sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Canada Day celebrates the country's movement to self-government. On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing Dominion of Great Britain, after the passage of the British North America Act. It also became a federation with four provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. These provinces were made from the British colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (previously Upper Canada and Lower Canada). The Act allowed for other provinces and territories to join the country in the future. Indeed, more land was added, and Canada now consists of ten provinces and three territories.
On June 20, 1868, the Governor General said the anniversary of Canada becoming a Dominion should be celebrated. It became a statutory holiday in 1879 and was known as Dominion Day at the time. The first official celebrations weren't held until 1917, on the Dominion's fiftieth anniversary. It began being celebrated more frequently after World War II, and even more so after the 100th anniversary in 1967. It began being called Canada Day by celebrants and has been officially known as Canada Day since 1983. This was stipulated by the Canada Act of 1982. Canada also became a fully independent country with this act, no longer being under the dominion of Great Britain.
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Syracuse Orange Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players (CFN; Fiutak)
This looks like it was written before the end of spring practice. No mention Lamson is hurt, no mention of Del Rio. You need to do your homework Pete.
Syracuse Orange Preview
Head Coach: Dino Babers, 29-43, 7th year at Syracuse
11th year overall, 66-59, 2021 Preview
2021 Record: Overall: 5-7, Conference: 2-6
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
Syracuse Top 10 Players | Syracuse Schedule & Analysis
Syracuse Orange Preview 2022
It’s possible to win college football games at Syracuse.It’s been done before, and head coach Dino Babers is adaptive enough and innovative enough to make it happen, but …
It would be nice if there was finally some positive consistency.
Syracuse was a productive program at a fairly high level from 1987 to 2001, it got stuck in a dry spell without a winning season from 2002 to 2009, and it’s been a fight to find a good groove ever since.
Head coach Dino Babers was able to come up with one magical season in 2018 with a 10-3 run and a nice bowl victory, but again with the consistency – there isn’t any, and it’s made it hard to build over his run with a 29-43 record.
As Wake Forest and Pitt proved, it’s possible to win in the ACC if there’s a set style to rely on.
Syracuse went from cranking away with a high-octane passing attack when Babers first took over, to sputtering as it tried to recreate the magic behind an offensive line that couldn’t block, to being a physical ground-and-pound team last year.
The biggest sticking point has been that O line. Babers has never been able to get it quite right, and everything else has been a struggle from there.
This season he’s got a good group of skill parts, the defense that was quietly solid should be terrific if the line doesn’t get gouged, and the veteran kickers are better than they played in 2021.
And now the identity is probably going to change yet again with an even faster tempo and the hope to push the passing game a bit more. It all has to come together fast over the first half of the year, or else – the second half of the schedule is a nightmare.
However, Babers was able to come through when he had to in 2018, he was able to improve the program by four wins last season, and now he’ll need to come up with his best run yet to secure yet another year.
Syracuse Orange Preview 2022: Offense
That got interesting. Syracuse found something that worked for a while with a running game that turned into the best in the ACC. That came at the expense of the passing attack that all but stopped, and the offense overall only ended up averaging 372 yards and 25 points per game, but there’s a good mix of parts returning.New offensive coordinator Robert Anae is going to make sure this thing goes fast, and there should be a little balance with more of a passing game into the equation. Now, what seemed like a settled situation is about to make for a fun fall camp because …
Is Garrett Shrader the guy? The former Mississippi State quarterback didn’t fit in with the Mike Leach style, and he found a home at Syracuse, using his tough running style to come up with 781 yards and 14 touchdowns. He had his moments through the air, but he only hit 53% of his passes with 1,445 yards and nine touchdowns.
Tommy DeVito is gone to Illinois, and rising up this offseason was Justin Lamson, a good young passer who might be a wee bit better a fit with Anae wants to do.
The receiving corps was really young, and a few of the parts took off with the shift to the ground-oriented attack, but Courtney Jackson is still around after leading the team with 37 catches, and Damien Alford is back after averaging over 19 yards per grab.
No matter what the passing game does, the star of the show is …
Sean Tucker deserves to be in the discussion among the best running backs in college football. The 5-10, 209-pound sophomore ran for close to 1,500 yards with 12 touchdowns averaging over six yards per pop. He took over games with nine 100-yard outings.
