I was against the expansion of Wallace Wade and I have long hoped and dreamed that Duke could drop out of the ACC (for football only) and join a conference (Ivy?) where the schools are more closely-aligned with Duke’s academic standards and culture.
Probably there are limits. But we aren't the worst team in the conference over the past eight years. Including partial results for this year, Duke is 27-34 in ACC play since (and including) the 2012 season. We have been to a bowl game six of the past seven years and won our last three. The nine years we had Franks and Roof, our ACC record was 6-66; in fact, Franks finished his career 0-30 in the ACC; Roof finished his 0-24. Now that was awful.
With help from influential and wealthy alums and with a willing administration, we were able to make huge strides in returning Duke to competitiveness in football. Maybe we've peaked; maybe we haven't, but we have won a lot of games the last few years.
Moreover, the ACC is very beneficial to Duke athletics and athletes. It is very strong in hoops and many, many of the so-called Olympic sports. The economics help pay for our very expensive sports program.
Ivy League? Forget the freezing, frickin' Ivy League! They don't want us, and we don't want them. In fact, there is a concept of "Ivy-plus" to refer to the strongest undergraduate universities in the US of A. It's the eight Ivies plus Stanford, Chicago, MIT and Duke. I like belonging to that club, but I don't want to play them in football.
Now, if you want an example of how bad it can get, I refer you to the athletics of my graduate university, the Rice Owls. They were stranded when the Southwest Conference disbanded thirty years ago. Four of the eight SWC schools went to the Big 12, joined later by TCU. Two are in the second-tier AAC. Rice is in the third-tier Conference USA -- and this year is at the bottom of even that league.
Sage Grouse
---------------------------------------
'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013