Evening the playing field...

[supp]

I think at this point, it's going to be very difficult to compete with the SEC and B1G on the money front for the forseeable future. One thing that the ACC can do, though, is step up its academic collaborations. There is apparently something resembling the B1G's academic consortium for the ACC and the Triangle schools have lots of joint programs but there's nothing here on the scale of the CIC. This is the only other league that approaches the B1G in terms of academic reputation and it's something they need to take advantage of. An academic consortium blunts the appeal of the CIC to ACC presidents considering a move and it also undercuts a potential SEC pitch if they come sniffing around. The presidents at targeted institutions can argue that while the SEC is superior athletically they need to concern themselves primarily with the academic well-being of the university. If FSU can't be the top sports earner in the state, they can at least look to even the field academically. These kinds of academic links can raise the reputation of all schools involved.

There is a real opportunity now too with Johns Hopkins looking for a lacrosse conference membership. For them, the CIC is a big draw. The advantage of the ACC is better lacrosse but to have Hopkins as founding partner in a conference academic consortium would be a huge coup for the ACC as well. Emory has a lot of joint projects with the Triangle schools. You could bring them on board as well.

 

[FAL]

Huh?

 

[supp]

Huh?

I thought that was clear enough but hey, what do I know. I'm not big on sources and floating rumors. I thought the message would appropriately convey my own concern and confusion over what I've heard. I know a couple of faculty members at UVA. I had the chance to talk to them this weekend. They're not particularly well connected to the upper administration or to the board but they've heard about the B1G talks from some higher-ups in recent weeks. It could be that it's just now trickling down to them. It could be that discussions are more serious than they were earlier. I don't know and they don't know. One was asked directly about how useful to his work a CIC-style academic consortium would be. Again whether that means that they're gauging faculty for a move to the B1G or the ACC is contemplating stepping up the academic component of the conference, I have no clue. Just putting it out there. Obviously, I'd like the second possibility to be the truth.

 

[Moontan]

You mean, something like this: http://acciac.org/ ?

 

[xc84]

There may be other incentives. Look at MD and WV being subsidized for travel. How long before that artificial support falls apart as pre-existing schools realize they are being hosed?

 

[Btstimpy]

There may be other incentives. Look at MD and WV being subsidized for travel. How long before that artificial support falls apart as pre-existing schools realize they are being hosed?

This is what I'm interested in observing, especially with the Maryland situation. That's because Maryland got something that Rutgers didn't get, and they got it at the expense of the existing 12 schools in the Big Ten. The Big Ten office and network must have wanted Maryland really bad. It will be interesting to see how much the other 12 schools really wanted Maryland.

The WVU situation is a little different. The Big XII was more deperate at the time than WVU was. In hindsight, they were fortunate to get out of the Big East. But when they did it hadn't totally falled apart with just Syracuse and Pitt leaving.

 

[tep624]

If the B1G can have the University of Chicago in their academic consortium, then the ACC certainly could do something similar.