ACC votes to add Stanford, Cal, SMU: Conference presidents approve expansion to 18 schools

[navery12]

Well, UConn will want to be in that conference.

No, UConn would absolutely not want to be anywhere near that hypothetical conference. We already saw how joining the American worked and that's the level of school I'm talking about for the ACC

 

[gtcam]

I don't consider Miami, BC, UNC and Wake Forest as elite academic institutions.

SMU is the strangest inclusion into the ACC or any Big Boy conference.

AD David Benedict let this whole issue slip between the cracks - while basking in the NBE transition he let the biggest picture become hazy at best and completely dark at worst. No wonder no SEC teams are knocking at his door as he has long hoped. HCJM must be wondering what he got himself into and if there is really a place for UConn football.

If the ACC dissolves, the top athletic members such as Duke, UVA, UNC, FSU, Miami and Lville will be heading B12/B1G or SEC and UConn will be considered for a new conference with the rest? That's reassuring.

 

[superjohn]

You don't think there will be a remnants of the ACC? I get that the top properties will all leave for the B12, B1G and SEC, but surely the B12 isn't going to add 14 new members.

Yes, there will be remnants. BC, Wake, Cuse for sure.

I've always thought we're headed for a P2 in football and it looks even more clear to me now.

 

[Vowelguy]

What schools flipped their vote?

 

[uconnfan68]

Uconn got passed over for SMU. Loser program who has empty trophy cases. Hilarious

A loser program that declined to take any money for a few years. Maybe we need to offer the B1G that?

 

[kibblesnbits]

This is an absolutely brilliant plan. They will find a way to give a large chunk of the $50M or so in extra revenue to FSU and Clemson so they can pretend to be happy for a few years while still plotting their departure and working down a bit more of the cost of breaking the GOR. After all, every school kid knows the bully is satisfied and never makes more demands after he gets the lunch money. BC and SU just gave away their lunch and will still get beaten up in a few years when FSU, Clemson et al abandon them.

 

[BugsyCT]

It's 20 years of reasons why other teams get chosen over us by the ACC. I'm done. They don't want us, they'll never want us. They've poached what we had and left us hanging time and again. Screw them. The sooner they implode once FSU and Clemson bolt the better.

 

[CL82]

I don't have a dog in this fight, but can you explain how the 93%+/- of the student body that doesn't play a sport is harmed academically by the conference affiliation for non-academic competition?

Entropy?

 

[upstater]

No, UConn would absolutely not want to be anywhere near that hypothetical conference. We already saw how joining the American worked and that's the level of school I'm talking about for the ACC

UConn will not want to join with Syracuse, Pitt, BC, Wake Forest, Cal, Stanford and possibly Duke?

I'd say that's a more natural grouping for UConn than the current BE.

 

[upstater]

This is an absolutely brilliant plan. They will find a way to give a large chunk of the $50M or so in extra revenue to FSU and Clemson so they can pretend to be happy for a few years while still plotting their departure and working down a bit more of the cost of breaking the GOR. After all, every school kid knows the bully is satisfied and never makes more demands after he gets the lunch money. BC and SU just gave away their lunch and will still get beaten up in a few years when FSU, Clemson et al abandon them.

But...

it was FSU and Clemson who were against this plan along with UNC.

It was the minnows who hatched this plan. They didnt get bullied.

 

[CL82]

But...

it was FSU and Clemson who were against this plan along with UNC.

It was the minnows who hatched this plan. They didnt get bullied.

That's an interesting observation.

It'll be interesting to see how the additional money gets divvied up. In all likelihood, the move has two principal goals: 1) set maximize revenue for the next seven years and 2) have sufficient member numbers so that you can survive the inevitable departure of key schools.

 

[RedStickHusky]

What schools flipped their vote?

NC State's what I heard. They only needed one.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Either the big fish in the ACC go to a power league, or they breakaway and form a reconstituted ACC once they are able to break the GOR. Either way they aren't aligning themselves with BC, SMU and Cal once they have the autonomy to make that choice themselves.

The remnants would then either need to decide to go forward together (with Cal Stanford and SMU) or form their own "new" league that makes more geographic sense, maybe we get in as a backfill there.

There's 0 chance this 18 team ACC negotiates a new media rights deal together past this expiration of the current deal. None.

 

[nickp91]

SMU agreeing to take no money for a bunch of years is such an insane tactic And it actually worked!

 

[Tyler2Rings]

Starting with 2011 this has to be the worst CR timeline for UConn.

Yet incredibly, somehow, we continue to count rings.

 

[navery12]

UConn will not want to join with Syracuse, Pitt, BC, Wake Forest, Cal, Stanford and possibly Duke?

I'd say that's a more natural grouping for UConn than the current BE.

That's not what I said. I said UConn is not going to want to join the remnants of the ACC, as in the schools that are left once all those teams leave. It would be like someone signing on to join Washington State and Oregon State in the current Pac 12

 

[kibblesnbits]

it was FSU and Clemson who were against this plan along with UNC.

It was the minnows who hatched this plan. They didnt get bullied.

You’re right. I just saw a report that it was NC State that flipped (making me more disappointed we didn’t beat them) and the vote was 12-3. I thought they would buy off the bullies to get unanimity. The interesting thing is that the $50M will be split between an extra payoff for each member and a performance based pool. Since 50 divided by 15 isn’t that much to begin with they have managed to really pull off the perfect exacta - most schools will probably barely get enough to pay their extra costs while the bullies will get an extra pittance that will really piss them off. There is no path where this is sustainable.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I love when @Fishy gets this way. Stanford successfully fields a lot of non-revenue sports. This is part of the great college experience which is Stanford. If you check a map, the ACC schools are a bit distant from Palo Alto. These student-athletes will need to travel far distances to engage in their athletic endeavors. This is probably not favorable for their academic profile. Understood?

What does it have to do with their academic profile?

 

[Drumguy]

Oh yes, the UNC who created fake classes for their athletes.

Technically, those fake classes were for any student, hence no penalty against the sports programs.

 

[CTBasketball]

Stop acting surprised, this goes back to 2002. BC will fire up a coalition to blockade us at all costs.

 

[noeynox]

I’ve lost a lot of respect for Stanford as an institution as part of this process. This makes absolutely no sense for them other than as a money grab which they don’t need. I could probably understand football-only since they have no conference at this point. Strange times indeed.

I'm sure this upsets them.

 

[yuckformak]

This is a basketball board. Can we discuss how awful the All Clown Conference just became in CBB. It's like they added 3 DePauls to an already downward spiral conference.

 

[huskyinfl]

What's next, miami to the mountain west?

 

[REB1094]

I don’t really understand conferencing so can someone explain this to me like you were explaining to a 10 year old?

What is the ACC’s benefit in adding three schools who don’t offer anything except punching bags at the bottom of the conference? Especially when the conference is the ATLANTIC COAST conference adding schools from the PACIFIC COAST?

What is SMU’s benefit of not taking any media money until next decade? I understand Cal and Stanford’s conference imploded but what is SMU’s play here?

 

[Fishy]

It’s really about safety in numbers. You don’t want to be the Pac 12 or the Big East after realignment, you want to be the Big 12.

If the ACC loses 4-6 schools to the SEC/Big 12 in 10-12 years, you’re still at 12-14 schools and, at a minimum, you’re in a better spot to keep the Big 12 from pulling off UL, SU, Pitt or whoever.

My guess is that they will make a run at West Virginia as the current Big 12 contract gets towards the end.