Who could be the 6th ACC team? | Syracusefan.com

Who could be the 6th ACC team?

OnlyOrange

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The ACC needs to add a sixth team to get their automatic qualifier back. With the growing parity counting on at-large bids in the future might be difficult. Who could that sixth team be?
 
The ACC needs to add a sixth team to get their automatic qualifier back. With the growing parity counting on at-large bids in the future might be difficult. Who could that sixth team be?

Hopkins is really the only team that makes sense - they have no affiliation to the Big 10 in any other sport and they already play a schedule that includes 3 ACC teams almost every year.

There is no appeal to taking one of the independents (NJIT, Cleveland State, Hampton, St. Bonaventure). Likewise, can't see one of the teams that has the AQ like Loyola, Bryant or Albany giving that up.

Maybe Hobart would have a reason to consider it as a way to boost recruitting? The thing is, it's not like football where there is big conference money being spread around to lure a team away.

At the end of the day, the AQ in the ACC is not really a big deal - winner of the ACC tournament is always a lock.
 
THE ACC DOESN'T TAKE ONE SPORT MEMBERS.

Unless an existing ACC school (BC, Pitt, Va Tech, NC State) wants to upgrade their club program, there's nobody to add.

And none of those schools has the $$$ in their budget to upgrade.
 
Putting aside for a second the possibility of the elevation of the club at a full ACC member to a varsity, I'd suggest asking Utah. They'll be playing as a D-1 varsity starting next year and need to join a conference. Regardless of which conference they do join, they will have to fly east to play roughly half their games and roughly half their opponents will have to fly west. They may be initimidated by the idea of being in the ACC, but I really think we should ask them because I doubt any school that is a member of a conference now will be willing to leave it. I believe JHU signed a contract to play in the B1G for X number of years, so they wouldn't be available until that contract is over. Plus, they're joined at the hip to the Twerps, who begged them to join the B1G in the first place.
 
THE ACC DOESN'T TAKE ONE SPORT MEMBERS.

Unless an existing ACC school (BC, Pitt, Va Tech, NC State) wants to upgrade their club program, there's nobody to add.

And none of those schools has the $$$ in their budget to upgrade.
Georgia Tech's club is better than the bunch of them and they also have better Title IX numbers, especially if they make both lax clubs varsities.
 
Georgia Tech's club is better than the bunch of them and they also have better Title IX numbers, especially if they make both lax clubs varsities.

And we could have the ACCT back in Atlanta once in a while. ;)
 
Putting aside for a second the possibility of the elevation of the club at a full ACC member to a varsity, I'd suggest asking Utah. They'll be playing as a D-1 varsity starting next year and need to join a conference. Regardless of which conference they do join, they will have to fly east to play roughly half their games and roughly half their opponents will have to fly west. They may be initimidated by the idea of being in the ACC, but I really think we should ask them because I doubt any school that is a member of a conference now will be willing to leave it. I believe JHU signed a contract to play in the B1G for X number of years, so they wouldn't be available until that contract is over. Plus, they're joined at the hip to the Twerps, who begged them to join the B1G in the first place.

I can see Utah, Denver, and Air Force hooking up with Stanford and a couple of other Pac12 schools someday.
 
I can see Utah, Denver, and Air Force hooking up with Stanford and a couple of other Pac12 schools someday.
Totally agree. We would definitely see the resurrection of the Great Western Lacrosse League if more of them move up to varsities. Denver and the AFA have to hate their travel expenses. The BE would be in a pickle if Denver leaves, losing their AQ. Would they try to get Loyola to move over from the PL for all sports?
 
I don't see there being any real advantage for Hopkins moving from the Big Ten. When the Big Ten started, the ACC looked like a stronger conference, but this season and last things have been fairly close between them.

I have thought Utah might be a nice choice for a temporary fix. Eventually, Utah will want to move off to some Western league, and at some point the ACC might get a 6th team. Utah probably wouldn't be very competitive for 5 seasons or more though. One benefit for the ACC teams might be showcasing themselves out west with the ever growing talent level out there.
One plus for the ACC having an AQ again, while not only beneficial for the ACC, is that it would open up one at-large spot. The ACC often has a team or 2 on the bubble.
 
What market do you want to capture? Since it's lacrosse only you could look at schools like Loyola (Patriot League) or Richmond (Southern AC) or Jacksonville (Southern AC), UAlbany (American East), Colonial (UMass, Hofstra, Delaware, Towson)

The best scenrio imho is for an existing ACC school to add lacrosse.
 
Georgia Tech's club is better than the bunch of them and they also have better Title IX numbers, especially if they make both lax clubs varsities.

I don’t ever see that happening. GT going D1 has been a pipe dream for over 10 years. If Lovic couldn’t do it with all his connections at GT I don’t see it ever happening. Florida State has a better shot at going D1, but again I don’t see that happening. It just costs too much money and Title 9 complicates things.

If the ACC won’t take someone for just lacrosse the options are pretty minimal. One option I could see would be UMass, but I’m pretty sure their football team is FCS so they’d have to make the jump. Not sure they’d do that for lax.