Tucker and Shrader handled most of the rushing work, and second-leading running back Jarveon Howard is off to Alcorn State after running for just 79 yards. In comes Juwaun Price, a quick back from New Mexico State who ran for 692 yards and ten scores last year to go along with 26 catches.
The offensive line still has issues in pass protection after years of getting quarterbacks killed, but there’s experience, great size, and a good left tackle in Matthew Bergeron to blast away.
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(soundcloud.com; podcast; Orange Fizz)
Liam Griffin and Ethan Frank hop on the mic for this week's edition of the Fizz Five! The duo recaps the ACC's Football Scheduling change, who SU will face in the ACC-B1G challenge, how Syracuse made out in the NBA Draft, an Orange legend retiring, and two stars returning in 2023.
The Syracuse Football $15 Challenge (audible.com; podcast; Locked on Syracuse)
Matt Bonaparte and Brad Klein take part in the Syracuse football $15 challenge. Make the best possible team with just $15 to play with!
On The Block On Demand 6-30 (ESPN; radio; Axe)
Brent reacts to USC and UCLA announcing their intentions to join the Big Ten beginning in 2024 and the impact their move has on Syracuse.
30 Minutes in Orange Nation 6-30 (ESPN; radio; Steve & Paulie)
Steve and Paulie open the show comparing the Syracuse Football schedule to the Men’s Basketball schedule. Then, 2-4-7 Sports’ Stephen Bailey hops on to discuss Dino Babers’ job security and the QB situation. Lastly, the guys react to Syracuse Men’s Basketball Freshmen’s sneaker choices and look back at some of their favorites growing up.
Syracuse Football: Pre-season All-America honors pile up for Sean Tucker (itlh; Adler)
Star running back Sean Tucker, who broke the single-season rushing mark for Syracuse football in the 2021 campaign, is garnering a sizable amount of pre-season All-America buzz ahead of the 2022 term.
Earlier this week, the Walter Camp Football Foundation disclosed its 2022 pre-season All-America teams, and Tucker got placed on the second squad, along with Michigan running back Blake Corum.
On the pre-season All-America first team at Tucker’s position, per Walter Camp, are Texas running back Bijan Robinson and Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson.
As we noted in another recent column, in 2021 Tucker collected more rushing yards than both Robinson and Henderson. Still, getting named to the second group is a really nice honor for Sean Tucker.
Let’s look at other 2022 pre-season accolades for Syracuse football RB Sean Tucker.
Tucker recently was named to the pre-season All-America third team for the 2022 stanza by the well-respected Phil Steele publication, according to an announcement from SU Athletics.
Tucker is also on the 2022 pre-season All-ACC first unit from Phil Steele, along with the pre-season All-ACC first team from national media outlet Athlon Sports.
Not too long ago, 247Sports rated its 25 best running backs nationwide prior to the 2022 term kicking off, and Tucker checked in at No. 5 on this list.
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Zyian Moultrie-Goddard: Syracuse football was 'the best fit' - The Juice Online (the juice; Cheng)
It should not surprise you that Zyian Moultrie-Goddard was leading an Orange charge.
The 2023 linebacker from Iona (NY) Prep committed to Syracuse on June 22, and was the first in a flurry of Orange commits following official visits in June. Since Moultrie-Goddard pledged to Syracuse, defensive lineman Jalil Smith, running back Muwaffaq Parkman and wide receiver Bryce Cohoon have all committed.
“I’m not a big talker so I like to lead with my actions,” Moultrie-Goddard said in an interview with The Juice Online. “I think people follow you more when they see that you are doing all the right things.”
Leadership is one of the many qualities Moultrie-Goddard brings to the Orange. Iona Prep head football coach Joe Spagnolo predicted his star linebacker will be a captain at Syracuse one day.
It’s a sentiment that is shared by his teammates, as well.
“I can promise you SU is getting a beast and an even better teammate,” his teammate, 2024 kicker Sam Bisesi said. “I am very excited to see my teammate Zyian ball out at SU.”
Syracuse was early in identifying Moultrie-Goddard as an FBS talent. The Orange was the first to offer in January 2020, one of more than 15 scholarship offers he would eventually receive, including from Power 5 programs West Virginia and Tennessee.
