ACC Big East merger

[Kolumbo]

Positive comments on the Pitt bourd. I was checking out their board to see details on the Jeff Capel post-game where Pitt and FSU almost came to blows

OT: Coach K idea on acc future

pittsburgh.forums.rivals.com

 

[uconndogs]

What would the Big Ten do with Kansas?

The ACC is what it will be for the next decade or so. Maybe someone joins but no one is leaving….you’ll note that FSU and Clemson have gotten pretty quiet.

Big state school and marquee hoops, but yeah, Kansas might very well be a pass.

It does look like the GOR is going to hold, but at some point I have to believe that the Big or maybe the SEC take UNC and Virginia off the table, much like they did with USC and UCLA.

 

[uconndogs]

Because the SEC would believe those schools would add value to future media deals whether that be with ESPN or other media outlets. It would be the SEC‘s decision as a conference, not ESPN.

 

[ZooCougar]

What school are you a fan of?

 

[ZooCougar]

Isn’t that EXACTLY what the ACC/ESPN did when they raided the Big East.

They are betting that a school is worth more in ratings in a new conference than they are in the present conference.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Isn’t that EXACTLY what the ACC/ESPN did when they raided the Big East.

They are betting that a school is worth more in ratings in a new conference than they are in the present conference.

The early raids were typically driven by TV contracts. ESPN had signed one with the ACC, and the Big East was going to be negotiating a new one in 2004 or 2005. The Big East was coming off a bad contract because Miami had been in NCAA enforcement purgatory when the Big East negotiated the deal from the 90's, and Rutgers and Temple were both terrible. The rest of the schools were in competitive lulls other than Virginia Tech, which was rural and didn't have a big following. ESPN didn't want to pay the Big East a market deal in 2005, so it thought it could raid the league and slit its throat, getting the league to take less by raiding 3 schools.

ESPN convinced the BCS to start forcing the Big East out, and then the anti-trust suit hit. There is a 100% the Big East would have been kicked out of the BCS if Connecticut and other states didn't threaten the BCS with an anti-trust lawsuit. That threat kept the Big East as a major conference despite only adding Louisville, Cincinnati, USF, Marquette and Depaul. The Big East crushed it for the next 5+ years in both football and basketball.

Then the next TV contract was on its way in 2012 or so, and rumors were that the Big East was expecting a similar deal to the ACC's for the football schools. So ESPN struck again, raiding the league. Ironically, this raid went very sideways for ESPN, and it ended up wildly overpaying for Pitt, Louisville, Syracuse, WVU and Rutgers compared to what it would have cost to just hold the Big East together. The basketball schools left to a different network, costing ESPN a lot of content and putting a credible competitor in business for weeknights in the winter. UConn, USF and Cincinnati drew the short straws.

The next major raid? When the Pac 12 was coming back to market. The Pac 12 was talking to Apple, so ESPN and Fox raided UCLA and USC, and then picked over the carcass of the Pac 12, once again paying a lot more to raid the league than it would have cost to keep it together. There is not a TV contract coming up for negotiation to trigger a new round of realignment. If anything happens in the near-term, it will be because the conferences are jockeying to impose or defend against a P2 from forming.

22 years ago, ESPN/ABC was the only show on town for college sports. Now there are a lot of players, and fewer conferences. ESPN's constant raids have flipped the dynamic where now ESPN needs to dance if the SEC tells it to dance, because ESPN is in big trouble if it ever loses all that content. CBS/Paramount, NBC/Peacock, Fox, Hulu/ABC/ESPN, Apple, Amazon and Warner/Max all want live content, and ESPN's litany of stupid decisions going back decades have shrunk the market.

While counting on ESPN to be smart is generally a bad idea, ESPN does have an incentive to try to keep the Big 10 or SEC from doing something really stupid that will kill the overall product.

 

[ZooCougar]

So you’re BC fan. Got it. Thanks Mike.

 

[CL82]

Seriously? What are you afraid of?

We're pretty easy going here.

 

[ZooCougar]

Seriously? What are you afraid of?

We're pretty easy going here.

He’s like these people on Reddit CFB talking and not having a flair. Can’t take these people seriously.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Seriously? What are you afraid of?

We're pretty easy going here.

I would have asked "what message board is that?".

 

[UConnDan97]

Seriously? What are you afraid of?

We're pretty easy going here.

... I'm guessing "BC"...

 

[ZooCougar]

Because it informs your bias.

 

[Huskybite]

... I'm guessing "BC"...

Pitt

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think this is all moot. Here's my prediction.....

The BiG and SEC will soon take some combination of UNC, Virginia, FSU, Clemson (maybe) and Kansas (maybe). That throws the ACC up in the air and raises the bigger question of whether the Big12 and ACC can even compete with the BiG and SEC financially for talent. Depending on answer to that question it could separate the P2 from everyone else.

The next logical step from that is how institutions such as Miss. State sit at the table. I think I know where that ultimately ends....

I'll say what I've been saying. The ACC isn't losing schools to the SEC or B1G (because they don't want any of them) not to the Big XII, because it's in worse shape than the ACC. FSU didn't start whining because it really wanted to play Oklahoma State and TT.

Nobody is dumping Miss State or Northwestern or Vandy unless and until FBS tier 1 breaks away from the NCAA. That's the seismic event that could happen. Why would it? Because I think most of these schools have very little desire to keep pumping money into football programs that lose money (which is most of them). It would move the very top tier of FBS outside the conference structure altogether. Then the conferences can realign in a way that reduces travel cost and time for student athletes.

 

[CL82]

Because it informs your bias.

Exactly. It helps us understand the points he's trying to make and helps us to communicate with him more effectively.

It's a weird. I don't think I've ever seen a fan so embarrassed of his rooting interest that he wouldn't admit to it! It's kind of sad when you think about it.

 

[Hogoff]

Which message board?

 

[ZooCougar]

Trying to throw us off with “y’all” huh. Been done here. Definitely BC.

Also you aren’t saying anything that people here haven’t already been saying.

 

[CL82]

Wow, that's a whole lot of words instead of just saying "BC" (or whatever.). One wonders why it's so important to you to hide your rooting interest that you'd rather resort to lengthy word salad. Aren't fans supposed to be proud of their teams?

 

[KryHavok]

From 1/16/25:

I do try to be respectful though, cause it's y'all's house.

From 8/25/24:

That said, I recognize I'm in someone else's house, and I'm not here to bash UConn either.

Mate, relax. Yes, you're in us all's house, but you don't need to come across as abrasive or defensive either. We have Big 10 posters here that don't ruffle feathers, and we get Big12 posters that are more annoying than an arse zit. You've posted that you've been reading our threads for a long time, then you should know that we continue to get crapped on by other fansbases despite us having great success in basketball and decent results in football (just forget 2013-2021), with the goalposts of success always being moved. @ZooCougar is a passionate UConn fan, and @CL82 is one of the most easy going posters here. They don't bite (much, or at least not without reason), but they don't suffer fools either. If you don't want show your team colors, no problem, but it does suggest you're hiding something (then again, we use anonymous handles to mouth off for sports, which is good so that we don't end up like that idiotic Philly fan who got fired and banned for mouthing off to a female Packers fan).

As for your assertion that you see UConn is "in" somewhere, well, I hope you're right, but we've lived through too many door slams to be fooled. As some posters have said, I'll believe we're in when I see a different conference logo on our fields and uniforms.