Pitt, Syracuse move ACC ahead in college hypocrisy derby
That's SEC's Mike Slive to left and ACC's John Swofford in middle. Each plot to take over world.
Congratulations ACC: You just killed a conference.
Funny. That never was mentioned in the ACC-Syracuse-Pittsburgh teleconference Sunday morning. It was all about patting each other on the back and — let me quote John Swofford directly: “This is a monumental day in the history of our league.”
The Big East? Collateral damage.
The ACC confirmed this morning what had been speculated for a few days: It walked through the back door of the Big East when nobody was looking and the lights were turned out and heisted Syracuse and Pitt from the Big East. And the buildings in college sports Armageddon continue to crumble.
Wake me when college presidents hold their next press conference on the virtues of amateur athletics and academic reform.
After Pacific 10 expansion (with more to come), and impending SEC expansion with Texas A&M (with more to come) and Big Ten expansion (with more to come), the ACC again proved it’s just as bad as the rest of them.
Tradition and regional rivalries and all the makes college sports so wonderfully unique just took another hit. This all comes with a fatter television contract serving as the primary — make that only — motivating factor. The next college president who waves the flag of amateurism gets a pie in the face.
Just can’t wait for those natural geographic rivalry games between Syracuse and Wake Forest, and Pitt and Clemson. The ACC will now have 14 members spread over nine states: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
When do they move north into the Maritimes or south into Cuba? The conference schedule should come with a GPS. Or a rail pass. Or a space shuttle.
When the Big East folds into oblivion — or at least is rendered meaningless on the college sports landscape — it can point to the ACC as the relative Axis powers, having lost five schools to the conference: Boston College, Miami, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Syracuse.
Yeah, I guess I’m just old. I’ve been banging on this drum for weeks. What others see as progress, I see as a wrecking ball. Four 16-team conferences, which is where we’re headed, accomplishes nothing in the big picture.
All it does is shoot the big picture full of holes.
Some Recent blogs on this topic:
• Texas A&M’s move to SEC evidence of NCAA’s lost mission
• Big 12 schools may sue if Texas A&M leaves for SEC
• Problem in college athletics isn’t kids, its guys in suits
the headache go away. We’ll know more over the next few weeks.
By Jeff Schultz
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360 comments Add your comment
PigIron
September 18th, 2011
11:28 pm
The ACC is stuck in the wrong geographical location. They will only represent the SE in a super-conference alliance by knocking off the SEC. Good luck with that. It’s far more likely that the ACC’s 3 football schools bug out when the poop hits the fan — $20 Million buyout, or no. The TV contracts are worth far more than $20 Million/year to the final 64.
Clem
September 18th, 2011
11:32 pm
Swofford needs to be put on probation for this crap.
Delbert D.
September 18th, 2011
11:32 pm
My grandfather worked the mines on Crown Mountain in Dahlonega. After the mines shut down, the family moved to Auraria, and he then went on to work solo, surface mining. When my dad left for the Army in 1941, my grandfather was prospecting that spring and summer in the Shakerag area of what is now Johns Creek, Georgia. He made about $2,000 doing that, which was a lot of gold at $32 and ounce.
Delbert D.
September 18th, 2011
11:34 pm
Clem – Danny Ford would certainly agree with you. He hates the guy.
PigIron=Jeff Shultz
September 18th, 2011
11:43 pm
Lets make the most absurd statements humanly possible to keep em clicking…..
BTW this was the dumbest article in the country regarding conference expansion!!
How funny is it that the ‘mighty sec’ seems to now have a choice between WV, Missouri, and who?
ACC will add Rutgers and Uconn. Why? 35,000 students, new very populated state of NJ, AAU Member (for you ’sec types’ that means they are a good school). Look at a map, the only two ‘good’ academic schools with recent serious investment in football facilities – Rutgers and Uconn. New Jersey and Conneticut are now a ‘void’ in the middle of the ACC. Uconn also appeals to Duke and UNC because of basketball.
The ACC will not add WV or Louisville. Why? Because the ACC Presidents make the decisions on expansion in the ACC. WV and Louisville, no offense to your schools, do not meet the ACC Presidents criteria for expansion. Thankfully hack sports writers who have p sized brains and are too lazy to do any research to mention are not making these decisions.