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Sean Tucker’s List Of Preseason Accolades, Hype Keeps On Growing – Orange Fizz – Daily Syracuse Recruiting News & Team Coverage (orangefizz.net; Bainbridge)
Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack just talked at length about the state of Syracuse football and the job security of head coach Dino Babers, and sounded typically non-alarmist in the face of rabid media members and fans. Wildhack maintains – predictably, but also laughably – that Babers is not on any kind of hot seat heading into this Fall.
Make what you will of that, but what’s cut and dry about Babers’ chances for a bowl season this Fall is that success relies on the play of one player in particular: sophomore running back Sean Tucker.
After a promising first-year campaign in 2020, Tucker erupted onto the national scene in 2021 with a Syracuse program record 1,496 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. Tucker’s play helped elevate what was hands-down the ACC’s worst offense in 2020, and nearly propelled the Orange all the way into an improbable bowl game. Barring injury in 2022, Tucker is the front and center star of SU football, and the team likely goes only as far as he can take them.
Fortunately, Tucker’s resumé hasn’t been buried beneath his team’s relative lack of success. A few days ago, the Walter Camp Foundation put together its Preseason All-American Teams. Tucker was featured on the Second Team Offense along with Michigan’s Blake Corum. Just before that team was announced, Tucker had already graced Phil Steele’s All ACC First Team unit, and placed on Athlon Sports’ ACC’s First Team. At the NFL draft level, Tucker has clocked in as the No. 8 running back on draft analyst Mel Kiper’s 2023 board.
If publications and fans were paying attention to Tucker prior to 2021, they certainly are now more than ever. Last year, we wondered aloud whether Tucker could build on his ‘20 success, and we got a response from the man himself.
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Get to Know Your Orange Man: #43, DB Cornell Perry (TNIAAM; Haller)
Name: Cornell Perry
Position: Defensive back
Year: Freshman
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 183
Hometown: Brownstown, Mich.
High School: Woodhaven
2021 stats: Not any collegiate ones, since he wasn’t on the Syracuse Orange, but in high school had 43 solo stops, an interception, two forced fumbles and 12 pass breakups, along with 637 yards and six touchdowns on 33 receptions on the offensive side. Multiple All-State and All-Region selections as well.
2022 projections: He showed for spring practice by enrolling early. That’s always a good prospect for getting closer to the rotation. Safety’s pretty full right now, but in a year could open up. I think he’s probably a special teamer this year and the early enrollment is only helping him in the long term.
How’d he get here?: Some MACtion on the recruiting front with offers from Buffalo, Central Michigan, Toledo and Bowling Green. Also some sniffs from Cincinnati and Northwestern.
What’d recruiting sites say?: Solid three stars.
Money Quote: He talked to Mike Curtis at Syracuse.com on why he wanted to enroll early and get some run in for spring ball this year, forgoing his last semester of high school among other things:
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Get to Know Your Orange Man: #40, DB Tommy Porter (TNIAAM; Ostrowski)
Name: Tommy Porter
Position: Defensive Back
Year: Redshirt Freshman
Height: 5’11”’
Weight: 191 lbs.
Hometown: La Cañada, CA
High School: Flintridge Prep
2021 stats: Did not play
2022 projections: Porter is most likely staying on the scout team, but he does fit multiple potential roles if the need arises. (He was also an all-purpose RB in high school.)
How’d he get here?: Tommy chose the Syracuse Orange walk-on opportunity over offers at the D2 and D3 levels.
What’d recruiting sites say?: No rankings
Money quote: Porter tore his left ACL twice in high school, but that didn’t stop his drive and determination to keep improving. Taken from his recruiting page.
Twitter feed: @tommyporter21
Instagram: @tommyyporter
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Will Notre Dame now join the Big Ten? The future of the Irish has become murky (sportingnews.com; Bender)
Will Notre Dame play USC for the Big Ten championship someday?
That question isn't as ridiculous as it would have sounded 24 hours ago. On Thursday, John Wilner reported that "USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024." That is the next major realignment shakeup that is sure to be felt across the FBS. The Big Ten would join the SEC as a 16-team superconference, and both might not be done adding teams.
