Irish fan on why UConn belongs in the ACC

[NotreDameJoe]

Coach Muffet might protest UCONN to the ACC but she is not going to trump a fiscal incentive.

Does Coach K have a Husky problem? That might be a bigger speed bump.

 

[btstimpy]

Coach Muffet might protest UCONN to the ACC but she is not going to trump a fiscal incentive.

Does Coach K have a Husky problem? That might be a bigger speed bump.

Coach K likes to promote good basketball and add good basketball teams. He would be a supporter of UConn. He is also very much a league advocate, not just a Duke advocate. It's one of the things I like about Coach K.

 

[Yawkey Way]

It's not hard for UConn fans to certainly the B1G would take UConn ahead of Pitt, Syracuse, BC, Louisville, or Miami.

I hear you on this, but if true ,why didn't ( and havn't ) the BIG taken Uconn, when it was there for the taking when Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville were still in the BE, and available to them. Why are they not calling now ?

 

[Sea Goat]

quote="tzznandrew, post: 933726, member: 168"]You can't blame us for being bitter. Look at what the BE was just last year, and then look at what the AAC will be this Fall. And that is, in part, due to a school like ND voting with the catholics all the way back in 2003.

Look, until UConn ends up in a real league (and I've frankly grown to like Memphis fans, so I hope they end up somewhere good as well), there will certainly be bitter directed at those who are in large part to blame for our situation. BC and Pitt are 1-2. But ND isn't that far behind.[/quote]

We'll get taken care of soon, IMO. In the meantime, the wizards of the ACC are saddled with perennial no shows like BC, Pitt and Syracuse. For all the hype about Syracuse, they have one BB title in 36 years (Boeheim's tenure) and their last football title was during the Eisenhower administration. Plus they bought the ND miracle elixer of partial (partial to ND) membership. We are better off in the B1G . Let's hope.

 

[NotreDameJoe]

I hear you on this, but if true ,why didn't ( and havn't ) the BIG taken Uconn, when it was there for the taking when Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville were still in the BE, and available to them. Why are they not calling now ?

The BUG had to keep PSU happy so they wouldn't defect to the ACC. Hence Delaney grabbed their contiguous old rivals Rutgers and Maryland (the latter had one of their placed as President).

Same reasoning with the ACC keeping FSU happy so they wouldn't bolt for the Big12.

 

[upstater]

I can assure you that when Notre Dame plays its football game in Fenway Park there will be plenty of Bostonians showing up to watch. And the same will happen at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Plenty of Pennsylvanians will be in the stands. And when Notre Dame plays Syracuse in the Meadowlands, there will be citizens of New Jersey and New York in attendance. Maybe even Connecticut.

And that is relevant how?

 

[upstater]

-How is that any different from the BUG10? Do you think Rutgers and Minnesota share the same goals; besides keeping the armored trucks rolling up University Drive?

-Rutgers did not have crowd support in the Pinstripe Bowl despite the fact that they arrived on a bus

Quite. Jenkins is on record as a football fan, virtually quoting ndnation that "We can't become a regional power as it will destroy our recruiting."

-We've pretty much discussed to death that there was no back-stabbing. We declined full membership in the BUG10, Big East, and ACC and reaffirmed independence.

Depends on the region. Both conferences are in multiple regions. Northeast + Midwest for the B1G. Southeast + Northeast for the ACC. As I said, however, the B1G clearly has the best parts of the Northeast. The ACC somehow saddled itself with a regional school around the Pitt area, CNY and the icy tundra, and a Boston team whose football team is outdrawn in the Boston area by rodeo on ESPN2 when the school plays a conference game on ESPN. Meanwhile, the B1G grabbed Maryland, New Jersey and the vast majority of Pennsylvania.

You can backstab AND decline full membership. I well understand ND does the best to remain independent. The criticism comes in when ND votes on a question of football in the BE when it has no stake in football. If ND wanted to join the Catholic 7, that would have been absolutely fine with me. Instead, it voted in a way that prevented the football schools from leaving with half the assets. That was the backstab. The schools wanted to split the assets, but the ND vote prevented it.

 

[btstimpy]

And that is relevant how?

Marketing the school through football. What's important to Notre Dame is the physical appearance of its football team in those markets. In the ACC, Notre Dame can make physical appearances in those markets in league games. They can also do right down the eastern seaboard all the way to Miami hitting those big markets like Miami and Atlanta. And the only games they'll have to play in the Midwest are in South Bend, IN.

