The ACC move

[Nostical]

Hate is such a destructive emotion.

 

[Jimdish255]

I can't see ever actually caring about the ACC, though. Syracuse fans are so eager to assimilate that they are practically acting like founding members of a conference they're not even in yet - I actively dislike almost every ACC school and that would not change. There's no circumstance where I would root for UNC to win an out of conference game like I might with Syracuse or Pitt or Providence or whoever from the (current) Big East.

I have no problem going to a conference where there are teams we might dislike. In fact it usually translates to better games and more attendance. The bonus of regional rivalries and extending the BB rivalry with CUSE and Pitt, adding in Dook and NC is a great opportunity. We also preserve our other sports from a regional perspective and get a few decent road games to travel to. For all the b--ch--g about Providence and the small hoops schools now we're complaining about beating Dook and NC on the gridiron, extending our recruiting territory and having wars with them on the court.

 

[06029]

I think most people on this board are pretty optimistic about the events of the coming week. By most accounts, UConn will be the first and possibly only call to replace Maryland. While this gets UConn out of a Big East conference that is increasingly unattractive, I am not that excited about the ACC.

I miss the NBE. Cincinnati, USF and Louisville are easy programs to root for. They play interesting football (at least prior to Skip's arrival), they have great fans, and they seemed genuinely excited about the Big East. UConn won't find a rival like Rutgers in the new league. I don't think I will ever get as excited about a fellow conference member's game as I was for WVU against Georgia in early 2006. I will miss the catholic schools. Georgetown, St. Johns, Villanova and Providence have been great rivals for UConn, and there has been some epic battles with those schools.

Florida State and Clemson are open contemptuous of most of the league despite a long track record of mediocrity by both programs. Virginia Tech has an aging coach. The rest of the league plays in various levels of mediocrity. The league contains several schools that have stabbed UConn in the back before, and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. I don't even like the OBE schools like Miami, BCU, Syracuse and Pitt, and other than Pitt, I don't care if UConn never plays these programs again.

This feels like marrying a woman that is not that attractive, a little out of shape, parties too hard, will likely cheat on me, and is bitchy. But her dad has money so at least we won't be poor.

And that is where we are. UConn doesn't have a choice, it has to go to the ACC if it gets invited. But if UConn is lucky enough to get that invitation, I am going to miss the NBE. This outcome is more bitter than sweet.

Have you watched FSU or Clemson play football the last two seasons? If Clemson played any type of defense they would be a top 5 team. They are like WVU in their ability to rack up ungodly offensive numbers. And now that FSU is rid of Bowden, they are back to being a national player. This weekend's game against FL is going to be a fun game to watch. If you really prefer Cinci and Louisville as destinations to visit over Death Valley and Doak, then you are really living in a strange world. Besides, Lville is gone any day now. Add in replacing Gtown and Nova wioh UNC and Duke (along with Cuse and Pitt) in BB, I would not cry too long.

When you are the fat, bald guy that works at KMart as the assistant to the assistant manger (the promotion they promised 5 years ago is right around the corner), any chick that will marry you and let you go to work in Daddy's company for 5x the salary should look really hot.

 

[fortebleedsblue]

"Uconn won't find a rival like Rutgers in the new league..."

1) BC is a better rival for us IMO ... More history and more hatred

2) uconn can still play Rutgers for an annual trophy... What is stopping this?

 

[pepband99]

Can't understand the Debbie downers here. The NNBE might have been a barely serviceable football conference, but the non-football end of it is downright frightening!

Give me the new ACC, with much much better basketball, and a good portion of the old big east. We even get Notre dame in a better situation (ie including some football leverage).

 

[ZooCougar]

If you liked the old new Big East, then great. But it's dead. The closest thing to it is in the ACC.

 

[BugsyCT]

If this ultimately plays out like we are hoping for, we're all going to have to finally curb our ACC hatred. It can't be about that anymore. Too much has changed since the first ACC raid.

It's simply about survival now. And this may be our one & only lifeboat.

 

[upstater]

If this ultimately plays out like we are hoping for, we're all going to have to finally curb our ACC hatred. It can't be about that anymore. Too much has changed since the first ACC raid.

It's simply about survival now. And this may be our first & only lifeboat.

I will never curb that hatred, even if we're in the ACC. Especially in basketball. I will have a great deal of difficulty rooting for any team in that league. And in basketball, there's no downside to despising every single other team. The Big East had an us against the world mentality because it was always an underdog. This simply will not be the case in the ACC.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If this ultimately plays out like we are hoping for, we're all going to have to finally curb our ACC hatred. It can't be about that anymore. Too much has changed since the first ACC raid.

It's simply about survival now. And this may be our one & only lifeboat.

It is about survival, but the reason our ship is sinking is because of the same schools in the lifeboat we are trying to get on. They drove us into one iceberg, they will not hesitate to do it again.

 

[upstater]

It is about survival, but the reason our ship is sinking is because of the same schools in the lifeboat we are trying to get on. They drove us into one iceberg, they will not hesitate to do it again.

