North Carolina and Virginia may have Big Ten offers

[nelsonmuntz]

There is a 0% chance the ACC collapses. There's too many quality athletic departments on the east coast to fill the limited available slots in the B1G and SEC, and the ACC has a powerful weapon in ESPN on its side.

All that will happen is that the ACC will fall to the fifth-best football conference in the country. But heck, they already are the fifth-best football conference in the country.

That is what the Syracuse insider is saying. I think it is more like 50/50, but we shall see.

 

[ASweet3781]

Pretty much this. Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond, and the entire state is 12th in the US in Population (and growing at a good rate). It has a solid athletic department and is one of the best public schools in America.

UVA does not have a solid athletic department. UVA has the worst combo of football-basketball right now of just about any top notch BCS school in America.

I worked in DC for 3 years and lived in Arlington, VA. My job was to read the Post every morning and keep track of the local news. I don't ever remember much of a UVA sports presence is Northern Virginia. It was Maryland country.

Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond? UConn is split between NYC and Boston. Love how everyone just ignores that than hypes up UVA's location between DC and Richmond when UConn is closer to Boston than UVA is to DC. And as for the closet TV markets, Hartford/New Haven is 30th, Richmond is 58th. I am told TV markets and football is the main thing. UVA sucks at football and it's closet TV market is 58th.

No wonder UConn may be left on the sidelines. Our own fans talk up just about every other candidate and buy into their hype. Maybe we should start giving some of these schools the UConn treatment, aka diminish them and ignore their strengths and highlight their weaknesses.

 

[Lock City Husky]

Your speculation is wrong. I lived in DC, AL, MS, TN, FL for some short stints (2 months being the shortest and 1 yr being the longest) and from my experience once you get out of the NOVA (northern VA) it is deep south. Maybe not as deep south as Bama and Miss but the people, culture, etc all consider themselves southerners.

I am sure if you go visit UNC message boards the majority will be repeating they dont want to go to the B1G because it is a northern conference and they are southerners.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Where was the Capital of the Confederacy? Richmond. Both of my parents were born in VA. I've got tons of family there. There are gray signs everywhere commemorating some battle or key moment during the Civil War. People still reference the War of Northern Aggression today. These folks are Southerners through and through! Culturally, they fit right in with the SEC.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I still find it hard to believe that UNC walks away from the ACC. I would also be shocked if it could happen quickly unless NCSU held an SEC offer.

Swofford ought to be on the phone to ESPN saying, "Fix this deal." I don't think it is in ESPN's best interest to destroy the ACC after already destroying the Big East. What are they going to do for programming in the 7 PM time slot for the East Coast? Show us SEC and Big 10 basketball games? They are unwatchible.

 

[Lock City Husky]

UVA does not have a solid athletic department. UVA has the worst combo of football-basketball right now of just about any top notch BCS school in America.

I worked in DC for 3 years and lived in Arlington, VA. My job was to read the Post every morning and keep track of the local news. I don't ever remember much of a UVA sports presence is Northern Virginia. It was Maryland country.

Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond? UConn is split between NYC and Boston. Love how everyone just ignores that than hypes up UVA's location between DC and Richmond when UConn is closer to Boston than UVA is to DC. And as for the closet TV markets, Hartford/New Haven is 30th, Richmond is 58th. I am told TV markets and football is the main thing. UVA sucks at football and it's closet TV market is 58th.

No wonder UConn may be left on the sidelines. Our own fans talk up just about every other candidate and buy into their hype. Maybe we should start giving some of these schools the UConn treatment, aka diminish them and ignore their strengths and highlight their weaknesses.

Let's be fair here. I am a Husky, but UVA (and VT for that matter) have a presence in the NoVa/DC market. They also have a major presence in the 44th Market (Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News: 709,730), the aforementioned 57th Market (Richmond-Petersburg: 553,390), the 68th Market (Roanoke-Lynchburg-Danville: 445,470) and the very small Charlottesville market (Rank 183: 74,340). Add that all together and that's nearly 1.79 million TV sets on top of whatever the draw out of the DC market. That's has to be attractive to any conference suitor if we're simply talking TV.