Syracuse Conference Alignment - Opinions?

[pfister1]

With the reports that we along with Pitt have already made an application to the ACC, I'm wondering what everyone's opinion is of joining an ACC and apparently leaving behind not only our the traditional basketball only rivals Gtown, Nova and St. Johns...but now, also apparently leaving our all sports rivals as well, UConn and of more recent vintage Louisville.

I understand the need for this on the football side, but as a guy who is predominantly a hoops fan I think a move like this is going to take a heckuva lot of getting used to.

I don't mind the idea of games against Duke, UNC and Maryland, but I am not sure how our basketball status will be impacted by joining a league that is clearly ruled from Tobacco Road. Do we have enough cache to avoid becoming a second or third fiddle member such as BC and Maryland are in my view? Having JB as the head coach will help in this regard. When matters impacting basketball come up its hard to dismiss the opinion of someone with JB's credentials. When Hop takes over we lose this advantage.

Unless our Football program really really steps it up (and I know that is the goal) I don't see how we are going to be anything less than the new guy on the block who always feels like they aren't really ever a part of the in crowd.

I will be extremely disappointed if we are left in a position where we have to give up annual games against Georgetown, Nova and UConn. To a lesser degree St. John's. Of course I won't miss Rutgers, Seton Hall or the Big Mid Westerns.

Having spent the better part of the last 20 years trying to tear down the ACC and make arguments for why the BE is a better basketball conference this will be a tough pill to swallow. Not to mention that the BE has finally gotten to the point where I think it is clearly superior such that it doesn't even feel like a fair argument anymore.

Leaving the NE as a conference base will suck as well. Like many here, I don't live in Syracuse so having Syracuse play in MSG, Philly, the RAC and other NE locations provides additional opps to see the Orange that likely won't exist in an ACC world.

Will also suck for those of us located in areas that will still be BE areas, as I assume it will mean less TV access to the Cuse.

I know there are lots of opinions voiced in the other threads, but I thought I would start one dedicated to folks opinions of this if it happens as opposed to the ones discussing the information leaking out.

 

[rrlbees]

If you understand that a conference that is made up of various numbers of teams spending on sport spread out all over the country is not a conference but is in fact a cluster, then this is a great thing for the long term health of syracuse athletics.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I personally hate the amalgam of the big east is becoming. It is not this "pure" league people think we are leaving. It's already gone. Time to go or die

 

[osullfam]

better to be proactive. The ACC will be stable going fwd. Will miss UConn, Vila, G-Town rivalries; but, Duke and NC ain't bad.

 

[jordoo]

All in all i think its better to do something than to wait it out and hope.

 

[arbitragegls]

...this is a good fit for 'Cuse...academically, geographically, size of institutions, and combination of bball,ftball, and all of our other sports...cant wait to hear Vicki D say Awesome 'Cuse.

 

[Cusejuicy]

We missed an opportunity a few years ago and really should take advantage of this one. The face of college athletics is changing and we should be proactive to insure we are not left out in the cold. I'll miss some of the old rivalries but relish the opportunity to play some new and respected opponents in what is hopefully a more stable and progressive situation.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

This is the comparison -

When the ACC adds teams, it gets Syracuse and Pitt, institutions that make sense on a lot of levels.

When the Big East adds teams, it gets TCU and Nova, institutions that don't make sense on a lot of levels.

I for one welcome our new tobacco road overlords.

 

[MooseHaas]

I personally hate the amalgam of **** the big east is becoming. It is not this "pure" league people think we are leaving. It's already gone. Time to go or die

ding ding ding we have a winner.

 

[MooseHaas]

I think UConn will ultimately end up in the ACC so we'll preserve that rivalry.

 

[Alsacs]

Worst part will be Mike Patrick calling our ACC games instead of Sean, Raf, and Bilas. Best part we will be in a stable football league and will have good basketball matchups with Duke, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Boston College, and Wake Forest.

 

[Toga]

E.C.S.T.A.T.I.C

 

[Knicks411]

The thing I will miss the most is what was pointed out in the original post, BET at MSG, plus having all the basketball games in places close to NYC, where I live. But that is kind of selfish. From every other standpoint, and most importantly, from the standpoint of what is the best for the longterm health of SU, this is a move that had to be made.

 

[JJ4415]

For the first year or two when Duke & UNC come to the dome for bball the atmosphere will be incredible.

 

[Jasoncuse]

I like the long term aspect of the move and totally understand it.

