NY Post: WVU set to leave, loss could lead to collapse of Big East

[jpm25]

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-college-football-fans-and-realignment-chaos/

It's a real interesting read.

Maybe I'm just getting hung up on the semantics of "dominating" and "very strong market share."

That doesn't read to me like delivering the NYC market on a platter.

Regardless, that's exactly what I'd be trying to portray if I'm UConn or Rutgers.

Right - no team does. But the way I see it, if you are the ACC and you can have Duke, UNC etc. playing in the meadowlands or MSG (in bball) vs Rutgers, that has appeal beyond Rutgers fans. Likewise a football game for their team just outside the city would likely draw from opponent fan bases as well. It doesn't hurt to have market share or even mind share in such a fragmented market.

 

[CTMike]

Right - no team does. But the way I see it, if you are the ACC and you can have Duke, UNC etc. playing in the meadowlands or MSG (in bball) vs Rutgers, that has appeal beyond Rutgers fans. Likewise a football game for their team just outside the city would likely draw from opponent fan bases as well. It doesn't hurt to have market share or even mind share in such a fragmented market.

Fair point. It would increase the exposure of all ACC teams.

 

[JaYnYcE]

hahahahaha

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don't see how this is bad news for the ACC. I thought the theory was the ACC was trying to destroy the Big East. Now that it is happening are you arguing that it is not good for the ACC?

Everything depends on the $$$ and the ACC's new contract is going to be robust. I am willing to bet it will be more per team than the Big 12s existing and/or new deal with ESPN. The ACC passed on WV because they are NOT as attractive to ESPN. If they were as attractive, they would have offered them in 03 or last month.

As for New York being wide open, if the powers that be (ESPN, Fox, Big Ten, Delaney, ACC, Swofford, everyone's consultants) thought Rutgers could deliver any meaningful part of the New York market, they would be in the Big Ten or have been offered by the ACC. Believing that any league that adds Rutgers and Uconn will dominate NYC is very optimistic and you have to have your Huskie Vision glasses on to see that. Why has the ACC expanded (twice), the Big Ten (once), the Big 12 (three times if they add WV) and yet none of them have offered Rutgers or Uconn?

We will know soon enough. But after Mizzou goes to SEC, and Big 12 makes there move, there will be no play made for either Rutgers or Uconn unless Notre Dame makes a move to Big Ten or ACC. I hope I am wrong.

A post like mine above flushes out the trolls. Thanks for biting.

Destroying the Big East works if all the member institutions go away or get relegated to weaker conferences. If they just end up in healthier conferences, it defeats the purpose of destroying the Big East in the first place. The ACC thought they could take two teams and the other 7 would die on the vine. Now 2 more have found a home, and that looks likely to jump to 4 fairly shortly, with the Big 12 now moving closer to New York and adding four programs that are superior in almost every way to Pitt and Syracuse.

The ACC triggered a move that will ultimately result in a bigger, stronger Big 12, right in their own backyard in West Virginia. Also, now there is a potential third player for UConn/Rutgers. As I said before, collusion between two parties, such as the Big 10 and ACC, to not take UConn and Rutgers, is relatively easy. Collusion between 3 parties is very difficult, particularly when the Big 12 has no New York presence right now.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Actually, this is bad news for the ACC as well as UConn. The ACC went from being one of the surviving 4 BCS leagues to clearly the weakest of 5 BCS leagues, especially if Louisville and Cincinnati join the Big 12. Syracuse and Pitt, despite Syracuse's upset last week, are both likely finishing with losing records in a mediocre Big East, and neither brings any market other than two dying industrial cities whose best days were two turns of the century ago.

New York is still wide open for any of the real BCS leagues because Syracuse has little fan base in the Big Apple, and any league that grabbed UConn and Rutgers would dominate NYC and put the ACC on death watch as the next BCS league to get torn apart.

I don't think that Florida State and Miami are going to remain down forever. There's just too much talent in that state, and they still have great brands. The ACC won't always be the weak sister of the remaining power conferences.