The only school, it seams, that could change the future of the ACC is Notre Dame. IMO, they don’t and join the Big 10.
So what should the ACC do? Accept Rutgers application as an AAU School and prevent the only Big 10 NYC market option for the BTN. Determine if Notre Dame will come. If not, invite Uconn and lock up the ACC and SEVERAL VERY LARGE TV MARKETS!! Naysayers – the NE doesn’t care about college football. Imagine if the NE ever did? The ACC would be ROLLING in money and isn’t this what capitalism is all about. The ACC would also have preserved academic integrity and be the undisputed king of basketball.
Nothing the other four ’super conferences could claim…..
Delbert D.
September 18th, 2011
11:50 pm
Okay, that post was interesting for a finale. The Falcons game just ended, so I’m logging out. Maybe we can reignite this during the week as things progress.
NCDawg
September 19th, 2011
12:52 am
Jeff, I completely agree with you. Once major distinction the college ball had going for it was it’s charm based on tradition and amateurism both of which are being pummeled in the name of greed. Why don’t they just declare it the NFL Minor League and pay the players?
just saying
September 19th, 2011
1:07 am
VOMIT, I have no interest in playing these Yankee teams
ALIGN THIS MF
דברים מעניינים ברחבי הרשת » Archive » College sports: survival of the fittest – ESPN
September 19th, 2011
2:27 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution [...]
TCU Fan
September 19th, 2011
2:35 am
It is said, that for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men to do nothing. Good men have been content to take their 30 pieces of silver, or a future promise of such, and remain quiet.
R.I.P. College Football, the spirit of honest competition, of the student-athlete, of the University as a source of education. Television entertainment groups have broken the old order, and they now dictate the rule decision making process.
JiveLady
September 19th, 2011
3:41 am
1) Any comment from Sonny Clusters would be welcomed – maybe something about players receiving complimentary ice cream treats from Dairy Queen after a big win…
2) You are my hero, Jeff Schultz – I love reading the ’slow burn’ when you ‘turn up the heat’…
3) Call me ‘old school’ nostalgic for the bygone days of college football – when gentlemen fans wore suits and hats and ladies wore dresses, heels and corsages to games…
Doug the Jacket
September 19th, 2011
7:14 am
GT belongs in the SEC.
Rick H
September 19th, 2011
7:41 am
Anybody thinking Arkansas is leaving the SEC is a moron.
Honest and Frank Discussion
September 19th, 2011
7:53 am
Hey Jeff – what about those “natural” geographical rivalries in the big east like USF and Syracuse and UConn and Louisville. If anything the ACC is adding natural rivals for BC.
PigIron
September 19th, 2011
9:20 am
@PigIron=Jeff Shultz
Thanks for the compliment, but I’m no writer — just a long-time fan of the game. I’m not a proponent of either a playoff system or of this “super-conference” idea. Neither am I a fan of UGA.
I do understand why this is happening. It all goes back to scholly limitations and other NCAA gimmicks to provide “parity” in Div 1/FBS football. Too many small, insignificant programs have made their way into the league and when one of these teams has an undefeated season against the sisters of the poor they expect to be crowned National Champions.That is what started the clamoring for a so-called “playoff” system in CFB. In my humble opinion, a single elimination tournament style playoff system is even more arbitrary than is an opinion poll.
Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it:
This conference realignment is a move toward just such a playoff system, however, instead of giving the Cinderella teams a shot at the Crystal Football, it will lock them out permanently. The criteria is marketability because this is all being driven directly by CFB television revenues. Deny that simple fact at your own peril.
If you think that Rutgers and Uconn are marketable CFB programs, then you’re only driving home the fact that you really don’t grasp what is happening here. This isn’t about academic excellence, any more than membership in the private club known as the AAU is an indicator of academic excellence. This is about big time, big money premiere college football. That’s why the ACC is running scared. Neither the Big East nor the ACC has been playing premiere college football recently and the national consensus opinion is that neither of these conferences really deserve to be automatic qualifiers in the existing BCS system.
