North Carolina and Virginia may have Big Ten offers

[HuskyHawk]

No offense to anyone, but someone's cousin and a bunch of message board posters' opinion of a school are completely irrelevant to this discussion.

Which means that this discussion is irrelevant to this discussion. Lighten up Francis.

 

[freescooter]

I find this sort of unlikely, although in this day and age, who the heck can be sure. he is the problem, though. why would the Big move in two pieces? If you're announcing an expansion, aren't you going to do it once and be done? Problem 2 is both UNC and Virginia have ugly step sisters, but ugly step sisters who have lots of political clout. there needs to be a soft landing for VaTech and NC State or both UNC and particularly Virginia have serious political problems. As we saw in the past, VaTech while not as shi-shi-foo-foo as Virginia, has a larger alumni base and a very large amount of clout. As someone else pointed out, same applies to NC State. And really does the SEC want to cooperate and take them? Or the B-12? Big 10 isn't doing it.

 

[auggie22]

Apologies if I have disturbed the unwritten rules of posting on this topic.

I don't pretend to know what will happen and there are a lot of variables at play that would make it difficult for even an industry expert to predict. Just providing a contrarian view. I see the logic in thinking that UNC would naturally gravitate to B1G - $$$ and academic prestige. I mentioned the story about my cousin only to point out a factor that I had completely discounted before - that UNC, it's alumni and the people of NC generally seem to identify themselves as southerners first. So much so that even people who move their from the north, and spend less than half of their lives there find themselves with a linen closet filled with "stars and bars" towels.

Would U Florida or U Georgia leave for the B1G if they were invited?

IF the ACC were to collapse I think the SEC would provide a more natural landing spot for UNC, despite the differences in academic rep. It seems the $$$ will be roughly the same, or at least close enough that it will not be the driving factor. Certainly not more of a factor than the football recruiting issues associated with being a southern school in a northern league. And IF that were to happen I am speculating that cultural issues would trump academic ones (note: two of the schools that UNC benchmarks itself against are U Florida and U Georgia). And with Vandy, and the addition of A&M and Mizzou, and whatever other school that the SEC would add with them, there now appears to be some semblance of academic rigor.

 

[junglehusky]

If I may speculate for a bit: I haven't lived in the south, only visited Asheville a couple days (and been to conventions in larger cities but that doesn't really tell you much). My naive impression was that North Carolinans might identify as Southerners first, but not as deep south as the SEC states (I'd guess Alabamans might consider Carolinians to be halfway to being yankees?). I mean... NC voted for Obama in '08, though it was the only state to flip to Romney in '12. So I'm guessing if they had to choose between B1G and SEC, they might actually take some time to decide. It might be that the student body / alunmi lean towards the SEC and the trustees / decision makers lean the other way (especially if they've spent part of their careers in the North or other parts of the country).

 

[UConn990411]

There is a 0% chance the ACC collapses. There's too many quality athletic departments on the east coast to fill the limited available slots in the B1G and SEC, and the ACC has a powerful weapon in ESPN on its side.

All that will happen is that the ACC will fall to the fifth-best football conference in the country. But heck, they already are the fifth-best football conference in the country.

 

[ASweet3781]

Wait a minute. What tv market does UVA bring to the table? That's what this is all about right? Funny how the criteria seems to change for each school.

 

[methodology]

If I may speculate for a bit: I haven't lived in the south, only visited Asheville a couple days (and been to conventions in larger cities but that doesn't really tell you much). My naive impression was that North Carolinans might identify as Southerners first, but not as deep south as the SEC states (I'd guess Alabamans might consider Carolinians to be halfway to being yankees?). I mean... NC voted for Obama in '08, though it was the only state to flip to Romney in '12. So I'm guessing if they had to choose between B1G and SEC, they might actually take some time to decide. It might be that the student body / alunmi lean towards the SEC and the trustees / decision makers lean the other way (especially if they've spent part of their careers in the North or other parts of the country).

Your speculation is wrong. I lived in DC, AL, MS, TN, FL for some short stints (2 months being the shortest and 1 yr being the longest) and from my experience once you get out of the NOVA (northern VA) it is deep south. Maybe not as deep south as Bama and Miss but the people, culture, etc all consider themselves southerners.

I am sure if you go visit UNC message boards the majority will be repeating they dont want to go to the B1G because it is a northern conference and they are southerners.

 

[methodology]

Wait a minute. What tv market does UVA bring to the table? That's what this is all about right? Funny how the criteria seems to change for each school.

They would bring in VA and NOVA (not completely sure MD market reaches into NOVA).