 

[upstater]

Silly stuff huh ? I like Peter Gammons, but theRed Sox - Yankees games this weekend will blow out the Boston TV watching audience numbers for the Uconn basketball games on TV last week. I mean I get the love you have for Uconn, , ( and the hate for BC) and all, but lets not go completely overboard here. Boston is a pro sports town, and most casual sports fans in this region consider the college game as the minor leagues, with amateurs playing these games ( which basically, they are ).

Let's see. 4 was the rating. For the women and men.

 

[upstater]

LOL yup-its a wash..with Runners training for the B.M., families clad in Sox gear, and student wearing sweatshirts of B.C., Harvard, N.U.,B.U., MIT, Wentworth, Emerson, and so on and so on. I was at a packed Clery's Irish Pub on Clarendon St/Columbus Ave last night watching the Sox/Yankees. I have lived/worked in Boston for the past 25 years two blocks from Copley and I assure you it is the same scene it is every year just before the impending Marathon. Did I miss something? Thanks for letting me know whats hot in the Bean at the moment.

I didn't let you know anything. What I stated was an absolute fact.

 

[upstater]

And yet we're still here. Molecular cohesion still holding.

Thank God for Notre Dame, smack in the center, holding the ship together.

You know the crazy stuff we've been hearing from these people for years? About the death of these areas? You'd think no one lived here. I'm in Buffalo. Within 1 hour and 15 minutes of me, there are 14 million people. Toronto + Hamilton + Buffalo + Rochester + Jamestown. Just like Michigan, a rusting hulk, with tens of millions of people living around Detroit.

Yet they tout Louisville's great TV market that is tops in the nation. We've heard this over and over. Meanwhile, a big chunk of that market is affiliated with Kentucky, and there are only 1.2 million people in the entire market. More people in New York City (4.6 rating among 23 million people) watched the women's championship than people in the Louisville (45 rating among 1.2 million) market watched the men's championship.

I think our ACC visitors need to understand some things about small markets like Louisville and Birmingham in relation to, say, Michigan or New Jersey or Pennsylvania, and heck, NY City. If UConn can draw a 2 rating in NYC, that will slay most of what goes on in the rest of he country.

 

[upstater]

Marketing the school through football. What's important to Notre Dame is the physical appearance of its football team in those markets. In the ACC, Notre Dame can make physical appearances in those markets in league games. They can also do right down the eastern seaboard all the way to Miami hitting those big markets like Miami and Atlanta. And the only games they'll have to play in the Midwest are in South Bend, IN.

So, you think Syracuse (that's not really going to help ND), Pitt and BC will be on the docket each and every year? ND wants Catholic populated areas. The northeast is the natural base. Not the south.

 

[UConn990411]

I can assure you that when Notre Dame plays its football game in Fenway Park there will be plenty of Bostonians showing up to watch. And the same will happen at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Plenty of Pennsylvanians will be in the stands. And when Notre Dame plays Syracuse in the Meadowlands, there will be citizens of New Jersey and New York in attendance. Maybe even Connecticut.

Notre Dame is not an ACC team. Nice try, though.

People in Boston don't give much a duckk about college sports, let alone the ACC.

 

[whaler11]

Well, havn't we been told that they defer to whatever it is that BC wants to do in cases like, and lets BC wishes prevail with these so called " southern schools " ?( again, I'm just trying to apply the reasoning oftentimes heard).

Duke is located in Raleigh. Is it a " southern school ". if so, much of its student body is from outside the South. The furthest " southern school" geogahically is Miami.. but I wouldn't call this former BE school a " southern school ", and their relationship with the northeast schools of Syracuse and BC and Pitt is better than it is with a school right within its state in the ACC... Florida State. There are lots of leagues now that seem not to make much sense. The ACC doesn't seem to me to be much different in this respect... and the AAC , surely doesn't make much sense either re. teams, schools, missions, etc

Just for the record Duke is in Durham. Saying it's in Raleigh would be like saying Yale is in Hartford.

Duke's student population has a strong New Jersey contigent.

 

[whaler11]

You know the crazy stuff we've been hearing from these people for years? About the death of these areas? You'd think no one lived here. I'm in Buffalo. Within 1 hour and 15 minutes of me, there are 14 million people. Toronto + Hamilton + Buffalo + Rochester + Jamestown. Just like Michigan, a rusting hulk, with tens of millions of people living around Detroit.

Yet they tout Louisville's great TV market that is tops in the nation. We've heard this over and over. Meanwhile, a big chunk of that market is affiliated with Kentucky, and there are only 1.2 million people in the entire market. More people in New York City (4.6 rating among 23 million people) watched the women's championship than people in the Louisville (45 rating among 1.2 million) market watched the men's championship.

I think our ACC visitors need to understand some things about small markets like Louisville and Birmingham in relation to, say, Michigan or New Jersey or Pennsylvania, and heck, NY City. If UConn can draw a 2 rating in NYC, that will slay most of what goes on in the rest of he country.