So the next question is easy: What happens to Notre Dame? On Thursday, the news in South Bend was that the Irish would wear green jerseys for this year's game against Cal.
The Irish's future in the college football landscape might be more a pertinent issue at this point. Would Notre Dame entertain joining one of those superconferences? Would the deal that ties the Irish to the ACC hold up in the brave new college football world? Will Notre Dame somehow stay independent?
What are the possible scenarios for the program that has steadfastly held on to its independent status through all the college football realignments of the last 30 years.
Notre Dame joins the ACC
The Irish are hitched to a pair of television contracts. The deal with NBC runs through 2025 and draws approximately $15 million per year. ESPN's contract with the ACC runs through 2036. That grant of rights deal includes language that if Irish choose to join a conference in football before 2036, they are contractually obligated to join the ACC.Notre Dame did join the ACC in football for one year in 2020 because of COVID-19, and it was a huge success. The Irish beat No. 1 Clemson 47-40 on Nov. 7, 2020 in NBC’s highest-rated ND game in 27 years before losing the ACC championship game to the Tigers 34-10. Both teams made the College Football Playoff. To this point, Notre Dame's five-game arrangement with the ACC has worked.
That was before Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC. The SEC and Big Ten will have 16 teams by 2025 at the latest, and that number could increase in the near future.
If the ACC is to remain the ACC as we know it, then adding Notre Dame makes sense. The Irish are the best dance partner left on the floor, and the conference could keep its standing as the bridge between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of the conferences scurrying to keep up.
Of course, what happens if the SEC and Big Ten simply plunder the ACC next? Notre Dame isn't going to join the ACC if Clemson, Miami and others are on the way out.
Notre Dame joins the Big Ten
Notre Dame does play hockey in the Big Ten, but that's not a sport played in the ACC or SEC.Notre Dame had long-standing rivalries with Michigan and Michigan State, and the home-and-home series with Ohio State the next two years will be on the short list of best non-conference games.
So, why not do that every year? If college football becomes an NFL Lite model with the Big Ten and SEC playing the roles of the AFC and NFC and the ACC crumbles, then it would make the most sense for Notre Dame to join the Big Ten.
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ACC Needs To Be Proactive After Latest Conference Realignment Moves (SI; Black)
On Thursday, multiple reports announced that the Big Ten will add UCLA and USC in 2024, a move that has shook the foundation of college football. This is the latest move that shows that college football is heading in a brand new direction in regards to conferences and alignment. Last year, the SEC made the first bombshell move landing Texas and Oklahoma, seemingly the first step in a mega-conference.
It looks like the Power 5 model is no more.With those subtractions both the PAC-12 and Big 12 look to be in tough shape, with the former reloading, and the latter looking ripe for more plundering. But where does that leave the ACC? The conference sits in a precarious spot right now, solid in their membership, but very susceptible to losing members to poaching by the Big Ten and SEC. On Thursday shortly after the USC/UCLA news, Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic tweeted out that the Big Ten and SEC are not done, and they are going to try and add more teams to their growing mega conferences.
The first two teams that come to mind that could be poached? Florida State and Clemson. In 2021 when the SEC were sniffing around for other teams, the Seminoles and Tigers names both came up as potential candidates. If the SEC is trying to build a mega-conference with elite programs, they would get the history and geographic proximity of both of these schools. And with the money, and matchups they could offer them, it would make a lot of sense for CU and FSU to flee the ACC and head to the SEC.
If those two teams were to leave, expect the dominos to fall for the ACC, and the conference immediately falls into the precarious predicaments of the Big 12 and PAC12.
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ACC strength of schedule rankings 2022: Florida State, Georgia Tech face tough tests in make-or-break seasons (cbssports.com; Patterson)
The 2022 college football schedule in the ACC will be the last of its kind. It's the final year of the league being split into the Atlantic Division and Coastal Division, as the conference will move into a new 3-5-5 format that has every school paired with three permanent rivals and a five-game rotation through the rest of the conference over a two-year span. It's a move that will allow the entire conference to play each other more often and, in theory, bring a little more balance to the conference championship race.