I just hope that SU remains a presence in the NYC media and all along the East Coast and the Northeast. I hope games will still be shown on SNY, MSG and whatever. I'd hate, for me personally and all the other SU fans in the NYC, Jersey and Philly areas, for games to only be picked up by the "Southern" stations that we don't get up here. I have a feeling we'll be seeing less SU on TV outside of the CNY area, at least in the short term. That would stink.

I'm really going to miss the BET. I love that event and the energy the city gets from it. It's going to be tough to get over not having that every March while playing in some half filled arena in NC or the cavernous Georgia Dome.

I'd guess SU would play at least one or two games in the NYC every year, without a doubt, likely at MSG or Barclays.

 

[HoustonCuse]

I don't understand the long or short term benefits of it. Everyone says football "drives the bus" but I'm struggling to understand that. Is it simply because the NCAA steals all the basketball tournament revenue and the archaic bowl system directly pays the schools? Either way we have all seen the numbers and we know that basketball pays the bills at Syracuse, not football. And how is NC State, UNC, Duke, Wake and Maryland a better football lineup than Pitt, UConn, Louisville, WVU, USF?

And with that said, I am a basketball guy. I think a move to the ACC destroys the basketball program. We no longer will have any relevant presence in Philly which is our bread and butter recruiting area and we risk losing Baltimore and DC which are our other pipelines. If kids from B'More wanted to play in the ACC they would have been going to Maryland and if you notice, kids have been picking SU over the Terps for 10 years. We may not love playing Rutgers, Marquette, etc. But how is Clemson, Virginia, Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech better than that. The ACC has UNC and Duke - that is it. We will be redheaded step children there, we will lose our northeast schedule which allows us to recruit and go to road games. We lose being a founding member of what has become the top basketball league in the country, and worst of all we lose the Big East Tournament and MSG.

I pray this news is false because this move will absolutely suck for SU basketball. Combine this with JB retiring soon and we could be seeing the close of a great era of basketball at SU.

 

[HoustonCuse]

PS to add insult to injury, we bring with us the only stinking program from the Big East that we can't seem to beat...

 

[jordoo]

I don't understand the long or short term benefits of it. Everyone says football "drives the bus" but I'm struggling to understand that. Is it simply because the NCAA steals all the basketball tournament revenue and the archaic bowl system directly pays the schools? Either way we have all seen the numbers and we know that basketball pays the bills at Syracuse, not football. And how is NC State, UNC, Duke, Wake and Maryland a better football lineup than Pitt, UConn, Louisville, WVU, USF?

And with that said, I am a basketball guy. I think a move to the ACC destroys the basketball program. We no longer will have any relevant presence in Philly which is our bread and butter recruiting area and we risk losing Baltimore and DC which are our other pipelines. If kids from B'More wanted to play in the ACC they would have been going to Maryland and if you notice, kids have been picking SU over the Terps for 10 years. We may not love playing Rutgers, Marquette, etc. But how is Clemson, Virginia, Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech better than that. The ACC has UNC and Duke - that is it. We will be redheaded step children there, we will lose our northeast schedule which allows us to recruit and go to road games. We lose being a founding member of what has become the top basketball league in the country, and worst of all we lose the Big East Tournament and MSG.

I pray this news is false because this move will absolutely suck for SU basketball. Combine this with JB retiring soon and we could be seeing the close of a great era of basketball at SU.

The kids we recruit will still want to play for SU. The BE will fold or become much less of a bball league than it is solidifying the ACC as THE east coast Bball conference to play in. Then IMO we become even stronger recruiting top players from Philly, DC, Balt and NYC. If UConn doesn't get into the BIG10 or the ACC we become a more attractive place to play than them. Same with Nova.

 

[cuserulesall]

PS to add insult to injury, we bring with us the only stinking program from the Big East that we can't seem to beat...

Also it looks like thr texas longhorns are heading to the acc as well . Now we got a power conferance .

 

[IthacaMatt]

The Big East was going to collapse. Over at the UConn board, one guy said that by us and Pitt leaving now, the Big East doesn't get its new TV contract, and everyone would have "gotten paid". Now, we've screwed them. But Pitt's AD is the guy who stopped Marinatto from rubber-stamping a below market renewal of our contract w/ ESPN. It was widely thought that Comcast/NBC would get the next Big East contract, and that ESPN is behind this latest move, in order to destroy the Big East from a programming perspective, and to also minimize how many major contracts it has to negotiate (and pay for) for college sports. Some interesting arguments in there. Mostly makes sense.