LOL no one has ever said Toronto is dying. Cleveland sure - have you been there lately?

Are you really trying to claim Detroit isn't a shell of what it was?

 

[Yawkey Way]

Yeah...I love UConn, and there is a presence here...but mostly among former CT residents or UConn alum. It's sizable enough to take over some bars when the tournament is on, but I'm not sure who Gammons is talking to. UConn doesn't really move the needle much. To be fair, neither does BC (other than hockey).

This is an accurate assessment, imo. Even BC Hockey doesn't move the needle much, imo in the Boston region. In the Boston region, College Sports is discussed on talk radio, and in the pubs, and around the office water coolers, etc only when its a college Championship Game, thus to Uconn's credit, they did get a 46 hour window of media buzz around Boston both before and after their games last week, but now neither BC, Umass, Harvard, Uconn, etc get much buzz .Its all back to page 5 stuff in the Boston papers now re. college sports. Boston has the largest sports talk radio audience in numbers in the entire country according to reports. But its almost entirely pro sports talk and buzz all the time on these radio stations and, around and about Greater Boston, and just talking to people ( I ought to know, I'm born and raised in the Boston region ). I wish it were different, but its not, and it is what it is.

 

[NotreDameJoe]

Depends on the region. Both conferences are in multiple regions. Northeast + Midwest for the B1G. Southeast + Northeast for the ACC. As I said, however, the B1G clearly has the best parts of the Northeast. The ACC somehow saddled itself with a regional school around the Pitt area, CNY and the icy tundra, and a Boston team whose football team is outdrawn in the Boston area by rodeo on ESPN2 when the school plays a conference game on ESPN. Meanwhile, the B1G grabbed Maryland, New Jersey and the vast majority of Pennsylvania.

You can backstab AND decline full membership. I well understand ND does the best to remain independent. The criticism comes in when ND votes on a question of football in the BE when it has no stake in football. If ND wanted to join the Catholic 7, that would have been absolutely fine with me. Instead, it voted in a way that prevented the football schools from leaving with half the assets. That was the backstab. The schools wanted to split the assets, but the ND vote prevented it.

I don't know where exactly the Midwest starts but it's in PA east of Philly. PSU is in a rural setting in the start of the Midwest. Maryland is DC, the start of the South. NJ is NYC. So the BUG may have driven eastward to get more territories but they are all on islands, just as PSU was an island for many years. They are still the BUG's tentacles while the head will remain in Michigan/Ohio.

Yeah I know they will have another expensive office in NYC for entertaining sponsors but the power will stay with the Big 2.

If we voted in favor of breaking the Big East then all the Catholic bball schools would be lodging the same complaint about how Notre Dame kicked them out of their conference. And it wouldn't matter either, Kevin White cast a vote for what he wanted just like everyone else did. Funny how no one ever mentions 'back stabbing' by Pitt, Syr, Maryland, Boise, and TCU when all of them reneged on their contracts. Notre Dame met all her obligations to the Big East.

 

[TerryD]

Haha. I hadn't realized the "rivalry" didn't go back further. So, fair enough. But BC is not as impressive or intimidating as USC, Michigan, Michigan State...and even recently, Stanford. So while I perhaps overstated my point with "punching bag," my basic point that ND would have the advantage of having some easier games against teams that they have historic relationships with is still true.

ND is not giving up Southern Cal or Stanford. They will play them every year, just as before

ND does a lot of recruiting in California and ends each regular season on the West Coast.

ND only played Michigan regularly since 1978 (Michigan boycotted ND from 1909-42 and 1943-1978).

So, it is not much more of a traditional rivalry than BC was, numbers wise.

ND will play Purdue and Michigan State, just not every year.

Finally, what makes you think that ND would end up in a different ACC division than all of FSU, Clemson, Miami ? That would not happen.

Here are ND's future schedules:


2014 Football Schedule
A30 RICE NBC
S06 MICHIGAN 7:30pm NBC
S13 vs. Purdue (LucasOil) 7:30pm NBC
S27 @ Syracuse (Meadowlands)
O04 STANFORD
O11 NORTH CAROLINA
O18 @ Florida State
N01 @ Navy (Landover, MD)
N08 @ Arizona State
N15 NORTHWESTERN
N22 LOUISVILLE
N29 @ Southern Cal


2015 Football Schedule
S05 TEXAS
S12 @ Virginia
S19 GEORGIA TECH
S26 UMASS
O03 @ Clemson
O10 NAVY
O17 SOUTHERN CAL
O31 @ Temple (LFSF)
N07 @ Pittsburgh
N14 WAKE FOREST
N21 BOSTON COLLEGE (Fenway Pk.)
N28 @ Stanford