None of that goes into place until 2023, however, leaving us one more year to complain about divisional imbalance and rate the easiest and toughest draws in the conference. Traditionally, the complaints of schedule imbalance have come from the Atlantic Division, where the presence of Clemson and Florida State have created an uphill battle for the rest of the division when it comes to the pursuit of a conference championship. The Coastal Division, on the other hand, had seven different division champs across seven seasons from 2013-19. It provided plenty of intrigue with fans who enjoyed the "Coastal Chaos," but also gave the appearance that it was the easier path to the ACC Championship Game.
Though 2021 Wake Forest snapped Clemson and Florida State's 12-year run of having either the Tigers or the Seminoles in the ACC Championship Game, the Atlantic Division looks like the tougher side of the standings once again for its final year of existence. Four of the top six teams in our ACC strength of schedule rankings are from the Atlantic, and four of the six most favorable schedules in the league from the Coastal. But we begin our rankings with an outlier, the Coastal Division team, which for rivalry reasons is always going to show up with one of the toughest schedules in the country.
ACC STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE RANKINGS
| 1 | https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/teams/GATECH/georgia-tech-yellow-jackets/ Georgia Tech |
| Geoff Collins is under plenty of pressure heading into 2022 after three straight three-win seasons to start his tenure. Georgia Tech has Clemson as its cross-division rival — and it will continue to face the Tigers as a permanent rival in the 3-5-5 format — then finishes every season against Georgia in "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate." Those annual challenges are now joined by Ole Miss and UCF (in Orlando) in the nonconference, Florida State as a rotating cross-division opponent and four road games across the final five weeks of the season. | |
| 2 | https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/teams/FSU/florida-state-seminoles/ Florida St. |
| The Seminoles are right there with Georgia Tech on a different tier when it comes to strength of schedule. Miami and Florida are on the slate every year, and in 2022 Mike Norvell will also lead this team to face LSU in New Orleans and host reigning Sun Belt champion Louisiana in Tallahassee. It helps that Florida and Louisiana are home games, but the conference draw has three key ACC games (Louisville), Miami, NC State all away from home for Florida State. | |
| 3 | https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/teams/MIAMI/miami-fl-hurricanes/ Miami (Fla.) |
| Expectations are high for Mario Cristobal's first year as Miami's head coach, but the schedule is tough enough that even a full season of near-peak performance could leave the Hurricanes with a couple of losses at season's end. Miami draws a late season road trip to Clemson in the final year of cross-division rotation and plays the front end of a two-year deal with Texas A&M in College Station in September. In between, there are more than a handful of games in which Miami will be favored, but there's another trap lying on the other side of the Clemson game with Pitt coming to visit in the regular-season finale seven days after the trip to Death Valley. | |
| 4 | https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/teams/CLEM/clemson-tigers/ Clemson |
| Clemson's strength of schedule rating is going to have a deficit when compared to the rest of the conference because Clemson can't play Clemson, and thus the Tigers "avoid" the toughest opponent in the ACC. Still, this is a top-half schedule in the league thanks to Miami rotating in from the Coastal Division and a late-season road trip to Notre Dame. Also, considering how Shane Beamer exceeded expectations in 2021, the regular-season finale with South Carolina could take on more intrigue in the near future, but it's still a matchup that heavily tilts Clemson's way in 2022. | |
| 5 | https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/teams/CUSE/syracuse-orange/ Syracuse |
| Notre Dame's partial membership with the ACC is going to boost the nonconference slate for a handful of teams every year, and Syracuse is one of the teams getting that treatment in 2022. Annual cross-division foe Pitt is a road game, and it sits at the end of a brutal stretch of four games in four weeks that also includes NC State, Clemson and Notre Dame. The Power Five nonconference foe of Purdue is not favorable given expectations for the Boilermakers, but at least that game is at home. |
2022-23 ACC Bowls (RX: HM)
2022-23 ACC Bowls
