We successfully competed with everyone. I followed recruiting for 56 years. Many of the top players consistently considered us. Our results spoke for themselves. They no longer consider us. The difference between Duke and Cuse is now night and day. It used to be a lot closer. That is what I am talking about. We were a contender. In the ACC we are a pretender. Surprising how many fans live in a fantasy world. Easy to blame it on JB and ignore reality.
Alaska, I’ve been reading your posts about this for a while now and I know you get a lot of pushback on the BE vs ACC issue. The truth is, much of what you say is completely accurate. We are indeed a fish out of water in the ACC and will continue to be so. And, as you’ve noted, we all know football drives the bus and the ACC is a necessity, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re an ugly duckling in the pond.
As soon as we entered the ACC, we instantaneously became at least the third and maybe the fourth best option for a recruit (and I’m talking 14 years ago, today we’re lower). If a top recruit in the northeast, or anywhere for that matter, wants to play in the ACC, they’re going to automatically choose Duke or UNC. Whereas, when we were one of the top dogs in the BE and a player from the northeast wanted to stay home in the BE, SU was a top option for that player. We were one of the top destinations in the BE, we will never be a top destination for a player wishing to play in the ACC. Why would they go to Syracuse when they could play for Duke or Carolina?
Edit: as others have mentioned, ESPN, Big Monday, Dome, BE crazy assortment of amazing coaches, etc, were all new, exciting novelties and SU & Big East took full advantage. Those days are also gone.
However, that’s not our only issue. I’m surprised that people around here no longer mention probation.
Yes, it was a long time ago, but it coincided with our entry into the ACC. Probation actually had its intended effects. More specifically, the years long investigation into the program had crippling effects. It impacted our recruiting big time just as we entered a new conference with inherent disadvantages. People will point to our FF and Sweet 16 runs as evidence we overcame probation but those are outlier data points on a graph that continuously slopes down. If anything, those runs are a true tribute to how good of a coach JB really was. But they don’t change the fact that the program was declining throughout.
Of course, JB WAS to blame too. He DID lose his fire and he DIDN’T recruit the way we needed. He also let the program slide with the way he coached and prioritized certain players over others as well as the retirement fiasco. I think this is undeniable too.
Lastly, in the facilities and arms race and finally NIL, Cuse is in a bad predicament where it finds itself unable to truly compete.
There’s just no comparison between the dollars a relatively small private school in the northeast can put up against much larger and much wealthier programs.
I would also make the argument that SU’s fanbase and alumni base, while CAPABLE of generating NIL, is much, much different from the schools that actually DO generate NIL.
Overall, SU’s culture is much different on this front. Professionals from NY/NJ/CT are not donating their hard earned dollars in droves to SU athletics. Just not happening. They’d rather donate to the school’s general fund before handing money to some 18 year old portal basketball player. Again, whereas, the culture at many of these other schools is people’s entire identity revolves around the success of their college team, whether they attended the institution or not.
Unless we have a mega donor like St. John’s (we don’t), our NIL is unsustainable. In fact, I laugh when people refer to SU’s “big donors”. We have like three people donating large sums. In the south there are hundreds lining up to support athletic programs.
This is all to say, you are right that we’re screwed in the ACC. We were a king in the BE. We are never going back and we now have much deeper, systemic problems that were the result of other dynamics and now have morphed into existential issues.
I hope Gmac is a transcendent coach, because we’re going to need it.
