The Pac-12 stays at 12, and the mad shuffle is near its end
Don't mess with ... well, you know how it goes. (AJC file photo)
Found: The one conference that has decided it likes itself as is.
That’d be the Pac-12, which issued a statement Tuesday night saying it isn’t going to expand. But this might not have been quite so high-minded as it sounds. Where conference realignment is concerned, nothing ever is.
Reports suggest that the Pac-12 didn’t believe its membership would be able to co-exist with the Longhorn Network, which is why this round of reshuffling began last month. Nobody is crazy about the idea of sharing a league with Texas, which means …
This round of reshuffling is near its end.
The SEC appears bent on adding Missouri and the Big East will have to do some major damage control, but the Big 12 has lived to play another day. Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State won’t be headed to the Pac-12, at least not this month, and there’s no other conference that could accommodate all three. (Accommodating Texas has always been the tough part, but Oklahoma’s insistence that Oklahoma State ride along has made the Sooners a bit less attractive.)
If the SEC adds Missouri to go with Texas A&M and stops there, the biggest football league will have gotten bigger but not elephantine. If the Pac-12 stays with 12 members and the ACC, with Syracuse and Pittsburgh en route, at 14, there would seem no crying need to answer. The biggest question a 14-school SEC would face: Who’s going to move to the East? (Early suggestions point to Auburn, which is the easternmost outpost in the SEC West. Which would mean separating Auburn and Alabama.)
Assuming there’s no late flurry of mind-changing, the winner this time around would be the ACC. It has fought off expected incursions from the Big East, the Big Ten and the SEC, and it has again made itself the best basketball league by some distance. It’s still possible the SEC could make a run at Virginia Tech (even with the ACC-mandated $20 million exit fee), but the SEC has adopted a stance of, “You come to us; we won’t come to you.” And Virginia Tech couldn’t be construed as desperate to go anywhere — as opposed, say, to Texas A&M.
That’s how this all started. Texas A&M got mad over the Longhorn Network and stomped out the nearest door. You’d have to believe the Big 12 schools who were ready to sue the Aggies will be less truculent with Texas and the two Oklahomas staying and the Big 12 still be a viable (if diminished) conference. You’d have to believe that the daily — heck, hourly — round of who’s-going-where updates are about to subside.
UConn is already making eyes at the ACC, but it’s unclear if that league would want to add a 15th school without a 16th, and no obvious 16th candidate has arisen. West Virginia might still leave the Big East, but it’s not certain the SEC would want it. Oklahoma has demanded that Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe be replaced — Beebe’s apparent sin is his inability to rein in Texas — but that’s an in-house matter. In sum, what’s left this time are tweaks, as opposed to wholesale change. Until next summer, when …
Texas decides to print its own currency — Bevo Bucks. And there we’ll go again.
By Mark Bradley
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219 comments Add your comment
GT GRAD
September 21st, 2011
7:39 pm
Is there a chance Oklahoma and Oklahoma State might end up in the ACC?
I realize Oklahoma is not in the same region as most ACC schools; however, if ND & Penn State do not end up in the ACC, I think OK & OK ST would be superb additions to the ACC!
Yeah..Right
September 21st, 2011
8:08 pm
@ACC12-SEC12? Booster
I disagree regarding VA Tech. It may have taken some arm twisting to get them into the ACC, but it only takes a $20 million check to get them out. There’s not much that Virginia or their politicians could do to stop that. Besides, I’m not so certain that they’d even care.
ACC12-SEC12? Booster
September 21st, 2011
10:46 pm
Yeah..Right
September 21st, 2011
8:08 pm
I could maybe, just maybe see the remote possibility of VT leaving the ACC for the SEC if the ACC had stood pat, but with the admission of Pitt and ‘Cuse to the league, I can’t see any way that the Hokies would leave a deal that been very sweet for them that just got even sweeter, especially with a renegotiation of TV deals on the horizon that will bring in even more money.
I just can’t see why a team like VT (or FSU, or Clemson) would leave a deal where the money is coming in increasing amounts and they can be BCS contenders in mediocre years to take just a few more dollars in the SEC where they would be playing in a meat grinder and would have even less of a shot at a division title, a conference championship game appearance and a BCS bowl berth.
Besides, the academics have improved (though they were no slouch before), the basketball program has improved, the school is in the same conference and same division with close rival Virginia and the football team competes for the conference title every year.
On top of all that, Virginia Tech pulls alot of their students from the Northeastern Corridor, so even though the competitive football team makes it seem as though the Hokies have are similar to an SEC school, culturally and socially, VT is more closely aligned with the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington Corridor and Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic establishment than it is the Deep South, despite being in Virginia.
Hard to believe in these parts, but VT fans actually get turned on facing a conference schedule that includes rival UVa, Maryland, UNC, etc, because the school is much more an East Coast school than a traditional Southern school.
ACC12-SEC12? Booster
September 21st, 2011
10:50 pm
Enter your comments here
AceDawg
September 22nd, 2011
9:46 am
This whole conference issue seems fueled by a lack of a playoff system as well. The playoff system would create more valves for interesting matchups between high profile teams, and certainly playoff spots for conference teams would be moneymakers too if structured the right way. In the smaller NFL, it is common for playoff rivalries to develop when good teams constantly make it. I’d imagine the same could occur in NCAA playoffs to a greater degree than bowl matchups that have many rigid conference agreements outside of the controversial championship game.