Well, I assume all of the upcoming realignment changes won't affect this season, so let's talk ACC Bowls:| Bowl Game | Matchup | Date and Time |
| Wasabi Fenway Bowl | ACC vs. AAC | Dec. 17, 11 a.m., ESPN |
| Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl | TBD | Dec. 23, TBD, ESPN |
| TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl | TBD | Dec. 27, 3:15 p.m. or 6:45 p.m., ESPN |
| Military Bowl Presented by Peraton | ACC vs. AAC | Dec. 28, 2 p.m, ESPN |
| Pinstripe Bowl | ACC vs. Big Ten | Dec. 29, 2 p.m., ESPN |
| Cheez-It Bowl | ACC vs. Big 12 | Dec. 29, 5:30 p.m., ESPN |
| San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl | ACC vs. Pac-12 | TBD |
| TaxSlayer Gator Bowl | ACC vs. SEC | Dec. 30, 3:30 p.m., ESPN |
| Capital One Orange Bowl | ACC vs. SEC, B1G or Notre Dame | Dec. 30, 7:30 or 8 pm, ESPN |
| Duke’s Mayo Bowl | ACC vs. Big Ten | Dec. 30, Noon, ESPN |
| Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl | ACC vs. Pac-12 | Dec. 30, 2 p.m., CBS |
| CFP Semifinal Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl | At-Large vs. At-Large | Dec. 31, 4 p.m. or 8 p.m., ESPN |
| CFP Semifinal Fiesta Bowl | At-Large vs. At-Large | Dec. 31, 4 p.m. or 8 p.m., ESPN |
| ReliaQuest Bowl* | ACC/Big Ten vs. SEC | Jan. 2, Noon, ESPN2 |
| Goodyear Cotton Bowl | At-Large vs. At-Large | Jan. 2, 1 p.m., ESPN |
| *if the ACC’s opponent in a non-semifinal Capital One Orange Bowl is from the Big Ten |
2022 Director's Cup Top 25 (RX; HM)
2022 Director's Cup Top 25
From the official ACC release of Thursday, June 30, 2022Six ACC Schools Place Among Top 25 of Final LEARFIELD Cup Standings
GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Six ACC schools are ranked among the top 25 of the final Division I LEARFIELD College Directors’ Cup standings announced Thursday.North Carolina finished sixth and was joined in the top 10 by Notre Dame, which placed eighth. Virginia (11th), Florida State (14th), NC State (17th) and Duke (21st) complete the ACC’s top-25 contingent.
Virginia Tech (33rd place), Louisville (34th), Wake Forest (45th) and Miami (50th) followed to give the ACC 10 institutions among the top 50.
The ACC tied for first among all conferences with seven NCAA team titles in 2021-22. In the league’s 69-year history, ACC institutions have captured 173 team national championships and 371 individual NCAA titles. The seven national team titles this academic year matched the conference record first set in 2009-10.
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The end of USC and UCLA after dark: 7 things to know about the Big Ten move (fltimes.com; Nguyen)
The era of the college super conference is almost here.
Pac-12 flagship programs USC and UCLA are preparing for a 2024 jump to the Big Ten, as The Times confirmed Thursday, leaving the West Coast for a conference that promises early football kickoff times and long plane rides in exchange for massive paychecks. The drastic move shifts the entire college football landscape, consolidating more power to the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference and weakening the Pac-12 to the point where the "Conference of Champions" may be on its last legs.
Here's what to know about the situation:
Why this makes sense for UCLA and USC
— Big bucks
Simply put, a move to the Big Ten could mean a huge pay day for USC and UCLA.
The Big Ten has been a leader in revenue among Power 5 schools since it signed a lucrative media rights deal in 2017 and its member schools are still enjoying the spoils. The Big Ten reported more than $768 million in revenue during the 2019-20 fiscal year — the last before the COVID-19 pandemic — compared to roughly $533 million for the Pac-12. As a result, the Big Ten's 12 longest-standing members collected about $54.3 million each, according to tax returns. Meanwhile, Pac-12 schools settled for $33.6 million each. (Big Ten newbies Maryland and Rutgers received $27.6 and $11.4 million, respectively, in 2020.)
The numbers dropped drastically the following year because of the pandemic, but the Pac-12 schools were among the hardest hit. The Pac-12 distributed about $19.8 million to each of its members last year, a 40% cut from the pre-pandemic number. According to USA Today, the Big Ten paid its 12 longest-standing members between $43.1 million to $49.1 million, a drop ranging from 9.6% to 20.6% compared to the previous year's average.
— Better competition
The Pac-12's last College Football Playoff appearance came in 2016 when Washington scored the sacrificial No. 4 seed that would get destroyed by No. 1 Alabama.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten has appeared in six of eight playoff semifinals, led by Ohio State's four playoff berths. The Big Ten had four teams finish in the top 25 last year, while the Pac-12 hasn't even had three top-25 finishers since 2017.