2016 Football Schedule
S03 @ Texas
S10 NEVADA
S17 MICHIGAN STATE
S24 DUKE
O01 @ Syracuse (Meadowlands)
O08 @ North Carolina State
O15 STANFORD
O29 MIAMI
N05 @ Navy
N12 ARMY (Alamodome)
N19 VIRGINIA TECH
N26 @ Southern Cal


2017 Football Schedule
not official

TEMPLE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
@ Michigan State
@ Stanford
2 ACC at home
3 ACC away


2018 Football Schedule
not official

STANFORD
@ Navy
@ Southern Cal
3 ACC at home
2 ACC away


2019 Football Schedule
not official

NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
@ Texas
@ Stanford
2 ACC at home
3 ACC away


2020 Football Schedule
not official

TEXAS
STANFORD
@ Purdue
@ Navy
@ Southern Cal
3 ACC at home
2 ACC away


2021 Football Schedule
not official

PURDUE
NAVY
SOUTHERN CAL
@ Stanford
2 ACC at home
3 ACC away


2022 Football Schedule
not official

STANFORD
@ Navy
@ Southern Cal
3 ACC at home
2 ACC away


I think that those schedules are pretty good and without that many "punching bags". Phil Steele rates ND's 2014 schedule as the fourth toughest in the nation.


http://www.philsteele.com/Blogs/2014/MAR14/DBMar15.html


I wish UConn and its fans the best. I hope UConn ends up in either the ACC or the Big Ten. It deserves a seat at the P5 table. Take care, guys.

 

[NotreDameJoe]

and Boston and NYC are metropolitan communities filled with people who have no attachment to any individual local college. Nobody dominates them anymore than about 5 schools claim to own Houston.

 

[Yawkey Way]

and Boston and NYC are metropolitan communities filled with people who have no attachment to any individual local college. Nobody dominates them anymore than about 5 schools claim to own Houston.

True, to ND's credit they have a lengthy and rich history of football too. They also benefit by being located in an immediate area with no other competition for sports buzz. I went to South Bend twice for games there ( vs. BC ). ND is truly blessed with a beautiful campus, and ALL its school's sports teams have beautiful and wonderful expansive fields. I was impressed with their facilities there ( although the stadium needs updating, imo ). But I can also see why a single family, 4 bed, 3 bath, 2400 Sq. Ft, 2 car attached garage can be had for about 250 large out there. South Bend, Ind, and its immediate environs is freakin' boring beyond belief to this coastal, eastern city, guy.

 

[Seaa Blue]

( although the stadium needs updating, imo ).

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...proves-400-million-stadium-renovation-project

 

[Yawkey Way]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...proves-400-million-stadium-renovation-project

If you've been to a lot of college football stadiums, and have been in seats, and have sat in seats at ND, then you know that ND's seating for fans is decidely " old school ", and needs to be brought up to date. My guess, you havn't sat in the stands at ND stadium, otherwise you'd know what I'm referring too. Heck, more than half the ACC schools have better seating and site lines for fans than does resource rich ND. Even comparatively smallish BC's Alumni Stadium has better seating and sight lines for fans in their stadium than ND does. But lets not take this out of context either. I said above that ND has wonderful and expansive fields for ALL their sports teams. They have the land. They have the resources, and their fields that adjoin their football stadium are top notch.... truly first rate, imo. But their seating, and sight lines, for football games at their football stadium ? Needs work, imo. But again, its just my assessment on it here too.

 

[Seaa Blue]

ND only played Michigan regularly since 1978 (Michigan boycotted ND from 1909-42 and 1943-1978).

2015-

 

[Seaa Blue]

But their seating, and sight lines, for football games at their football stadium ? Needs work, imo. But again, its just my assessment on it here too.

That's what happens when you have demand that far exceeds supply in an 84 year old stadium.

 

[Yawkey Way]

That's what happens when you have demand that far exceeds supply in an 84 year old stadium.

Sure, and I understand that. ND stadium in this respect is like Fenway Park in Boston. Fenway Park is a great place to watch a ball game, due to its history there, and the fact that a lot of fans can be much closer in their seats to the action on the field. Its a veritable shrine, and a national treasure. But after being at Fenway Park in my life more times than I can count , would I say the seats are comfortable and its sight lines great at Fenway Park ? Heck, no. Even JetBlue Stadium in Ft. Myers, FL., the Red Sox new Spring Training facility for their Spring Training Games, has far better modern, and more spacious and comfortable seating for their fans than good ol' Fenway Park does.