ESPN wants to remain the center of sports, and Fox has already encroached into a lot of the turf that ESPN used to control. Competition from Comcast/NBC on a family of channels is tough competition, and by weakening the Big East, ESPN limits what it will have to pay out in rights fees, and makes a property less attractive from a programming perspective that others are going to bid to take away from you in a year. ESPN's time to act was now. Firs they did that by trying to hold together the Big 12, but the Longhorn Network undermined that effort.

In my opinion, with the Big East looking to incorporate the football leftovers from the Big 12, Pitt and SU finally said "enough". A 20 team "league" that spread all over the country is a joke. I'm glad the ACC seems to be excited to grab us up. I think we (SU and Pitt) still do have good "brands", even if our football teams haven't been at the top level. I'm a little surprised UConn hasn't been swept along. But this is where their lack of history as a program hurt them, IMO, and where ours helped. The Express also helped. It re-established our brand, and that we had specific hisory.

That fact of UConn initially getting passed over gives some credence to the idea that Notre Dame and Texas might join the ACC for everything but football, but with a scheduling "agreement" (e.g. 3+ games per year against conference members, access to affiliated Bowls).

I'm kind of leery of the ACC repeating the mistake of the Big East by creating a hybrid conference, but presumably, Texas and Notre Dame would not have that much sway in conference matters, constituting only 2 votes of 16, and the rest of the league having its own nice looking football league, clearly top tier, with great bowl tie-ins. Having a northern division in football of 5 former Big East teams makes for a familiar feeling. And the first few times Duke and Carolina come to the Dome will be remembered for a lifetime. We could easily sell 40,000 for each game. THAT would be a time to put the Dome in the middle of the floor !

I won't miss UConn so much, even though we've shared boards with them for so long, and many of them are really good guys. But I've never gotten over Calhoun, never liked him, and now with their success last year on the back of Kemba Walker, I think I have to be honest enough with myself to say I am jealous of their basketball success. Calhoun has proven to be a guy who takes advantage of his chances. JB misses a lot of his. I won't miss having that rubbed in our faces. I think we can bring that Big East blue collar mentality to the ACC and frankly kick ass in hoops. We don't foul and grab like Pitt does, but still play great defense, way better than they are used to down there. I hope we can close the deal on this, because I'm all in favor.

 

[Knicks411]

Basketball pays the bills, but if we end up in a football conference that isn't a BCS AQ, then they won't be able to pay the bills, because we're going to be short that revenue.

And I don't really buy it's going to hurt our recruiting; I don't think kids from Baltimore that would previously pick us over MD, for example, will stop doing that if we're both in the ACC. If they want to play for us, they're going to play for us. If they don't, then they won't.

I think the biggest point is the BE is falling apart, at least as a football conference. If we're not in a BCS football conference, that is going to severely hurt us down the road. We're being proactive here, joining a conference that has stability. The ACC is going to be around in 5 years for sure; I don't think you can say the same for the BE. And I'm not worried about hoops in the ACC. Our recruiting will be just fine.

 

[Knicks411]

Am I the only one who thinks the BE is likely going to disintegrate one way or the other in the next few years? My first choice would be to stay in the BE and make it a viable BCS football conference, but I don't see how that happens. If that is the case, we HAVE to move. You can't be left behind.

 

[jordoo]

Am I the only one who thinks the BE is likely going to disintegrate one way or the other in the next few years? My first choice would be to stay in the BE and make it a viable BCS football conference, but I don't see how that happens. If that is the case, we HAVE to move. You can't be left behind.

Yes just a matter of time. Actually with the new TV deal coming up and TCU being added tipping the ballance in favor of the football schools things were accellerated. Then you have TexA&M going to the SEC and "Boom goes the dynamite"

 

[rstone7727]

I think that very soon down the road, the ACC tourney will be held at MSG. This may be one of the reasons the ACC wanted SU.. After all, we are New York's team! Remember this, the ACC is building to secure the Atlantic coast and the Mason-Dixon line becomes more irrelevant as time goes by.

 

[Knicks411]

I think that very soon down the road, the ACC tourney will be held at MSG. This may be one of the reasons the ACC wanted SU.. After all, we are New York's team! Remember this, the ACC is building to secure the Atlantic coast and the Mason-Dixon line becomes more irrelevant as time goes by.

I'm not sure I see this one. I guess as a one off deal or something like that.