The Pac-12 tries to pass off its struggles as "parity," but it suffered another blow last year when Pac-12 teams went 0-5 during the bowl season. The Big Ten sent 10 of its 14 teams to bowl games last season and went 6-4.
Getting into a conference with better teams and a higher strength of schedule is expected to lead to more CFP opportunities for UCLA and USC and better recruiting pitches as top athletes want chances to compete against the best for the top prizes.
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What's next for ACC after USC and UCLA's move to the Big Ten? It could be time for a Hail Mary (theathletic.com; $; Raynor & Navarro)
News of USC and UCLA’s impending move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten sent another seismic jolt through college football Thursday afternoon. On the other side of the country, reverberations were felt around the ACC, where one administrator didn’t mince words.
“The Pac-12 is f—–,” the administrator said.
But is the ACC next?
No one within the league’s 14 football schools is sure what will happen to the conference as dominoes continue to fall in the sport’s ever-changing landscape. But the thought of Notre Dame saving the day and joining the conference in full capacity is probably an even longer shot now than it was before.
And with the Big Ten and SEC potentially looking to form two super conferences with 20 or more teams, the ACC could be the next Power 5 conference that’s raided.
“It is concerning that both the SEC and Big Ten are strengthening their positions at the expense of the Big 12 and Pac-12,” one ACC coach said in a text message. “I hope our league can remain stable through the turmoil.”
Will the ACC survive?
The only thing currently keeping the ACC together is the league’s grant of rights.In 2016, the ACC Council of Presidents unanimously agreed upon the current rights, which run through 2035-36 and stipulate that an ACC school’s media rights remain with the conference through that period regardless of membership status. Also in 2015, the ACC struck a deal with ESPN through 2035-36.
One ACC administrator pointed out that the grant of rights hasn’t been challenged in a court of law, but that they seem “pretty airtight.”
“Could that change?” the administrator added. “Maybe.”
The administrator pointed out that with USC and UCLA leaving the Pac-12, there could be other schools within the Pac-12 and Big 12 that could add value to the current ACC model, based on perceived television value. Stanford and Cal could be intriguing options considering their high academic prowess.
The problem for the ACC, though, is that with every year that passes, it’s possible that it makes less long-term financial sense for a powerhouse like Clemson to stay in the current deal. Even if a school like Clemson forfeited over its media rights to the ACC through 2035-36, a super conference like the Big Ten or SEC — whom the Tigers compete with regularly anyway — might still pay the program out more money over time. Consider the numbers. In the fiscal year 2020-21:
• The SEC generated $777.8 million of total revenue, with each member institution receiving an average of $54.6 million.
• The Big 10 generated nearly $680 million in total revenue, with each school receiving an average of $46.1 million.
• The ACC set a league record, generating about $578 million, but still came up about $200 million shy of the SEC and about $100 million shy of the Big Ten. Each school received an average of $36.1 million. And that was with Notre Dame joining the conference as a 2020 member because of the pandemic.
If Thursday made anything clear, it’s that the SEC and Big Ten intend to run college football for years to come, and the other three Power 5 conferences are left playing catch-up.
“We’re significantly below the SEC and Big Ten, but I don’t know we were fifth,” the first ACC administrator said of the TV deal. “It’s an issue we have to resolve. The only way you reopen it is if you add another school, if there’s significant changes to the membership of the ACC. But the way you gain leverage in any negotiation is by winning.”
Is Notre Dame the only savior?
Perhaps the ACC will add another member, as one of the administrators suggested could be a possibility.“It’s really well known Notre Dame coming into the league would cause the TV contract to open,” the second administrator said. “Maybe there’s somebody not named Notre Dame?”
But Notre Dame already plays an average of five ACC games per season and the Fighting Irish have a national brand with standalone television money that is hard to compete with. It’s no secret that Notre Dame would be the ACC’s first choice, and rightfully so. Thanks in part to Notre Dame sharing its home game rights on NBC with the rest of the conference in 2020, the ACC generated $80 million-plus more in revenue in 2020-21 than it did the previous year.