NOVA is also the largest growing part of hte country population wise, I believe.

 

[CL82]

And pay fake professors and fake tutors for their fake classes.

And those fake classes need fake buildings to be not held in. I mean you can't just conjure that up out of thin air.

 

[Jericho]

They would bring in VA and NOVA (not completely sure MD market reaches into NOVA).

NOVA is also the largest growing part of hte country population wise, I believe.

Pretty much this. Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond, and the entire state is 12th in the US in Population (and growing at a good rate). It has a solid athletic department and is one of the best public schools in America.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There is a 0% chance the ACC collapses. There's too many quality athletic departments on the east coast to fill the limited available slots in the B1G and SEC, and the ACC has a powerful weapon in ESPN on its side.

All that will happen is that the ACC will fall to the fifth-best football conference in the country. But heck, they already are the fifth-best football conference in the country.

That is what the Syracuse insider is saying. I think it is more like 50/50, but we shall see.

 

[ASweet3781]

Pretty much this. Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond, and the entire state is 12th in the US in Population (and growing at a good rate). It has a solid athletic department and is one of the best public schools in America.

UVA does not have a solid athletic department. UVA has the worst combo of football-basketball right now of just about any top notch BCS school in America.

I worked in DC for 3 years and lived in Arlington, VA. My job was to read the Post every morning and keep track of the local news. I don't ever remember much of a UVA sports presence is Northern Virginia. It was Maryland country.

Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond? UConn is split between NYC and Boston. Love how everyone just ignores that than hypes up UVA's location between DC and Richmond when UConn is closer to Boston than UVA is to DC. And as for the closet TV markets, Hartford/New Haven is 30th, Richmond is 58th. I am told TV markets and football is the main thing. UVA sucks at football and it's closet TV market is 58th.

No wonder UConn may be left on the sidelines. Our own fans talk up just about every other candidate and buy into their hype. Maybe we should start giving some of these schools the UConn treatment, aka diminish them and ignore their strengths and highlight their weaknesses.

 

[Lock City Husky]

Your speculation is wrong. I lived in DC, AL, MS, TN, FL for some short stints (2 months being the shortest and 1 yr being the longest) and from my experience once you get out of the NOVA (northern VA) it is deep south. Maybe not as deep south as Bama and Miss but the people, culture, etc all consider themselves southerners.

I am sure if you go visit UNC message boards the majority will be repeating they dont want to go to the B1G because it is a northern conference and they are southerners.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Where was the Capital of the Confederacy? Richmond. Both of my parents were born in VA. I've got tons of family there. There are gray signs everywhere commemorating some battle or key moment during the Civil War. People still reference the War of Northern Aggression today. These folks are Southerners through and through! Culturally, they fit right in with the SEC.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I still find it hard to believe that UNC walks away from the ACC. I would also be shocked if it could happen quickly unless NCSU held an SEC offer.

Swofford ought to be on the phone to ESPN saying, "Fix this deal." I don't think it is in ESPN's best interest to destroy the ACC after already destroying the Big East. What are they going to do for programming in the 7 PM time slot for the East Coast? Show us SEC and Big 10 basketball games? They are unwatchible.

 

[Lock City Husky]

UVA does not have a solid athletic department. UVA has the worst combo of football-basketball right now of just about any top notch BCS school in America.

I worked in DC for 3 years and lived in Arlington, VA. My job was to read the Post every morning and keep track of the local news. I don't ever remember much of a UVA sports presence is Northern Virginia. It was Maryland country.

Charlottesville is split between DC and Richmond? UConn is split between NYC and Boston. Love how everyone just ignores that than hypes up UVA's location between DC and Richmond when UConn is closer to Boston than UVA is to DC. And as for the closet TV markets, Hartford/New Haven is 30th, Richmond is 58th. I am told TV markets and football is the main thing. UVA sucks at football and it's closet TV market is 58th.

No wonder UConn may be left on the sidelines. Our own fans talk up just about every other candidate and buy into their hype. Maybe we should start giving some of these schools the UConn treatment, aka diminish them and ignore their strengths and highlight their weaknesses.

Let's be fair here. I am a Husky, but UVA (and VT for that matter) have a presence in the NoVa/DC market. They also have a major presence in the 44th Market (Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News: 709,730), the aforementioned 57th Market (Richmond-Petersburg: 553,390), the 68th Market (Roanoke-Lynchburg-Danville: 445,470) and the very small Charlottesville market (Rank 183: 74,340). Add that all together and that's nearly 1.79 million TV sets on top of whatever the draw out of the DC market. That's has to be attractive to any conference suitor if we're simply talking TV.