Key tweets, and it's all gone to Hell.

[prankster]

Here's what I'm hearing: The new D1 rules for basketball will institute attendance requirements for the conference tournaments. And the most shocking thing about this inside scoop is that the ACC is dangerously close to falling out of D1 because of the new requirements. But there's a plan now among ACC ADs to buy as many of those $3 tickets as possible in order to give them to school children to fill those seats.

Who wouldn't do that?

I'd be tempted, as an AD, to use that approach to build a student group of crazy enthusiastic fans and subsidize their tickets to games. Including regular season away games. Any empty seats on the charter flights to away games? Wanna bring the pep band? A boisterous group of 20 students?
Opportunities abound.

Not too unlike NFL teams generating a "sellout" to ensure the games did not suffer a regional TV blackout, back in the day.

 

[billybud]

The 2019 average basketball attendance...national ranking

Syracuse... #1

UNC...#3

Louisville...#6

Virginia...#16

NC State...#20

Duke and FSU in top 50...another six teams ranked in the 60's and 70's.

 

[baggerbob]

Here's what I'm hearing: The new D1 rules for basketball will institute attendance requirements for the conference tournaments. And the most shocking thing about this inside scoop is that the ACC is dangerously close to falling out of D1 because of the new requirements. But there's a plan now among ACC ADs to buy as many of those $3 tickets as possible in order to give them to school children to fill those seats.

It's because the tournament most of the time is in North Carolina. The tournament needs to be moved to NY City or Atlanta, need to take it out of North Carolina.
It's time to make it a real league, and not just North Carolina.

 

[upstater]

The 2019 average basketball attendance...national ranking

Syracuse... #1

UNC...#3

Louisville...#6

Virginia...#16

NC State...#20

Duke and FSU in top 50...another six teams ranked in the 60's and 70's.

The ACC is excellent at filling seats. It doesn't even cost them a lot to buy them all up and give them away. Gotta hand it to them.

 

[Kolumbo]

It's because the tournament most of the time is in North Carolina. The tournament needs to be moved to NY City or Atlanta, need to take it out of North Carolina.
It's time to make it a real league, and not just North Carolina.

I was thinking the opposite. The southern conference needs to keep the tournament in its home state where its best programs are. NYC isn't a short drive for any of those schools, never mind Duke and UNC. NYC makes no sense. Maybe the ACC will shoot for Philly, Houston and LA next.

 

[shizzle787]

I was thinking the opposite. The southern conference needs to keep the tournament in its home state where its best programs are. NYC isn't a short drive for any of those schools, never mind Duke and UNC. NYC makes no sense. Maybe the ACC will shoot for Philly, Houston and LA next.

View attachment 74245

If I were them I would hold the tournament in DC. Other good choices would be Miami, Charlotte, and maybe Boston one year.

 

[Exit 4]

If I were them I would hold the tournament in DC. Other good choices would be Miami, Charlotte, and maybe Boston one year.

Seems to me the ACC tourny should be in NC permanently. Its a tobacco conf.....thats a fish out of water in places like Brooklyn, Philly and some respects DC too.

 

[billybud]

Tradition still counts some...

But...the ACC is playing in Barclay's in New York this year...in the New York Life ACC Tournament.

They will play in Washington DC in 2024.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

I was thinking the opposite. The southern conference needs to keep the tournament in its home state where its best programs are. NYC isn't a short drive for any of those schools, never mind Duke and UNC. NYC makes no sense. Maybe the ACC will shoot for Philly, Houston and LA next.

View attachment 74245

Always interesting to see on a map what outliers BCU, University of Canada, The Pitts, ND & LCC really are. Maryland, Rutgirls & UConn would make for a much better looking alignment, Just drop Pitt, ND & LCC. I realize it won't happen, just talking map hypotheticals. Location wise, Nova would be good too. Maybe it one of those alternate universes it's happening.

 

[CTBballfan243]

If I were them I would hold the tournament in DC. Other good choices would be Miami, Charlotte, and maybe Boston one year.

