ACC, PAC-12, and BIG alliance / conference realignment

[BlazeOrange]

I thought American Coastal Conference as an alternative. I know ND and Texas mess that up, but with all the travel, it still feels appropriate

Texas is fine, on the Gulf Coast. Louisville messes up the theme though.

 

[rocklloyd]

An outsider is an outsider. Get your ineligible receiver downfield or mysterious hit out of bounds flags ready to fly!

or pads above the knee penalties. Yes, still sore over this, what's it been almost 30 years.

 

[rocklloyd]

Break out the “Knee Pads are too high” rule. That’s always good for a couple well-timed 15-yarders.

i should have read all the posts before responding . you beat me to it.

 

[TerryD]

Good start. How about ACC-MI-FTVOI?
American Continental Conference--Minus Indiana--For The Vanity of Independence
(Terry, I do actually respect ND, but this is all getting silly at some point)

Not at all. Sorry.

What is silly about self determination and free choice?

What I find silly is all this conference realignment BS and the idea of "forcing" a school to join a supposedly voluntary group of schools.

 

[PhatOrange]

If I had to choose a directional Florida school it would be Central Florida over South Florida.

 

[Willy75]

Louisville will not be a target of the Big10 or SEC. However, they will be a top target for the big 12.

I’d pay them to go.

 

[Willy75]

All Coast Conference - just need to add a Gulf of Mexico team.

Tee up Tulane.

 

[SmilinBob]

After Cash Conference

 

[Ericdep]

Sacramento or Monterey?

I used to live in Citrus Heights 30 years ago.

Small world.
I lived in Citrus Heights about 45 years ago

 

[WoadBlue]

Texas is fine, on the Gulf Coast. Louisville messes up the theme though.

Louisville I right on the coast off the Ohio River, and ND is inn the Great lakes region, which has massive lake coastlines.

 

[WoadBlue]

I’d pay them to go.

Why? Louisville has a very good fan base for both revenue sports, and it gives us another state that borders OH.

 

[SU94]

Not at all. Sorry.

What is silly about self determination and free choice?

What I find silly is all this conference realignment BS.

I hear you. But ND is absolutely in a position to stem the tide, at least to some reasonable degree. But they choose not to.

Your current AD said this earlier this week:
“Everybody in the industry has to take responsibility here. I’m not excluding myself from that,” Swarbrick said. “The decision-making lost its way in terms of the focus on the student-athlete and what’s primarily best for them. But we are where we are and we have to try and make it work.”

It is the “what’s in it for me” mindset that is throwing everything off (not just at ND). “Me” can be conference commissioners, school presidents, athletics directors, board members, boosters, … even head coaches to some smaller degree.

ND won’t be able to hold out forever. Bevacqua’s an agent of change. It’ll be calculated and strategic, but it will happen for the betterment of college football.

I wish Swarbrick and your current President had half of his foresight and gumption instead of hanging onto the antiquated notion of independence, which has indirectly damaged the sport that provided Notre Dame with its identity as a college institution.

 

[shandeezy7]

Louisville I right on the coast off the Ohio River, and ND is inn the Great lakes region, which has massive lake coastlines.

Now we're counting rivers as coastal? Sometimes when it rains a ton, my backyard turns into a lake. Do I have coastal property? If so, I'd like to announce my candidacy for the ACC.

 

[tep624]

Mike DeCourcy not a fan of the addition in the Sporting News - Stanford averaged 3,500 fans at hoop games last year? Can that be right?

Well it’s easy to poke holes in any of the teams but what people like DeCourcy don’t do is come up with reasonable alternatives for the long term viability of the conference.

 

[WoadBlue]

Not at all. Sorry.

What is silly about self determination and free choice?

What I find silly is all this conference realignment BS and the idea of "forcing" a school to join a supposedly voluntary group of schools.

Silly is not even close to being maybe halfway the almost acceptable word. That process is one that is about Corporate desires to raid and destroy after having taken what they want at the time for themselves. It indeed means that at some point ND will either go BT and guarantee that there are only 2 Major conferences, or else ND will go full football in the ACC to make certain the ACC remains the 3rd of only 3 truly major conferences left standing.

There is nothing that any other school now can do to stop the Globalist Corporate process of reducing Major College athletics to just 2 leagues. ND will decide whether the nation has 2 or 3 Major Conferences, which means that ND will decide how many private and/or smaller schools will be allowed to be among the top tier of CFB.

 

[WoadBlue]

Now we're counting rivers as coastal? Sometimes when it rains a ton, my backyard turns into a lake. Do I have coastal property? If so, I'd like to announce my candidacy for the ACC.

Has your team ever been to the Final Four or a Major Bowl, or any bowl? If not, don't bohter applying.

 

[WoadBlue]

Well it’s easy to poke holes in any of the teams but what people like DeCourcy don’t do is come up with reasonable alternatives for the long term viability of the conference.

He's another punk sportswriter.

 

[shandeezy7]

Has your team ever been to the Final Four or a Major Bowl, or any bowl? If not, don't bohter applying.

No, but I'm recovering from a ruptured achilles and I think my 2 year old son is gonna be pretty tall, so there's potential.

 

[tep624]

Silly is not even close to being maybe halfway the almost acceptable word. That process is one that is about Corporate desires to raid and destroy after having taken what they want at the time for themselves. It indeed means that at some point ND will either go BT and guarantee that there are only 2 Major conferences, or else ND will go full football in the ACC to make certain the ACC remains the 3rd of only 3 truly major conferences left standing.