All of you ACC fans seem to believe that this nonsense is being driven by the SEC. That is the exact opposite of the truth. The SEC is perfectly happy to stand pat, and they are the only major conference that has done that so far. It was the Pac 10, Big 10 and Big 12 conferences who cooked up this scheme, and the ACC was never part of the plan. The SEC doesn’t need to be proactive in this process, because if and when this plan is consummated, they will still be the premiere football conference in the nation and they will have the option to expand their conference without damaging the quality of their football product. Go ahead and raise the buyout for leaving the ACC. It won’t make any difference when your 3 (count them… 3) viable football programs are on the outside looking in at this new CFB league. It’s obvious to an outsider that what the ACC is now doing is locking down the East Coast basketball market and giving up on football.
Texas was a driving force in initiating this realignment process, and they hold all of the cards in determining whether there will even be a Big 12 conference when all of this is said and done. The only way that the ACC can fit into the realignment scheme is by convincing Texas to kill the Big 12 and move to the ACC. If that happens, it will only be a matter of time before the ACC will be unrecognizable to it’s current members. It will no longer be a “basketball and academics” conference. Instead, it will become a football conference. Some of the current members will no longer be welcome in this new ACC conference. Be careful what you ask for.
Joe Bob Thibodaux
September 19th, 2011
9:20 am
If you ain’t from Dixie, then get your own conference.
JBT
wreckbone
September 19th, 2011
9:23 am
The ACC was the best basketball conference. Then, the Big east expanded to get all those teams so they would have a better hoops conference. 16 teams at the time…… Wow! Even Notre Dame, oh in everything except for football because they are special. The only thing special about Notre Dame is their NBC contract……. The ACC took teams from the Big East. But, they were a basketball conference. And now, its about football. The good news is, all the ACC teams had football teams. some good football teams. Old rivalries, old powerhouses. Teams that can play a full schedule and not get embarrassed. The Big East has a few such schools. Now the ACC can become the basketball powerhouse again. And the teams that do not field football teams, can make the Big East like the WCC (the new Gonzaga conference of the east).
I hope the ACC can land WVU. I would like to see that. Stong in hoops and basketball. UConn, Louisville, ECU. Any of those sound OK to me. Not too thrilled about ECU. Although if I were still in school, I’d go to every away game at ECU in football! Lots of girls at ECU!! And the big East rivalries gone? No more Syracuse and G-town? Well, G-town should have stepped up and fielded a football team to keep that up. Liek UConn did. And because of that UConn is probably tops on the list for the ACC. Nobody else wants them becuase their football is weak. We want them for hoops I would say. So it will be said that the football National Champion comes from the SEC mainly and the hoops National Champion comes from the ACC!
dontazemebro
September 19th, 2011
9:32 am
ACC is really gonna start being exciting, especially in college basketball, wooooo!!!
dontazemebra
September 19th, 2011
9:33 am
Enter your comments here
robodawg
September 19th, 2011
9:37 am
Sad but true. This move to superconferences has nothing to do with what the fans want. It’s all about bigger TV markets. College athletics are a victim of their own success, and nobody knows how to say STOP.
Big 10+2, PAC 12, SEC, you don’t need to go beyond 12! You’re already awash in money. What are you going to spend the rest on? More giant screens?
Tech offense riding high | Georgia Tech
September 19th, 2011
10:02 am
[...] realignment is an eat-or-be-eaten scenario, and the ACC ate. Jeff Schultz had an excellent column about it Sunday. Pitt and Syracuse have a lot of similarities with a lot of its new conference [...]
Delbert D.
September 19th, 2011
10:10 am
PigIron – Good morning. I, too am a fan of the game. It goes back to when Georgia Tech was a member of the SEC. I grew up attending Georgia games for high school admission of a dollar, and also ushering as a boy scout. My next door neighbor was a Georgia Tech grad who worked for Ga. Power, and I used to attend one game a year, courtesy him. Other than when Tech or Georgia are playing playing, I prefer to watch SEC football games or inter-sectional games. Occasionally I’ll watch a Clemson game, as they were a rival of Georgia and Tech in the ’60s.
