Georgia Tech: the lynchpin

[businesslawyer]

Wait, you want this settled today?

Yesterday would be better if you're asking me.

 

[UConnRock]

Big 10 won't take Georgia Tech until it gets Virginia. GT can say yes, but if Virginia says no, I think it is moot. Georgia Tech is too far of an outlier to take if the Big 10 can get no one else. They aren't the Big XII, throwing together some make-shift conference just because. So Virginia is the main factor I think in all this. Georgia Tech, while a blow, would not kill the ACC in the same way Virginia would. An original member that has strong ties to several ACC schools, in particular UNC and one of the football powers in VPI, Virginia is one of the faces of the ACC. Lose them, and the whole thing becomes undone.

Georgia Tech is just as much of a geographic outlier for the B1G with UVA in the conference. UVA is essentially the same distance from Atlanta as Bloomington, Indiana (510 vs 513 miles) and less then 100 miles farther than Columbus and West Lafayette. Even bringing UNC into the B1G umbrella doesn't help GT much as Atlanta is more than 400 miles from Raleigh. Atlanta being a major travel hub helps with travel so GT wouldn't be in a West Virginia situation.

GT will be a pure deep south, Atlanta-metro reach for the B1G and if that is their intent the B1G could make it happen with or without UVA or UNC. That is the decision that the B1G is facing right now. The B1G can easily remain a predominantly northern conference, or they can make a run at the south. My gut tells me (and I truly hope) that southern pride and culture will keep the ACC schools from jumping to a northern conference. Living in Tennessee has taught me that there is a southern bond in the area that doesn't exist up north and it is a very strong bond.

 

[Point6]

My gut tells me (and I truly hope) that southern pride and culture will keep the ACC schools from jumping to a northern conference. Living in Tennessee has taught me that there is a southern bond in the area that doesn't exist up north and it is a very strong bond.

This is part of our problem with the ACC and college football elite in general. Some of them are still drawing lines based on the civil war and we are Yankees, not in the club.

 

[UConnRock]

This is part of our problem with the ACC and college football elite in general. Some of them are still drawing lines based on the civil war and we are Yankees, not in the club.

Yes, but that line has been crossed from south to north by the ACC with the addition of BC, Pitt and Cuse. So as long as the southern conference is making the decisions it was OK. That line has never been crossed from north to south. No truly southern ACC or SEC team has ever made a move to a northern conference. I don't think UVA, UNC or GT want to be the first.

 

[businesslawyer]

This is part of our problem with the ACC and college football elite in general. Some of them are still drawing lines based on the civil war and we are Yankees, not in the club.

Herbst's fault. If she had been on our her game, she would have made sure to avert the Civil War to prevent this from happening.

 

[ZooCougar]

Herbst's fault. If she had been on our her game, she would have made sure to avert the Civil War to prevent this from happening.

True. But maybe she would have shaped things a year and a half ago and actually built up some capacity to have some sort of advocacy in the media. We literally had no public allies in November. It was a stunning gap on our part.

Supposedly UConn has a more robust PR dept now under Herbst, but they may actually suck at their jobs.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

Yes, but that line has been crossed from south to north by the ACC with the addition of BC, Pitt and Cuse. So as long as the southern conference is making the decisions it was OK. That line has never been crossed from north to south. No truly southern ACC or SEC team has ever made a move to a northern conference. I don't think UVA, UNC or GT want to be the first.

Oh wow! Just like the Civil War, with no southern movement into the north. This must be the Gettysburg Phenomena! Back then the Virginians, The Tar Heels and the Georgians all tried to be the first and got their asses kicked. Must still remember.