The ACC is worse off without Maryland than the other way around - Washington Post

[uconndogs]

Given what's come out about Louisville it amazes me that their are still ACC folks happy to have them in the conference. There has to be some moral compass to that thinking, but maybe not.

Jurich is gone, Pitino is gone and Petrino is........well Petrino. It will be interesting to see where Louisville ends up in the next 5-10 years. Personally, I wouldn't be long on the Cards.

 

[JeepCSC]

UConn was (and would be still) my first choice to have replaced Louisville. Geographic fit and basketball alone, let alone anything else. But FSU and Clemson were calling the shots back then, so football became the choice. The fact that it’s one of the more rabid college sports towns was a plus for the soon-to-be ACC Network. It’s still not ideal, but it is what it is.

 

[btstimpy]

I don't think there is any way to positively spin losing a large state flagship university situated in an incredibly valuable media market. I get that The ACC did what it felt it had to do at the time by bringing in Louisville, but their inclusion seemed like a short term solution to a long term problem. Louisville always seemed like a castle built on sand. The foundations of their key programs were built on two of the shadiest coaches in the business. UConn to this day seemed like the far smarter long term choice IMO. I'm still amazed how that whole situation played out.

Louisville Athletics functions as the professional sports franchise for their 1.5 million person metro area. They have virtually no competition other than their rivalry with UK, and that rivalry only enhances the attention of the area with its disposable sports entertainment dollar. That's why Louisville has a $110 million per year athletics department. That's not sand. It will thrive until the NBA comes to town or the NFL. All you have to do is go there for games to see it. The coaches will come and go just like Charlie Strong to Bobby Petrino. Tom Jurich recognized how to market Louisville athletics in this role and did it. His successor will need to continue it.

Maryland's in a bigger and more valuable market, but they compete with 7 professional sports franchises. The franchises win out. I see it every week on NBC Sports Net - Washington, formerly Comcast Sports Net. And the ACC is still in the market with two other members. So yes the ACC lost a state flagship. But we picked up some other major brands at the same time to offset.

 

[uconndogs]

They do function as a professional sports franchise, but let's be fair to the NBA and NFL who don't provide concubine.

 

[Stinger92860]

My real perspective is academically. I always wanted my kids to hang out with the best. Duke, Virginia and Wake are all good institutions. For example, if I lived in Greenwich and associated with people from Darien and Westport, would you bring Bridgeport kids in? Yes, racist, but we all know life isn’t fair. Bringing in Louisville was the equivalent of Bridgeport. Fine athletically, but no need to go over their baggage. Bad kids, bring good kids down. Just the facts of life. Maryland so impressed me. They won’t bring anyone in the Big down.

Bad analogy. I'm a Bridgeport kid. Work hard and things turn out just fine. I know kids from the other towns you mention and while they had the advantage as a kid, they did not leverage the advantage and roles are now reversed. There are good people and bad people, that's what is most important. Please go crap on another town.

 

[CL82]

Louisville Athletics functions as the professional sports franchise for their 1.5 million person metro area. They have virtually no competition other than their rivalry with UK, and that rivalry only enhances the attention of the area with its disposable sports entertainment dollar. That's why Louisville has a $110 million per year athletics department. That's not sand.

Yeah it pretty much does function like a pro sports franchise (plus hookers), that's why the FBI is looking into them.

The reason why L'ville has "a $110 million per year athletics department" is, besides the ACC media deal, because of a very questionable arena deal in which they fleeced the community around them. That is pretty much the definition of "built on sand."

 

[uconndogs]

My real perspective is academically. I always wanted my kids to hang out with the best. Duke, Virginia and Wake are all good institutions. For example, if I lived in Greenwich and associated with people from Darien and Westport, would you bring Bridgeport kids in? Yes, racist, but we all know life isn’t fair. Bringing in Louisville was the equivalent of Bridgeport. Fine athletically, but no need to go over their baggage. Bad kids, bring good kids down. Just the facts of life. Maryland so impressed me. They won’t bring anyone in the Big down.

You might want to work on your analogies. This one was potentially offensive on a number of levels, so congratulations on that.............

 

[Ha Who]

Bad analogy. I'm a Bridgeport kid. Work hard and things turn out just fine. I know kids from the other towns you mention and while they had the advantage as a kid, they did not leverage the advantage and roles are now reversed. There are good people and bad people, that's what is most important. Please go crap on another town.

