ACC 15-team basketball, 3 pods?

[DomeStranger]

Remember when they tried divisions in the Big East? It seemed be one division had weak teams and one division with good teams.

1 mediocre team would breeze through and cash in on easy W's while a better team in the other conference would get beat up by much better competition.

The Big East ended up with the most fair system. Play everybody once and then you spread out the home and homes. One upper tier team, one middle and one lower. Not perfect but it's the best way to keep it fair and consistant.

 

[Louie&Bouie]

Yep. Beyond Duke and UNC, not a lot. We've seen what SU fans' interest in Carolina State is. And it drops off from there. Much of the league is going to be every bit the dogs South Florida and DePaul are.

IMO, that makes it about the same as the BE today. Georgetown and UCONN, and then a drop-off to all the others.

 

[longtimefan]

IMO, that makes it about the same as the BE today. Georgetown and UCONN, and then a drop-off to all the others.

Um--how about Louisville?

 

[Louie&Bouie]

Um--how about Louisville?

My response was in terms of fan interest. My opinion is that G'town and UCONN have generated the most fan interest in terms of conference rivals. Louisville doesn't even begin to approach those two.

 

[OttoMets]

My response was in terms of fan interest. My opinion is that G'town and UCONN have generated the most fan interest in terms of conference rivals. Louisville doesn't even begin to approach those two.

Dunno, I don't think we've ever drawn below 30,000 for Louisville**. Villanova still gets a good gate; West Virginia nearly always did. St. John's tends to do well. Marquette, too. And fans have turned out for Cincinnati, Seton Hall (24,000 during Christmas Break this year), and even Providence.

I really believe we're moving to a league where only two of our new brothers (Duke and UNC; not counting Pitt and Notre Dame) are going to routinely get 30,000. And only Maryland and North Carolina State are in the next tier in terms of appeal (pretty much even with the bulk of the Big East). Everyone else is on a level with South Florida as far as basketball gate appeal.

**Edit: we've averaged 30,292 for Big East home games against Louisville. Only 25,721 for a Sunday afternoon game in 2009. None has been a midweek or Christmas break game. Still, of all the ACC teams, I can only see Duke and UNC matching that appeal. We've seen that Pitt and Notre Dame don't draw that consistently (though each is pretty popular).