With the growing parity, the ACC needs an AQ. It is entirely possible for a team to go 2-2 in conference, 4-8/5-7 or thereabouts overall, make the ACC tournament, win it, finish 6-8/7-7 and still not make the tournament. In my opinion, the ACC needs the AQ to stay relevant in the coming years with growing parity.
 
I don’t ever see that happening. GT going D1 has been a pipe dream for over 10 years. If Lovic couldn’t do it with all his connections at GT I don’t see it ever happening. Florida State has a better shot at going D1, but again I don’t see that happening. It just costs too much money and Title 9 complicates things.

If the ACC won’t take someone for just lacrosse the options are pretty minimal. One option I could see would be UMass, but I’m pretty sure their football team is FCS so they’d have to make the jump. Not sure they’d do that for lax.

With the growing parity, the ACC needs an AQ. It is entirely possible for a team to go 2-2 in conference, 4-8/5-7 or thereabouts overall, make the ACC tournament, win it, finish 6-8/7-7 and still not make the tournament. In my opinion, the ACC needs the AQ to stay relevant in the coming years with growing parity.
UMass is D1 in all sports. They are in the MAC for football, the A-10 for hoops, and the CAA for lax.
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With the growing parity, the ACC needs an AQ. It is entirely possible for a team to go 2-2 in conference, 4-8/5-7 or thereabouts overall, make the ACC tournament, win it, finish 6-8/7-7 and still not make the tournament. In my opinion, the ACC needs the AQ to stay relevant in the coming years with growing parity.

If all 5 ACC teams end up with losing records at the end of the season, then none of us really deserve to go.

An ACC team with a winning record and the right measurables (RPI, SOS) will still get in.
 
If all 5 ACC teams end up with losing records at the end of the season, then none of us really deserve to go.

An ACC team with a winning record and the right measurables (RPI, SOS) will still get in.

Never said all 5 teams doing poorly. I said one team. My scenario is entirely possible. The conference needs an AQ. With the AE, Patriot, Ivy and pretty much everyone else starting to play well it will become more and more possible for ACC teams to have losing or .500 records. I’m not saying this will happen in the next 3-5 years, but 10 years? Absolutely. The sport is growing at an exponential rate every year. Each year there are more solid players entering the recruiting scene. All the teams that were once fringe teams will be able to recruit themselves into relevance.
 
Never said all 5 teams doing poorly. I said one team. My scenario is entirely possible. The conference needs an AQ. With the AE, Patriot, Ivy and pretty much everyone else starting to play well it will become more and more possible for ACC teams to have losing or .500 records. I’m not saying this will happen in the next 3-5 years, but 10 years? Absolutely. The sport is growing at an exponential rate every year. Each year there are more solid players entering the recruiting scene. All the teams that were once fringe teams will be able to recruit themselves into relevance.
Possible? Yes. Likely? I give the ACC about <5% chance of bringing in a partial member.

Better start working your contacts at GT, BC, VT, NC ST, etc. Because UMass ain't coming, unless conference expansion happens.
 
I don’t expect UMass to come. It looks like getting anyone will be impossible.
 
Georgia Tech's club is better than the bunch of them and they also have better Title IX numbers, especially if they make both lax clubs varsities.
I saw GA Tech play in the club team se finals last year (its held in my town outside of Atlanta every year). I had to leave at halftime due to the quality (?) of play. It would require quite a commitment to get them to a competitive level.

I agree that another ACC member is desirable, and would love to see the Orangemen play here every other year. From a financial standpoint, FSU* and Clempsun would appear to be the most likely candidates, while NCSU has some (now distant) lax history to reflect upon.

* I originally referred to the characters ‘fff’, dollar sign and ‘U’, but that sequence is not allowed by the website’s rules. Quite a stretch...
 
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I saw GA Tech play in the club team se finals last year (its held in my town outside of Atlanta every year). I had to leave at halftime due to the quality (?) of play. It would require quite a commitment to get them to a competitive level.

I agree that another ACC member is desirable, and would love to see the Orangemen play here every other year. From a financial standpoint, $U and Clempsun would appear to be the most likely candidates, while NCSU has some (now distant) lax history to reflect upon.
Thanks for Tim Nelson!
 
At one time, the story in circulation was that Florida State had a sugar daddy who would pay for both lax teams if they could get the Title IX numbers to work. That was a couple of years ago and I haven’t heard anything since, especially if his offer still stands.
 
As a Syracuse fan, we never worried about conference championships because we were independent. Aside from Virginia, the other ACC teams are fun to play but not hot rivals. Not yet, anyway.

Based on the above, just win against good to great schedules and we will be lock. Historically, the ACC has never had an issue getting a team or two into the tourney.
 
Would be great if it happens, but based on that statement, "one day" and "Start with a women's team...", we're probably talking a good 5-10 years down the road.
 
The MAC is FBS

They are Independent in football. The MAC kicked them out because they wouldn't bring hoops to the MAC.

They wanted to join the AAC in everything but Uconn blocked it I guess they love flying to Tulsa and were intimidated at the thought of a local conference rival an hour up the road.
 

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