Glad you made it out. I made it out of an embarrassing town east of the river. There are good and bad but I have seen with my kids choices of friends what brings people up or down. Stand by my analogy

 

[Ha Who]

You might want to work on your analogies. This one was potentially offensive on a number of levels, so congratulations on that...

I could have made up fictional towns, but you wouldn’t have cared. I made it out of a crime ridden city thus my natural ability to offend

 

[SC Husky]

Louisville Athletics functions as the professional sports franchise for their 1.5 million person metro area. They have virtually no competition other than their rivalry with UK, and that rivalry only enhances the attention of the area with its disposable sports entertainment dollar. That's why Louisville has a $110 million per year athletics department. That's not sand. It will thrive until the NBA comes to town or the NFL. All you have to do is go there for games to see it. The coaches will come and go just like Charlie Strong to Bobby Petrino. Tom Jurich recognized how to market Louisville athletics in this role and did it. His successor will need to continue it.

Maryland's in a bigger and more valuable market, but they compete with 7 professional sports franchises. The franchises win out. I see it every week on NBC Sports Net - Washington, formerly Comcast Sports Net. And the ACC is still in the market with two other members. So yes the ACC lost a state flagship. But we picked up some other major brands at the same time to offset.

Make no mistake, if the All Criminals Conference (ACC) had to choose between UMD and Louisville, they would choose UMD. They wouldn't have to think about it. Again you're wrong, Louisville's entire foundation is based on 4 scandals and overall corruption. That is sand!

 

[uconndogs]

Well, we all have our talents. Terrific that you recognize yours.

btw, my Dad was from Bridgeport.

 

[Adios]

Bridgeport is not even in the top 100 most dangerous cities anymore. It's been cleaned up big time, for the 1 millionth time. New Haven is also being cleaned up. Hartford is still on the top 100 list as of last year at #50.

Top 100 most dangerous places to live in the USA - NeighborhoodScout

 

[ivrytontusker]

Your NC State degree loses value due to its connection with Louisville. You might not like it but that is how life works

This is laughable. I guess students would be well-advised to pick Iowa over Duke or Wake Forest, because getting an Iowa degree is really getting a degree from Northwestern?

In fact, big-time sports increase revenue and applications, which makes it possible for a school to become more selective. See, e.g., Alabama since Saban showed up, or UConn the past 20 years.

I don't think there is any way to positively spin losing a large state flagship university situated in an incredibly valuable media market. I get that The ACC did what it felt it had to do at the time by bringing in Louisville, but their inclusion seemed like a short term solution to a long term problem. Louisville always seemed like a castle built on sand. The foundations of their key programs were built on two of the shadiest coaches in the business. UConn to this day seemed like the far smarter long term choice IMO. I'm still amazed how that whole situation played out.

Maryland averaged 39,000 fans at FB games last year; Louisville 54,000. Maryland averaged 16,000 fans at MBB games last year; Louisville averaged 20,000. I used to live in DC, and I can tell you that it is not a college sports mecca. Most of the sports fans in the region are either not from the area and root for some other team or are only interested in pro sports. The Caps are bigger than Maryland sports in DC.

 

[Travelman6]

I lived in DC too. They love their Redskins, that is for sure. After that, the next big thing is the Caps and Bullets.... I mean Wizards. But the later two are not nearly as bg IMO. In pockets of the ritzy upper NW, you will see some GTown fans/people with gear, but not often. You tend to see people with hats and jerseys from around the country: Not uncommon to see Michigan, USC, Florida, Cuse, etc. in the span of minutes. So with that said, not a heck of a lot of people cared too much about UMaryland. Yah, when I got out into the farflung places of the green line or Silver Spring/R'ville on the red you would see some stuff, but not a lot.

 

[Guapo]

Just wanted to stop by and say I live in DC too!

A lot of my coworkers are UMD alum and, I've got to say, I've actually been impressed by their basketball fandom.

Interestingly, my boss is a UMD alum and lost all interest with the move from the ACC.

He says he doesn't get it without the rivalries.

 

[Nostical]

Maryland's in a bigger and more valuable market, but they compete with (many) professional sports franchises. T

You just described BC as well.

 

[Guapo]

You just described BC as well.

I lived most of my life in New England and years in DC.

DC is a pro sports town but UMD (and UVA and VT) is a MUCH bigger deal here than BC is in Boston.

 

[btstimpy]

You just described BC as well.

