Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC. Great move for hoops. Meh for football. I guess both fit the footprint about as much as Boston does. It does make it less likely that UNC, Duke, or NC State jump, since this has the feel of an under the table ask and ye shall receive deal. Swafford is either working to hedge because another ACC team (or two) is about to jump or has decided being the first poacher is best for keeping that from happening.
Quick thoughts:
- It sure feels like TCU might go looking for another place to go. If the Big East loses their BCS spot, the Big East is the WAC East, but with far less entertaining football. Call it the EAC. Nothing pretty for TCU to play for. Not that this season is helping them. It does give them reason to start talking with Kansas, KState, Houston, Missouri, Iowa State, SMU and Baylor to try to save the Big
12109ish. - If the Big East dissolves, does Notre Dame shop for another Hoops deal? Not to say the Big East would die as a Hoops conference, but it sure would look different if any more of the football schools leave.
- Would Notre Dame join a conference? Does anyone but NBC and 5 million Catholics in Chicago care?
- Does this open the door for WVU to the SEC or Big 10? If you think getting to Fayetteville is tough, you are going to love getting to Morgantown. But they do sell beer at the stadium.
- When do Texas and the Oklahoma schools move? Yes, there has been talk and authorizations, but nothing will come from them until they have a dancing partner booked in ink. If those three schools, and to a lesser extent, Texas Tech, say they are in a holding pattern, what happens?
- Any chance Texas A&M end up anywhere but the SEC? I'm not going to try to guess what happens in the SEC, since my little brain can't get around the possibilities, but this is one that is going to happen. Right? Anyone?
TD
13 comments:
I have it on good information that the all members of the ACC unanimously voted to raise the league buyout to $20 million. Nobody is leaving the ACC.
Actually, they raised it to 125% of the current year revenues. That is about 20 million for this year.
But...if Slive wants a current ACC team, he can shake that out of the sofa cushions at the league office. The league's cut of revenue this past year was 18.4 million, finding a way to come up with 20 or 40 million isn't going to stop Slive, especially when you consider the probability of renegotiating TV contracts upward.
For example, the schools could vote to put 2.5 million a piece aside into a fund, getting the pot to 30 mil, just like that. That would reduce any school's exposure to next to nothing in the scheme of things.
Now, if Swafford puts a 100+mil exit fee on the table, see who votes against it. Those are the folks Slive has talked to.
Why isn't VT the big topic for next into SEC? They are the next logical team to join SEC.
You would think. However, talking to people in Virginia, there is significant resistance to anything that separates VaTech and Mr. Jefferson's University.
That might not be dispositive, but I can see it slowing down the process.
West Virginia will be the 14th team in the SEC.
Sure is looking that way.
Like I said, if you think Fayetteville is out of the way, your gonna love Morgantown.
I understand the motives behind adding Texas A&M but I don't understand West Virginia.
What TV markets does that give us? Isn't Pittsburgh primarily a Big Ten market? And if the Big East has a portion of that market, doesn't that portion move to the ACC with Pitt?
WVU pulls a decent DC market. Realistically, if it happens, it is about adding another strong football/basketball program to balance the TAMU move. We aren't getting Oklahoma/Okie State. Rather than have to settle for Louisville, which would be a much worse choice, competition wise, being proactive and grabbing a balancing team isn't a terrible move.
Remember, Slive is trying to wrangle 12 very pretty, very vain cats here. Those cats don't want in-state competition, want certainty in the ask, and don't want to have to beg anyone. That makes the dance card smaller.
In a perfect world, you get VaTech, then WVU. It isn't a perfect world.
I guess it would make sense to go ahead and grab WVU before the ACC gets them. The ACC will probably have 1 more slot to fill after adding Pitt, Syracuse, and UConn (I think the Big Ten grabs Rutgers).
However, I'd like to point out that West Virginia ranks #164 on US News' rankings of national universities. That would put them dead last in the SEC, behind even the Mississippi schools.
Following up on my last post, I think the Big Ten goes after and gets Rutgers and Mizzou in the near future.
WRONG.
Missouri will be the 14th SEC team.
Bank on it.
'But they do sell beer at the stadium." Do they sell beer to opposing fans? I hear the taps are spent by kickoff (ala Gordon Biersch in Tempe). Is it worth the chance of getting into a ruckus with a mountain man's over grown beard for a spot in line?
I think I'll stick with my flask of bourbon.
I'm hoping FSU pulls out of the ACC and joins the SEC.ACC provides them with less than attractive competition no rival except Miami which is a dead horse standing.
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