I firmly believe it was BC that screwed UConn. That may or may not be the case now.

 

[RS9999X]

OOC against GU , LU, SJU. NOVA, PC, SHU--that's a damn sight better than Baylor or LSU or Tennessee and traveling to SMU

Sent from my Lumia 920 via Windows 8. Now bite me Apple Droids.

 

[SubbaBub]

BE 2002:

BC
Cuse
Pitt
Miami
Rutty
WVU
VT
Temple
UConn (transitioning)

ACC North 2015 (tentative)
BC
Cuse
Pitt
Miami
VT
UVA
UConn

As someone else said, "the conference we thought we were joining."

I'd prefer the B1G but this would be more than welcome. I don't see any teams there we can't beat.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ZooCougar]

BE 2002:

BC
Cuse
Pitt
Miami
Rutty
WVU
VT
Temple
UConn (transitioning)

ACC North 2015 (tentative)
BC
Cuse
Pitt
Miami
VT
UVA
UConn

As someone else said, "the conference we thought we were joining."

I'd prefer the B1G but this would be more than welcome. I don't see any teams there we can't beat.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

and we all can go back to not giving a crap about Memphis and San Diego State.

 

[junglehusky]

"Uconn won't find a rival like Rutgers in the new league..."

1) BC is a better rival for us IMO ... More history and more hatred

This will be an instant rivalry. It might die down some if one or both teams are mediocre/sucky but hopefully UConn will improve and dominate for a few years at least

2) uconn can still play Rutgers for an annual trophy... What is stopping this?

I suspect Rutgers would rather play Norfolk State!

 

[noeynox]

Actually, you are wrong. It was very personal for the schools that left. Because each ACC raid of the Big East was predicated on the fact that by taking 2 or 3 teams, the ACC could put the Big East out of business, essentially destroying the league and the athletic programs within it. Every time the ACC would grab a BCU or Syracuse, they would go running back to ESPN and ask, with their tail wagging, "will you give us credit for the Northeast now?" The point of those raids was to make UConn a mid-major. Do you really think that Syracuse and Pitt are valuable athletic programs in their own right?

If the 9 football (with TCU) and 8 hoops schools had stuck together, the league would have already signed a contract worth at least what the ACC is making. That Big East was better on the field, on the court and in the ratings than the ACC.

Or, the ACC could have gone to the Big East and said "we have this crappy long-term TV deal, why don't we merge into your league so we can get out of that deal and all make a lot of money?" But they didn't do that, probably because Swofford may not have survived that process. They convinced Pitt and Syracuse to stab everyone else in the back, which caused the Big East to ultimately unravel but didn't really help the ACC's with their below-market, long-term TV deal. The current solution is the worst of all worlds. The Big East is gone, never having gotten its big TV deal that it was due. The left-behinds are relegated to permanent mid-major status, and the ACC STILL has a crappy TV deal, making it incredibly vulnerable.

Just because their are worse outcomes does not mean UConn going to this configuration of the ACC is a good one. It is just UConn trying to make the best of a bad situation, which will continue to be bad into the future.

Damn dude, can we get into the acc, before you try to convince us of how much it sucks. Like you said there are no better alternatives, and the acc still offers a lot more money from TV than the big east was going to.

 

[The Funster]

If I said it once, I've said it a thousand times: if the ACC calls, I'd go running. I'd have to hold my nose but I'd go running.

 

[Dooley]

I will look forward to annual trips to BC to watch football and basketball clobber those scared lil' birdies.

 

[businesslawyer]

[quote="nelsonmuntz, post: 396761, member: 833"I am not that excited about the ACC.


This feels like marrying a woman that is not that attractive, a little out of shape, parties too hard, will likely cheat on me, and is bitchy. But her dad has money so at least we won't be poor.

[/quote]

Good God. The time to trash your hypothetical woman is after she has agreed to marry you. Not while she still might turn you down.

 

[CL82]

Actually, you are wrong. It was very personal for the schools that left. Because each ACC raid of the Big East was predicated on the fact that by taking 2 or 3 teams, the ACC could put the Big East out of business, essentially destroying the league and the athletic programs within it. Every time the ACC would grab a BCU or Syracuse, they would go running back to ESPN and ask, with their tail wagging, "will you give us credit for the Northeast now?" The point of those raids was to make UConn a mid-major. Do you really think that Syracuse and Pitt are valuable athletic programs in their own right?
.

I don't think the point was to make UConn a mid-major. I think the point was to eliminate their closest competitor, the Big East. But for Defilipo and BC, the ACC would have gladly taken UConn over Pitt. No, Cuse and Pitt aren't valuable in their own right, they were just a (successful) move to weaken the conference. That's just business.

I agree with you, however, that if we had stayed together as a conference, we'd be in a much better position as a conference...but we didn't.

Like many on the board, I am conflicted about an ACC invite. If you are on a sinking ship and the person you detest most in world turns up in a lifeboat, you get on and are thankful. That's where I am. Swofford (and as much as I dislike the guy, I give him credit for postioning his league to swallow ours) did what was best for his conference. No one should expect anything different from him.