Yes. It's the same thing. Pitt, Miami, and Georgia Tech too. With all the pro sports competition the schools in those towns have to be having championship type seasons to get any attention, kind of how Miami was rolling this year. When they have awful years like BC a few years ago, no one is watching. It's just the nature of the competition in those markets. The original reason the ACC wanted BC was to have visibility in the Boston area for the rest of the ACC schools, even just a little. Donna Shalala thought Miami got benefit out of it for recruiting high school students to come to Miami, and she sold the rest that it's good to regularly waive the flag in Boston. I thought adding UConn since we already have BC would generate a rivalry and create some interest in New England in that rivalry. I never understood why BC didn't want that other than animosity created when BC left the Big East.

But my original point is that Louisville doesn't have these issues in its market. There aren't professional sports. Should they come to Louisville, it would put UL in the same situation as the others. It would be interesting to ask Memphis how a NBA team affected them.

 

[CL82]

I never understood why BC didn't want that other than animosity created when BC left the Big East.

We can only go with Gene DiFillippo said:

"We didn't want them in,'' DeFilippo told the Globe. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.''
DeFilippo said BC opposed a potential invitation to UConn. The Globe, citing ACC and Big East sources, reported that ACC officials wanted to add Syracuse and UConn as the conference attempted to strengthen itself in the Northeast. But Pittsburgh became the second school granted an invitation when BC balked at UConn.
Linky​

Louisville doesn't have these issues in its market. There aren't professional sports.

True but they are competing with Kentucky.

 

[btstimpy]

We can only go with Gene DiFillippo said:

"We didn't want them in,'' DeFilippo told the Globe. "It was a matter of turf. We wanted to be the New England team.''
DeFilippo said BC opposed a potential invitation to UConn. The Globe, citing ACC and Big East sources, reported that ACC officials wanted to add Syracuse and UConn as the conference attempted to strengthen itself in the Northeast. But Pittsburgh became the second school granted an invitation when BC balked at UConn.
Linky​

True but they are competing with Kentucky.

Regional rivalries are what drives fan interest and attention IMO. It's important to have them and to promote them in both cases. Both sides tune in to follow what the rival side is doing. BC's DeFilippo didn't think that important, but I think he's wrong. I don't think BC can represent all of New England. Louisville does have theirs, and I think they value it and get mileage out of it.

 

[CL82]

Regional rivalries are what drives fan interest and attention IMO. It's important to have them and to promote them in both cases. Both sides tune in to follow what the rival side is doing. BC's DeFilippo didn't think that important, but I think he's wrong. I don't think BC can represent all of New England. Louisville does have theirs, and I think they value it and get mileage out of it.

It's not DeFilippo didn't think it was important so much as that he was afraid of it. That had to strike tobacco road as pretty odd.

Agree the L'ville benefits from the rivalry with Kentucky. The point is that it's not like they are the top dog in the state. They do have competition, and pretty formidable competition at that.

 

[Guapo]

Regional rivalries are what drives fan interest and attention IMO. It's important to have them and to promote them in both cases. Both sides tune in to follow what the rival side is doing. BC's DeFilippo didn't think that important, but I think he's wrong. I don't think BC can represent all of New England. Louisville does have theirs, and I think they value it and get mileage out of it.

People in New England, especially Boston, don't "get" college sports.

 

[Adios]

People in New England, especially Boston, don't "get" college sports.

They've moved onto pro sports with Yale and Harvard no longer being superpowers in athletics. But UConn was able to develop a fanbase due to success. Both Ivy League schools deemphasized athletics to some degree. Except hockey. Affluent fans in hockey. Their hockey programs are way better than ours. College hockey is alive and well. One sport where fans get college sports well. Same with hardcore UConn fans. They do get college sports too.

 

[btstimpy]

They've moved onto pro sports with Yale and Harvard no longer being superpowers in athletics. But UConn was able to develop a fanbase due to success. Both Ivy League schools deemphasized athletics to some degree. Except hockey. Affluent fans in hockey. Their hockey programs are way better than ours. College hockey is alive and well. One sport where fans get college sports well. Same with hardcore UConn fans. They do get college sports too.

The Ivy League deemphasized sports starting in the 1950s when it was formed. That should create an opportunity for others to fill the vacuum, as it was a very long time ago. I've seen the time when UConn was selling out its football stadium a decade ago. The coach who did it is back, and hopefully he can bring that back.

I've been surprised how much of a hard time UMass Amherst is having getting their program going. Their attendance isn't much more than what the students on campus should provide. They have 23,000 undergraduates. Before getting the general public in New England interested in these teams, the students and alumni have to show interest.

 

[buddy]

College hockey may be alive and well, but it is not bringing megabucks to UConn and is irrelevant in conference realignment.