DCBravosFan
September 22nd, 2011
11:35 am
The ACC is nowhere near the hest hoops conference in America. Last year, the Big East got 11 teams into the Big Dance and the ACC got 4 in. All this does is ensure that Virginia Tech and Wake never make another appearance.
The Big East is still the best hoops conference. It is not even close.
Yeah..Right
September 22nd, 2011
12:57 pm
@AceDawg
What you are proposing makes perfect sense for sports fans. All CFB fans, however, aren’t sports fans. That’s why CFB is a valuable commodity in sports programming. It brings a different (and therefore expanded) demographic to the network. Sports fans would continue to watch CFB if it became more like the NFL — CFB fans wouldn’t.
wreckmaniac
September 23rd, 2011
12:34 am
Near its end ? If true, its only because the ACC just proved that it will bite off as much or more than any other conference. For some reason “conventional thinking” was that the ACC was ready to be “gobbled up”. Don’t know why as the ACC is the premier conference in college and should really establish its own network. The SEC, Big Whatever , and the PAC Whatever will get what the ACC dosen’t want.
Notre Dame can only hope to get into the ACC. Is my message clear ? The NCAA revolves around the ACC. Without the ACC, the NCAA is useless.
wreckmaniac
September 23rd, 2011
12:36 am
The Pac-”Pick your Number” is lying. It will expand as soon as it finds the right team. What a crock.
The war is on and has been for 3 years.
wreckmaniac
September 23rd, 2011
12:39 am
Lets let conferences realign every year . Play in the ACC one year, the SEC the next , etc.
wreckmaniac
September 23rd, 2011
12:42 am
The NCAA, as we know it, is dead. The BCS and realignment has rendered the NCAA as an irrelevant police force. Georgia Tech should tell the NCAA to stuff it and fly the 2010 ACC conf championship flag.
UGASlobberknocker
September 24th, 2011
7:48 am
Wrong. This is just a temporary lull. This time next year is when it will all pop
GreenThumb42
September 24th, 2011
4:16 pm
Two of those are leaving, first. . and those entrants didn’t perform so grand, did they?
Fire Mark Richt
September 25th, 2011
4:29 pm
Adding Missouri makes no sense for the SEC, neither in terms of geography or league prestige. There are no rivalries with Missouri among the teams in the SEC. The appeal is lost on me.
Fire Mark Richt
September 25th, 2011
4:33 pm
The Big XII should move hard to add TCU, and possibly SMU and/or Houston. That would basically turn the Big XII into a more even mix of the old SWC and Big 8. It’s time to bring TCU, SMU and Houston back into the big school fold, those teams have great traditions.
After that, the powers-that-be need to quit messing around with a great game.
Paddy
September 26th, 2011
6:49 am
The ACC should change its name to the All City Conference. Lets see; you have Miami, Clemson Wake Forest, Syracuse and Pittsburg. Why not add Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville and Notre Dame. Why do you need state schools when you can have city schools?
big hoss
September 26th, 2011
7:58 am
Listen up Dawg Fans, Walgrens has Dawg T’s on sale 2 for five dollars. Would make great Christmas presents.
buzzwax
September 26th, 2011
10:13 pm
The SEC should add GT, FSU and Clemson BEFORE the ACC adds ND and Penn State. Even if the ACC only adds Uconn (new state) and Rutgers (AAU School with 35,000 students, new state and NYC LOCKED DOWN).
Who else can the SEC get? Mizzo? Whoo WV? OK and OKST?
GT, FSU and Clemson > WV, OK, OKST How much more compelling would the SEC be with these schools over ‘going west’………apparently the EGO’s of FL, UGA and USCe are going to cause the SEC to GET WEAKER!!! 60 Million for these three schools is a DROP IN THE BUCKET over the long term…..
Why this will NOT happen other than the EGO’s……espn OWNS both the ACC and SEC….why mess up your own product. Why ND and Penn State coming to the ACC is more than a pipe dream? ESPN competes with the Big 10 Network. ESPN does not want the BIG 10 Network to get Notre Dame when their NBC contract expires. ESPN will outbid the Big 10 Network for ND to capture the last HUGE growth opportunity for college football, NEW YORK CITY!! THIS could seriously entice Penn State to ‘come home’ to the ACC and re-new its OLD rivalries with Pitt, Syracuse, Maryland. IMAGINE an FSU – Penn State game in NYC!! Imagine Penn State in Clemson!! Imagine ND – GT in NYC!!! THIS is made for TV. THIS is $$$$$$ THIS is why all of this ‘crap’ is happening……….
buzzwax
September 26th, 2011
10:20 pm
Paddy – I guess Athens, Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Starkville and Columbia are not cities? I think you are right!!! Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Pittsburg and Boston are some real cities. Add Rutgers and Uconn and the ACC would LOCK DOWN New York as well……Add ND and Penn State and LOCK DOWN NYC and PHILLY…….$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Thats lots of butts to wipe, faces to shave, teeth to brush and belly’s to drink beer, people to buy cars, insurance, cell phones, etc. etc. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I want to be in the ‘city’ conference……