Nobody in Boston cares about college sports. Most people in Boston couldn't name a school that plays in the ACC.

 

[uconndogs]

I think the NCAA is trying to maintain relevance with the top echelon programs that may very well be contemplating leaving the NCAA. At that level of college competition we are now entering full fledge professional athletics. NIL all but assures that competition for talent will be heavily geared towards compensation. That's a ground altering shift and most college athletic departments (including many currently in the P5) are not going to be competitive in that environment. The NCAA is a bureaucracy, and like all bureaucracies it will try to maintain its relevance.

With Texas and Oklahoma heading to the SEC the BiG probably has to do something and I think they go poach the enormous markets addressed by the PAC12. This goes to ~40 programs divided north and south with a huge media deal. Top athletes will make millions. Not sure what role the NCAA plays in that world.

 

[Kolumbo]

Always interesting to see on a map what outliers BCU, University of Canada, The Pitts, ND & LCC really are. Maryland, Rutgirls & UConn would make for a much better looking alignment, Just drop Pitt, ND & LCC. I realize it won't happen, just talking map hypotheticals. Location wise, Nova would be good too. Maybe it one of those alternate universes it's happening.

UCONN, Rutgers, Temple, Maryland would make for a nice regional pairing in any conference. still can't believe Maryland and Rutgers are in the B1G.

 

[CL82]

Nobody in Boston cares about college sports. Most people in Boston couldn't name a school that plays in the ACC.

If you ask them that question the answer would probably be Duke.

 

[billybud]

I never liked the move of the ACC into the northeast.

Made no geographic sense to have a geographic spread from Little Havana to near Canada.

Regionalism still works...The SEC owns a swath from Texas and oklahoma through Arkansas, Louisianna, Mississippi, and on across the southeast to the coast.

The Big East has a commonality that goes beyond geography...basketball...no matter where it is played...Gonzaga could feel at home in the BE with kindred spirits. The SEC has a commonality as well (football).

The ACC has a lack of commanaility...basketball? football? south? north?

 

[Kolumbo]

I never liked the move of the ACC into the northeast.

Made no geographic sense to have a geographic spread from Little Havana to near Canada.

Regionalism still works...The SEC owns a swath from Texas and oklahoma through Arkansas, Louisianna, Mississippi, and on across the southeast to the coast.

The Big East has a commonality that goes beyond geography...basketball...no matter where it is played...Gonzaga could feel at home in the BE with kindred spirits. The SEC has a commonality as well (football).

The ACC has a lack of commanaility...basketball? football? south? north?

This is the recipe for success (each with only 1 or 2 exceptions):
B1G = State Flagships across the north
SEC = State Flagships/Publics across the south
PAC = State Flagships/Publics in the west
Big East = Basketball, Privates

not too tasty
ACC = carolinas, public, private, large, small, catholic, nonsectarian, some basketball, some football, some hockey
B1g 12 = dying
AAC = half-way house

 

[Husky25]

The ACC's problem is that the basketball schools are no longer particularly good at football, and the football schools are not world beaters at basketball.

To that point, the ACC has the same problem as the AAC. "Rivalries" are forced and uninventive, which fail to excite students and alums (which in turn leads them to spend their disposable dollar elsewhere), or recruits.

When the ACC raided the Big East, they destroyed both conferences.

 

[billybud]

This is the recipe for success (each with only 1 or 2 exceptions):
B1G = State Flagships across the north
SEC = State Flagships/Publics across the south
PAC = State Flagships/Publics in the west
Big East = Basketball, Privates

not too tasty
ACC = carolinas, public, private, large, small, catholic, nonsectarian, some basketball, some football, some hockey
B1g 12 = dying
AAC = half-way house

What the ACC does do fairly well is the non revenue sports

National Champs in 2021...

Men's Soccer (Clemson), Women's Soccer (FSU), Men's Lacrosse (Va.), Women's Lacrosse BC), Women's Cross Country(NC State)

Of the last three softball National Tournaments, FSU won the NC in one and was runner up in another...