There’s a reason commissioner Jim Phillips continued to put the full-court press on the Irish last summer at the ACC’s media days. But the Fighting Irish now have even more leverage. Meanwhile, the ACC’s brand just took a hit, and the Big Ten’s got even more of a boost.
“I think we all got a glimpse of what it would be like to have Notre Dame in the conference this past fall,” Phillips said, referring to the 2020 season when Notre Dame joined as a temporary member because of the pandemic.
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Ranking the ACC’s "Primary Opponents" Part Two (tarheelblog.com; McKay)
Yesterday I began ranking who had the best ACC “primary opponent” lineups beginning in 2023. As a quick reminder, the ACC is doing away with divisions beginning in 2023 for a 3-5-5 format, which will allow every ACC team to play every other ACC team home and away in a four-year span, with three “primary opponents” or “rivals” as they’re historically known. In this instance, some of these “rivalries” are foisted upon schools, and not built out of a traditional hatred or common history.
Yesterday covered 1-7. Let’s get to the bottom half of the ACC!
8.) Pittsburgh
Pitt, a school that absolutely does not fit the ACC profile, gets to play two other schools that probably didn’t want to be in the ACC in Syracuse and Boston College. They’re also teams that the Panthers should regularly beat, provided either school doesn’t have a generational quarterback or something that boosts expected performance like that. That’s the good.
The bad is that Virginia Tech is a sleeping giant. With the right coach, good recruiting, and enough elite Virginia high school talent that doesn’t mind going to school in the middle of nowhere, the VT program could be reliably upper tier in the ACC.
Last season, Pitt won the ACC under the direction of tiny-handed Kenny Pickett with an 11-3 (8-1 conference) record. Pickett was a generational quarterback. Before that, the Panthers had lost a minimum of five games per season 11 times in a row. That’s more indicative of where Pitt is as a program. Their rivalry pod should net them two wins most seasons.
9.) Virginia Tech
The Hokies should not fear any of the teams in their pod—Virginia, Pitt, and Wake Forest—but their fans will not have much to celebrate on away days in the RV. Pitt is a five-hour drive north on I-79. Not great, but at least you get to sit anywhere you want in an NFL stadium.
Empty seats are in yellow Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The trip to Charlottesville is ho-hum. And if you had to have a North Carolina school in the mix, Wake Forest is the closest school, driving-wise. But Truist Field is small, and the Deacons are tough. If I couldn’t get UNC or NC State for the prestige and big stadiums, I’d just as well prefer playing at Duke to collect a win in front of my own fans and a few Duke students that got lost looking for Cameron.
10.) Syracuse
The Orange get a small win by avoiding former Big East bully Miami, and instead get to visit sunny Tallahassee every other year to warm their bones from the frigid upstate New York winters. How Syracuse is able to land a single recruit that didn’t grow up 20 miles from campus is beyond me. Look at this!
Syracuse did have the good sense to build an indoor football stadium to combat this annual snow accumulation. Unfortunately, the two other rivals they got paired with are in cold weather cities. With outdoor stadiums.
Again. Why would you go to school at Syracuse??!!
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Other
The Greenidge Generation bitcoin mining facility, in a former coal plant by Seneca Lake in Dresden, N.Y., shown in this photo from July, 2021. Today New York environmental regulators denied the plant's application for a new air permit, citing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. Photo by N. Scott Trimble and Scott Schild
NY denies permit for Bitcoin-mining power plant near Seneca Lake (PS; Knauss)
New York state regulators today denied an air permit to a natural gas-fueled power plant near Seneca Lake that used most of the electricity it generated to mine the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
The Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision was celebrated as a huge victory by opponents who cited the plant’s impact on climate change and the local environment.
“This is an incredible, precedent-setting moment for everyone who has fought side by side with the Finger Lakes community,’’ said Yvonne Taylor of the group Seneca Lake Guardian in a news release. “Governor Hochul and the DEC stood with science and the people, and sent a message to outside speculators: New York’s former fossil fuel-burning plants are not yours to re-open as gas-guzzling Bitcoin mining cancers on our communities.”
New York has become one of the leading states in the United States for energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining, fueling intense interest in the long-awaited decision on Greenidge Generation’s application for an air permit. The 107-megawatt power plant is in Dresden, Yates County.
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