The irony in all this is once the Big East is eliminated, the ACC becomes the Big East both in membership and in that the big boys will then turn their focus toward eliminating them from the grown up table.

So yeah an ACC invitation is welcome. If you are on a sinking ship even a leaky lifeboat is a step up.

Edit: I posted this before I had read through this thread. It is funny how many people have used the lifeboat analogy. I seems like the bulk of us are on the same page on this.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I find it simply unfathomable that people wouldn't jump for joy to be reunited with the rest of the real Big East football conference, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami, VT, while adding amazing basketball opposition in Duke (rekindling a rivalry there) UNC, GT etc. Plus adding marquee football opposition in FSU and Clemson that easily outdistance any NBE team (including Boise). Playing Clemson in Death Valley beats playing in a smallish stadium in Boise any day. We would essentially have an league that truly is an eastern league. All games on our time zone! I would feel much more affinity for the ACC than I do for the current Big East.

I'll miss the old rivals in GTown, PC, St. Johns and Seton Hall...but we can still play them. I will not miss DePaul, Lousiville, Cincy or USF (I enjoyed Marquette). I will be eternally thankful to never be in a league with Memphis, Houston and Boise. I'm indifferent to SDSU, UCF and SMU. BC is a much better natural rival than Rutgers.

 

[businesslawyer]

First, I can't say I'm optimistic.

I've been optimistic in the past, not so much about UConn getting an invite somewhere, but in events falling in such a way where the Big East would not be gutted. Without fail, that optimism was purely misplaced - as such, I am out of the optimism business. If my luck holds, Maryland turns down the Big Ten and peace reigns throughout the land...and we die alone in the Really New New Big East.

However, in your scenario, UConn goes to the ACC....

I won't miss the New Big East. Louisville, Cincy and South Florida were just schools we happened to end up in the lifeboat with after the first raid. I'd like them to land on their feet and I suspect one or two of them might. South Florida won't. But past that, they are just names to me.

I would definitely miss the 'old' Big East in basketball. Georgetown, Nova, PC and St. John's - we'll basically never have those sort of rivalries again. Even Syracuse and Pitt would be strange - stakes would seem different.

I can't see ever actually caring about the ACC, though. Syracuse fans are so eager to assimilate that they are practically acting like founding members of a conference they're not even in yet - I actively dislike almost every ACC school and that would not change. There's no circumstance where I would root for UNC to win an out of conference game like I might with Syracuse or Pitt or Providence or whoever from the (current) Big East.

As for Rutgers, eh. There's no real heat to that rivalry - Boston College would be more of a hatefest from the word go.

The BC versus Rutgers in terms of rivalry depends on what part of the state you are from. If you are from Greater Hartford, it's BC. If you life in Fairfield County, you share a media market with Rutgers and Boston seems far away.

 

[HuskyHawk]

[quote="nelsonmuntz, post: 396761, member: 833"I am not that excited about the ACC.


This feels like marrying a woman that is not that attractive, a little out of shape, parties too hard, will likely cheat on me, and is bitchy. But her dad has money so at least we won't be poor.

Good God. The time to trash your hypothetical woman is after she has agreed to marry you. Not while she still might turn you down.[/quote]

Especially since he wants to marry the equivalent of a Zombie version of Janet Reno...and the ACC is an FSU cheerleader by comparison.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Good God. The time to trash your hypothetical woman is after she has agreed to marry you. Not while she still might turn you down.

Especially since he wants to marry the equivalent of a Zombie version of Janet Reno...and the ACC is an FSU cheerleader by comparison.[/quote]

RIF

 

[The Funster]

I find it simply unfathomable that people wouldn't jump for joy to be reunited with the rest of the real Big East football conference, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami, VT, while adding amazing basketball opposition in Duke (rekindling a rivalry there) UNC, GT etc. Plus adding marquee football opposition in FSU and Clemson that easily outdistance any NBE team (including Boise). Playing Clemson in Death Valley beats playing in a smallish stadium in Boise any day. We would essentially have an league that truly is an eastern league. All games on our time zone! I would feel much more affinity for the ACC than I do for the current Big East.

I'll miss the old rivals in GTown, PC, St. Johns and Seton Hall...but we can still play them. I will not miss DePaul, Lousiville, Cincy or USF (I enjoyed Marquette). I will be eternally thankful to never be in a league with Memphis, Houston and Boise. I'm indifferent to SDSU, UCF and SMU. BC is a much better natural rival than Rutgers.

Those are all positives. However, I have little faith in the ACC leadership. They've been pantsed quite a bit. Swofford is not as smart as he and others think he is.

 

[upstater]

[quote="nelsonmuntz, post: 396761, member: 833"I am not that excited about the ACC.


This feels like marrying a woman that is not that attractive, a little out of shape, parties too hard, will likely cheat on me, and is bitchy. But her dad has money so at least we won't be poor.

Good God. The time to trash your hypothetical woman is after she has agreed to marry you. Not while she still might turn you down.[/quote]

This discussion is better suited for the Syracuse Recruiting thread?