UNC won the Field Hockey NC in 2018, 2019, 2020

 

[Husky25]

Whatever seems like decent justification for destroying the competitive balance of two former major conferences (Clemson's recent football success not withstanding), $25 million payouts do not exist because of Women's Cross Country, LAX, and/or Soccer of either gender.

 

[uconndogs]

The universities and NCAA have nobody to blame but themselves for the mess this has become. These conference alignments came about because of the dollars associated with media deals that were what - 5 -10 year deals? There was no strategy as to what the truly long-term impact would be on these universities, the alumni and the fanbases. The only conference that has been relatively true to a strategy is the BiG and to a lesser extent the SEC.

In my opinion this is all about to come home to roost. The money that is available will make thieves out of the best of these schools and now with NIL its going to cost a lot to play. There is nothing benevolent about this process anymore. When it comes time to divvy up the cash, the Texas's of the world are going to ask what the hell Vanderbilt is doing at the table. It will bifurcate with the elite programs being essentially professional sport franchises. Not particularly interesting to me, but maybe I'm not the typical college fan.

 

[Husky25]

The universities and NCAA have nobody to blame but themselves for the mess this has become. These conference alignments came about because of the dollars associated with media deals that were what - 5 -10 year deals? There was no strategy as to what the truly long-term impact would be on these universities, the alumni and the fanbases. The only conference that has been relatively true to a strategy is the BiG and to a lesser extent the SEC.

In my opinion this is all about to come home to roost. The money that is available will make thieves out of the best of these schools and now with NIL its going to cost a lot to play. There is nothing benevolent about this process anymore. When it comes time to divvy up the cash, the Texas's of the world are going to ask what the hell Vanderbilt is doing at the table. It will bifurcate with the elite programs being essentially professional sport franchises. Not particularly interesting to me, but maybe I'm not the typical college fan.

"Casual."

 

[billybud]

Whatever seems like decent justification for destroying the competitive balance of two former major conferences (Clemson's recent football success not withstanding), $25 million payouts do not exist because of Women's Cross Country, LAX, and/or Soccer of either gender.

True...because those sports are the remnants of the college student athlete systems that prevailed 50 or so years ago.

 

[billybud]

We have been responsible for this mess....

We have watched live sports in such masses as to make them the most valuable commodity for a media network.

You get that which you reward.

 

[uconndogs]

We have been responsible for this mess....

We have watched live sports in such masses as to make them the most valuable commodity for a media network.

You get that which you reward.

Well, speaking for myself I watch a lot less of college sports than I used to.

Watching the NFL Development league holds a lot less appeal to me than watching the NFL. There was a time when I watched all of my football on Saturdays. Once the writing was on the wall as to where this was all headed my behavior switched. I didn't see NIL coming like it did, but now that it's here it will accelerate very fast (already is I'm sure). Top recruits will be swept up by programs that have the best systems in place to pay them and kids that slip through the cracks as high school recruits will then be incented to move to the highest bidder. I don't begrudge the kids getting paid, but the whole thing has lost its appeal to me.

At the worst end of this will be kids who will be taken advantage of by agents and hangers on if good programs are not put in place to protect them. I seriously doubt if the athletic departments, NCAA, conferences or networks give a rats about that.

 

[billybud]

I like watching women's softball...men and women's soccer, lacrosse....but swimming, track, etc bore me beyond my endurance.

 

[uconndogs]

"Casual."

I get the humor in that, but to be serious for a moment, I was probably a very knowledgeable college sports fan, I don't know, maybe +90 percentile? My guess is that folks like me who aren't SEC or BiG alumni are the ones most disillusioned.

I just keep on coming back to a football playoff where just about everyone on the field is making some serious coin and the rest of the bowls are just about meaningless because the best players won't want to play for risk of injury. It's just a much different beast.

I don't think basketball is out of the woods on this either. It may be more manageable for programs like UCONN to develop NIL programs in hoops given our hoops legacy and the fact that there are just fewer kids in the program than for football. But, I certainly don't think that's a given. I can see top basketball recruits getting huge money - xseven figures. If you can't build a system to support that how do you compete?