The situation now is nothing more than an evolution of college football, and it started back in the ’70s when bowl games were added every year. I remember a Furman Bisher article where he said college football was losing the old traditions; the 18th bowl game had just been added. I have never liked the bowl system other than a reward for the few really good teams for having good seasons. The final polls didn’t include the bowl games; how could they, since half a season elapsed between the final game and the bowls?
The BCS and its predecessor, the Bowl Alliance created a new structure of attempting to create a National Championship game based on polls. That is absurd, and the BCS has become a corrupt organization. A real playoff system beginning immediately after the regular season is the next evolutionary step. Play it like the FCS does. A 5th conference, even a 6th conference can be accommodated, along with independents, if there is seeding and 1st round byes.
I’m interested in reading your back-story, and why you have such animosity against the ACC. Also explain how the AAU is not an indicator of academic excellence.
Southern Fried & Proud
September 19th, 2011
10:37 am
Swoffordnomics are penny wise and pound foolish. Football in the South is about passion for your team AND against your arch rival. Tailgating is about driving to the game. It does not occur after plane rides. So the excitement and color that draws TV money will disappear in the apathy of who cares games against who (?). And in the long run football from a studio not a stadium won’t draw flies for attendence or ratings. TV and greed from the AD’s killed the Golden Goose that was my sport.
Schultzy'sLoco
September 19th, 2011
10:38 am
Keep in mind what started this: TA&M to the SEC.
That killed the BigXII, and the SEC will now be spread over TEN states, so keep freaking out about the spread-out teams and senseless organization of the ACC when the SEC was the big powerhouse that senselessly started it.
For the record, College Station, TX to Columbia, SC is 1,094 miles; just 400 miles less than Miami to Boston. The reach is the same distance in a different direction. Get your facts straight before you start bashing the ACC.
Delbert D.
September 19th, 2011
10:46 am
I’ve never understood how tailgating fit into the picture of football, college or pro. I’ve never felt the urge to barbecue in a parking lot. In England and Germany, their ancillary activities to soccer matches are unfortunately based on violence and destruction of property. The activities surrounding matches, before and after are monitored by the police.
LawDawg
September 19th, 2011
10:59 am
Why should the ACC care about the demise of the Big East (*a third-rate football conference anyway)? Also, doesn’t this HELP traditional rivalries in that Syracuse and Pitt are now reunited with VT/BC/UM?
Only WV got left out of the mix (no one and I mean no one cares about USF or Rutgers football) and they will either go to the SEC or go to the ACC to replace VT when VT goes to the SEC.
To paraphrase Doc Holliday: Your hyberbole knows no bounds.
LawDawg
September 19th, 2011
11:00 am
Schultzy’sLoco : No, what started this was the Big Ten going to 11 a few years back and then talking expansion to 12. The next step was the ACC expanding to 12. Then the PAC expanding. TAM was, at best, an intermediate step in the process
Joshua Barlowe
September 19th, 2011
11:37 am
Where was this column when Texas A&M left the Big12 to join the SEC? You’re a little late.
PigIron
September 19th, 2011
11:46 am
@Delbert D.
I have no animosity toward the ACC, but I do get frustrated with some of the ACC fans on this blog (Schultzy’sLoco, for instance) who are jealous of SEC dominance in football and therefore try to pretend that collegiate athletics is secondary to scholastic achievement regarding the quality of athletic conferences.
Really, the chest beating regarding AAU membership is tiresome and pathetic. The AAU is a private club that functions as a lobbying agency for government research grants. While AAU members may very well offer excellent scholastic opportunities, many of the finest institutes of higher education in this nation are not research institutes. Besides, athletic conferences exist for sports, not for academic competition.
I suspect that you see me as anti-ACC because I am telling the cold, hard truth to the ACC fans on this site. The current conference realignment moves will not be beneficial to the ACC. The only reason that the ACC can pretend to be a player in this realignment scheme is because Texas pretended to be interested in joining the ACC.