There is nothing that any other school now can do to stop the Globalist Corporate process of reducing Major College athletics to just 2 leagues. ND will decide whether the nation has 2 or 3 Major Conferences, which means that ND will decide how many private and/or smaller schools will be allowed to be among the top tier of CFB.

I still don’t see why ND can’t become a full member of the ACC while maintaining their separate NBC media deal until which point the conference media deal compensates them more.

 

[phil77]

Sacramento or Monterey?

I used to live in Citrus Heights 30 years ago

Closer to Napa than Sacramento.

 

[pokercuse08]

I've been trying to come up with some way to incorporate neutral site games to save some travel costs. Maybe something like an annual tripleheader in the Cowboys Stadium? Looking at the map, that's probably as centrally located as we could get.

My thinking is that during Thanksgiving break, winter break, spring break, etc, the ACC should hold neutral site meets and schedule multiple non-revenue sport games over one "event." This could actually be really effective for the conference in a few ways:

1. Penetration into major markets where the ACC doesn't have schools, but has alums and/or where alums wish to travel. New Orleans, anyone? Houston? Los Angeles? San Diego? Vegas?

2. It may make the TV inventory for the non-revenue sports more valuable if it's clustered around holidays when the networks are looking for extra programming.

3. They can probably boost attendance for all of the non-revenue sports by clustering events and putting them around holidays when family/friends are more able to travel. Let's say you're going to see a daughter/son/niece/nephew/cousin/friend play in a non-revenue sport a couple times over a weekend, maybe they play womens soccer on Thurs/Sat and the mens team plays doubleheaders with them, and the womens basketball team plays Fri/Sun. Maybe you go to one or two of the other games. Maybe the schools hold events for everyone traveling. Now that I think about it, this could even be effective for networking between schools too for alums and upperclassmen.

- Was hoping deep down that the ACC could remain a regional (Eastern seaboard) conference, or if that didn’t work, we would eventually land in some type of new Northeast conference where we would be the big dog.

I think the end result could be close enough to that to make people happy, if we get a bit lucky. What's the difference between being in a regional Eastern seaboard conference versus being in a regional Eastern seaboard *division* within a national conference? Obviously there are a few, but schedule wise year-to-year, it may be pretty similar.

So, Washington has said moving to the Big 10 would add ~$10 million to their travel budget, but for Syracuse the number is <$2 million if Stanford/Cal/SMU are added?

Washington has to play almost all of its road games an increased distance away, Syracuse would have to play one or two per year per sport.

 

[TheCusian]

Not at all. Sorry.

What is silly about self determination and free choice?

What I find silly is all this conference realignment BS and the idea of "forcing" a school to join a supposedly voluntary group of schools.

Had a snarky response ready to go, but actually think you're making a good point. If and when (massively unlikely) ND joins a conference it will 100% be voluntary and will be for the same reasons all schools join a conference. It's mutually beneficial to all parties.

I do think if we add Stanford it helps ND lean ever so slightly towards the ACC. I wouldn't add them for this slight increase in the chance. But it does provide ND with a in-conference WC trip w a like minded academic institution.

 

[pokercuse08]

Houston and Cincy were missed opportunities for the ACC. Both would have fit well.

I think these opportunities are very much still on the board if Stanford, Cal and SMU are added. That gets the ACC to 17 with a high likelihood of eventually adding a minimum of three more teams that are suitable geographically for the western flank. I think the obvious strategy here is to end up with either three divisions of 7-8 teams or four divisions of 5-6 teams.

The goal is to be the third best conference approaching the end of the Big 12's media deal in 2030-31. If the ACC has higher payouts and more stability it can poach the best of the Big 12 at that point, assuming the B1G and SEC don't want them.

For now, ignore the likely departures (FSU, Clemson, UNC, UVA) and assume that if they leave they're backfilled with the best available schools that sort of match them in the footprint (UCF and USF come to mind).

EAST
Syracuse
Boston College
Pittsburgh
Louisville
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Clemson

SOUTH
UNC
Duke
NC State
Wake Forest
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami

WEST
Stanford
Cal
SMU
Houston
Utah
Two of: Arizona State/Arizona/Kansas/TCU/SDSU

If you want to go bigger and really finish off the Big 12 (what they should want to do), you add Cincy and WVU to the East division, drop Clemson into the South, and take three of the schools on that last line in the West.

You now have a clear #3 national conference with geographically cohesive divisions, strong brands, a lot of like minded universities and good coverage of most major metropolitan areas. You also have a good assortment of private schools with powerful alums, and major public universities with political sway due to receiving taxpayer revenue. That also makes it harder to get left out of future playoffs when the dust settles on realignment.

You also maintain optionality to get ND along the way somewhere. It's super unlikely, but leaving that seat open for as long as possible is necessary because it cements you as a permanent power conference. The way to do it is to go to four divisions instead of three, thus opening up more cross-divisional rivalries and allowing them to set up the exact annual schedule they want.

 

[CousCuse]

Had a snarky response ready to go, but actually think you're making a good point. If and when (massively unlikely) ND joins a conference it will 100% be voluntary and will be for the same reasons all schools join a conference. It's mutually beneficial to all parties.

I do think if we add Stanford it helps ND lean ever so slightly towards the ACC. I wouldn't add them for this slight increase in the chance. But it does provide ND with a in-conference WC trip w a like minded academic institution.

Da-me Notre dinero was lobbying in public for this expansion, I'm sure behind closed doors they were giving a lot of winks and nods for their future joining the ACC. Same act for the last 30 years.

 

[BlazeOrange]

Louisville I right on the coast off the Ohio River, and ND is inn the Great lakes region, which has massive lake coastlines.

I guess we could change to the proper terminology then:
Associated Shoreline Schools