Assuming ND is not joining, which is the correct assumption, imho then I submit the following:
While acknowledging Htown Orange's excellent reason as to why not to go to a North/South split with Miami in the North, even taking into account that risk (and make no mistake about it, it is a risk), there are also compelling reasons to consider it seriously as well.
1) Familiarity - While there is risk to basically dividing the ACC along Big East/ACC lines within the family, there is also reward to it as well outside the family. Familiarity. Does the casual ACC fan, not the die-hards but the casual ACC fan, even know which team is in which division? I liken the current divisional set-up to the BiG's Leaders and Legends strangeness. Well-meaning but more confusing than practical.
Also while the die-hard SU, Pitt, and Louisville fans want those match-ups with the likes of FSU and Clemson in the Atlantic or GT and UNC in the Coastal on a regular basis, will the casual Big East fan that was following the conference before but didn't necessarily have a favorite team be more likely to follow the ACC now with the current set-up or a N/S split? This leads directly into...
2) Regional Quality - In the era of super-conferences the strength of the Old ACC (smaller compact regional conference) is gone. But in divisional line-up (even if it exists for only football and not basketball), a sense of that regional quality can be restored to a certain degree. Will it be restored entirely, no. But as already pointed out, there are always winners and losers in divisional set-ups, the best one can hope for is minimize what is lost or at the very least give solid reasons as to why it's being done. Which leads into...
3) Branding - East Coast Conference from Massachusetts to Florida. Marketing 101 - Getting your message across is made easier when the concepts used in selling the brand are simple and self-evident. Divisional set-up is one such concept in this regard.
With the BiG's recent eastern move, and my saying that the Big Ten will have difficulty overcoming the decades upon decades of being branded the Midwestern Conference FrankTheTank suggested in a different thread that the BiG was trying to become the Northern Conference from Nebraska to Maryland. My response to that was northeasterners see themselves more Eastern than Northern, especially the lower states such as New Jersey and Maryland and though I didn't say it then I will say it now that Pennsylvania is torn between being midwestern and eastern.
Now I do admit that the BiG helped itself by how it reorganized. Also I still feel that just by virtue of having PSU they have the upper hand in terms of product when it comes to the I-95 corridor. Let's make sure we don't allow them to take the built in branding edge the ACC has had since 2003 and now reinforced as of expansion with SU, Pitt, and ND in terms of being the conference of the entire East Coast because that could damage...
4) The proposed ACC Network.
Is there any doubt amongst us that an ACCN would get carriage in the states of North Carolina and Virginia, regardless of divisional set-up? I don't, but I'm willing to listen to others thoughts in this area.
The next most likely state in the ACC to carry the ACCN is Florida. I see Florida as a state that is divided between true southerners and transplanted northeasterners.
So would the former be more likely to buy into an ACCN with the Noles playing more southern opponents and the latter more likely to buy into an ACCN with the Hurricanes playing more northeastern opponents? Add ND's appeal in the state of Florida to the latter group and I think that is the ACC's best strategy to get carriage in that state.
I will defer to Georgians and South Carolinians as to what set-up would be favorable to getting ACCN carriage in their states.
So now comes the difficult part, carriage in the states of New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. What line-up gives the ACCN the most likelihood of getting maximum coverage in those three states to whatever degree is attainable? If the goal is a successful ACCN three years down the road, the ACC needs to get its ducks in a row soon.
Cheers,
Neil
PS to Scooch, is that Game of Thrones enough for you?