Southern Fried & Proud is correct in his/her(?) assessment of this situation. College football is popular because it is a social event as much as it is a sport. Basketball is a different animal. You can fly in to attend a basketball game at Madison Square Garden, watch the game, and go home. Regional conferences aren’t a big deal for basketball because the games aren’t the huge production with all of the pageantry and socializing that takes place at a major college football event. If this realignment creates conferences that are spread all over the nation, then the social aspect of the game will be damaged.
If you don’t understand tailgating, then you don’t understand ESPN Gameday and you don’t really understand the essence of college football. When I watch a game on television, I don’t sit at home and watch it alone. I will, instead, get together with friends and we will replicate the tailgating experience in their (or my) backyard. (depends upon who is hosting) We have a few drinks, we grill out and usually build a fire. Then we watch the game. We feel like we are a part of the game-day experience, even when we can’t be present at the actual game. This is why CFB is a cash cow for the television networks. Destroy the culture and tradition of college football and you will eventually destroy the value of the game to the very networks whose deep pockets are driving this whole move toward conference realignment.
GT fan in NC
September 19th, 2011
12:03 pm
You hit the nail on the head Jeff. It is all about money. It is SHAMEFUL that student sections at most schools are in the end zones. When I went to tech, the student section for seniors was the front of the upper deck between the 40’s.
When ESPN finally gets its way and pays “student” athletes directly from the beer and pickup truck commercial revenue streams, what we’ll end up with is an ugly semi-pro league with little to no association to the schools or their traditions. Since bigger shools have bigger money; Notre Dame, Texas, Bama, Ohio state will rotate the national championship between them with occasional appearances of other schools with 50K students or more. Folks will stop watching in droves.
Hey, maybe then, some schools will return to amateur athletics. like the Ivey league.
TexGT
September 19th, 2011
12:39 pm
PigIron is absolutely right. This ACC expansion doesn’t help its football one bit, and in fact is seriously detrimental. ACC was already rock-solid in bball, we needed more football help. Raiding the Big East wont do a thing – it is embarrasing that all the other conferences are fighting over good teams (UT, OU, A&M, etc), while we are “proud” to scrape the bottom of the barrel. It is sad. Football is the revenue generator, not bball.
UGA = Yawn
September 19th, 2011
12:59 pm
Jeff, I say good for the ACC! While all the expansion talk has centered around the SEC, Big 12, Big 10 and PAC 10 – the ACC made the real first move. They were actually the smart ones. They didn’t ruin football, they took the initiative to get good, quality academic schools with good sports’ traditions. You certainly didn’t have the foresight to predict the ACC moving first.
Mtn Dawg
September 19th, 2011
1:15 pm
I hear ya, Jeff. It’s total BS. Let’s hear it for the allmighty freak’n dollar.
Golden Jackt
September 19th, 2011
1:56 pm
As much as I hate it, money has always driven college football. ESPN hyping the SEC 24×7 has driven up their revenue to the point that the other conferences feel like they are holding on for the lives. When you are keeping up with the Joneses, tradition goes out the window.
Delbert D.
September 19th, 2011
3:11 pm
The ACC isn’t likely to bring in schools that don’t fit their values. Pitt and Syracuse do; West Virginia and Louisville don’t. I may be shocked by the ACC adding those 2 schools, but until then, I’m reading the tea leaves differently. The schools in the group of 14 have a lot in common, but a relatively minor part is about football (something less than 75% of the equation, I say as a joke).
The SEC is different; it has always been about football, and that’s fine with me. I watch the games more than any other conference as I’ve said previously.
I’m not a football groupie, and I don’t use that as a demeaning term. Occasionally, I’ve gotten together with a friend to watch a couple of games in the NCAA basketball tournament. The last time I did that with football was in the clubhouse at a golf course where some co-workers and I had just finished a round. It was the 2nd half of a Georgia-Florida game, when Georgia won the game with a long drive by handing the ball to Walker on every play. I don’t recall the year or the score, just the setting.
Delbert D.
September 19th, 2011
3:16 pm
That’s my last post on the subject on this blog. Bradley has a new blog on the subject of the ACC expansion.
Cabbage101
September 19th, 2011
5:28 pm
If FSU goes, how about UCF or USF? I believe that we will see Rutgers and possibly a move toward West Virginia. Concerning the super conferences, will this not be a practical road toward a true playoff system?
Johnn
September 19th, 2011
6:07 pm
If by trip, you mean travel, it may be easier than MSU to Texas A & M
ARdawg
September 19th, 2011
6:48 pm
Schultz
If the Presidents would toss the BCS, work out a feasible playoff with 4-5 super conferences we just might be able to eek out a true champion every year. Thus, there is a bright side to the madness. No wait, it’s all about the money
Dawg Tired
September 19th, 2011
6:58 pm
Jeff – Thanks for taking a stand on this. I live in the Raleigh-Durham area. The sports=talk radio folks and fans up here are absolutely unbelievable. All I heard on the drive home today was how wonderful this stealing Pitt and Syracuse from the Big East is. I literally did not hear one comment asking any thing about whether this was a bad thing for college sports. The host on the show, admittedly not the brightest light on the tree, keep gushing about how the ACC deserves all kinds of accolades for pulling off the greatest coup in the history of college sports and John Swofford is a hero for engineering this. No one even seemed to have a clue that this might be the wrong way to conduct business. Of course if someone tried to raid the ACC these same people would be hollering how sinister the thieves were. But if I have learned anything after living up here for almost 30 years it is that this is the most provincially thinking place in the world without any concern for others. What ever happened to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?”
Instead of the great day these folks are proclaiming this to be, it seems that at least one person might ask whether this is the way to treat other academic institutions.
Dawg Tired
September 19th, 2011
7:13 pm
I do understand that reasonable minds could differ on whether this raiding the Big East is a good thing or a bad thing. However, I find it incredible that no one on a sports talk show in Raleigh even seem to consider that there are two sides to this deal. Incredible!
Big East coaches in wait-and-see mode on realignment – Charleston Gazette | My Football Search
September 20th, 2011
2:53 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Dawg Whisperer
September 20th, 2011
9:48 am
If it was ever about academics, everyone would be inviting Princeton, Harvard & Yale into their conference but when did another Rhodes scholar pull in the TV money. Of course, it’s about revenue generated by football on TV. That will not change until fans view academics more important than watching football on TV. Don’t hold your breath.
PigIron
September 20th, 2011
10:26 am
@Delbert D.
“I’m not a football groupie, and I don’t use that as a demeaning term. Occasionally, I’ve gotten together with a friend to watch a couple of games in the NCAA basketball tournament. The last time I did that with football was in the clubhouse at a golf course where some co-workers and I had just finished a round.”
You sound like a typical sports fan. Nothing wrong with that. What you aren’t grasping is that many (if not most) CFB fans don’t fit the mold of the typical “sports fan”. They’re just CFB fans. They don’t care about watching golf, basketball, baseball or the NFL. That’s what makes CFB special. It allows sports programmers to reach a broader demographic. Destroy the culture and tradition of CFB and you’ll be left with just another sports program. Might as well be soccer.
Bye Bye, Big East: The Fall of a College Sports Power – TIME « סיקורים וחדשות
September 20th, 2011
10:57 am
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution [...]
Tech'10
September 20th, 2011
11:23 am
Well… here we go! The wild and crazy ride to college professionalism is continuing… sweet…
GTman
September 20th, 2011
12:55 pm
PigIron – The SEC doesn’t want to make any moves??? Are you serious? They want Texas A&M to join the SEC and you can bet Mike Slive is doing whatever he can to turn the SEC into an even more dominant 16 team league.
The SEC will still be the major football conference, but I think the ACC will be improved with the additions of Pitt, Syracuse, Texas, and Mizzou.
THWG!
Syracuse, Pittsburgh To ACC – ESPN | Acessando Net
September 20th, 2011
3:28 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Curt Moore
September 20th, 2011
5:54 pm
Jeff It’s all about $’s. ESPN is the wrecking ball. It’s all about market share and advertising $’s. No loyalty anymore.
RIP Big East
September 20th, 2011
6:45 pm
Anybody remember this NCAA quote (in reference as to why Pryor wasn’t suspended for the Sugar Bowl):
Money is not a motivator