What was the ACC thinking? | The Boneyard

What was the ACC thinking?

TRest

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Louisville is the "breakfast sausage on pizza" of universities.

Just watching Louisville vs. Clemson...
I met a UL grad and big fan last week. He admitted half the city and the rest of the state were UK fans.
 
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I met a UL grad and big fan last week. He admitted half the city and the rest of the state were UK fans.
No quite true
I spent a lot of time in our Western KY plant
We had 300 employees
299 UK fans everyone a BB expert
In their own mind
Probably a dozen who actually understood the game
1 Louisville fan ,
 

BUConn10

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They are regularly ranked in football now with the conference bump and just produced a Heisman Trophy winner. As far as the ACC is concerned, they hit a grand slam and could not have made a better financial move for their conference's future, as tough as it is to swallow for UConn.
 
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They are regularly ranked in football now with the conference bump and just produced a Heisman Trophy winner. As far as the ACC is concerned, they hit a grand slam and could not have made a better financial move for their conference, as tough as it is to swallow for UConn.

I agree with you to an extent but it still feels like a two team conference in football. They're not far enough south of the mason dixon line to tap into the talent you need to compete nationally. Still a huge upgrade over UConn - the ACC was probably looking at another Syracuse or Boston College there, and who knows what kind of butterfly effect that might have had with Clemson and Florida State being restless at the time. This is a long way for me to express the fact that I hate the ACC and conference realignment.
 

BUConn10

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I agree with you to an extent but it still feels like a two team conference in football. They're not far enough south of the mason dixon line to tap into the talent you need to compete nationally. Still a huge upgrade over UConn - the ACC was probably looking at another Syracuse or Boston College there, and who knows what kind of butterfly effect that might have had with Clemson and Florida State being restless at the time. This is a long way for me to express the fact that I hate the ACC and conference realignment.
The whole "two team conference" joke is last decade. Top to bottom the ACC is every bit as strong and deep in respect to football as the Big 10 for that 2nd best title after the SEC which will never be dethroned simply due to pure regional culture.

FSU and now the surging Clemson give ACC two consistent Top 5 teams and regular mentions in the CFP discussion looking forward. Mix in a very strong and deep second tier with Miami, VT, UNC, GT (when up) and now throw in a very strong Louisville program that has the fan support and desire to be competitive nationally in football, something which we sadly do not have.

In my opinion the ACC is the best all around athletic conference in the most visible sports but it could surely be debated.
 

Jaybo

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I met a UL grad and big fan last week. He admitted half the city and the rest of the state were UK fans.

I moved to Louisville in 2001. He right about that. But %90 of uofl fans are at poverty level to very low income. Then you have the %10 who are middle to upper middle class and most like alumni or have children enrolled.UK FLAGS rule the trailer parks all the way up to the Mansions in Lexington
 
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I moved to Louisville in 2001. He right about that. But %90 of uofl fans are at poverty level to very low income. Then you have the %10 who are middle to upper middle class and most like alumni or have children enrolled.UK FLAGS rule the trailer parks all the way up to the Mansions in Lexington

Were you intentionally illiterate?
 
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Wtf kind of thread is this? You really think the ACC gives a damn about the academics? Did you see the crowd last night?? Electric atmosphere in a huge stadium. They have the Heisman winner, are ranked in the top 25 consistently in like all sports meanwhile we almost lose to FCS schools and currently have a patchwork basketball roster and as a university faces the reality that the well is dry in terms of state and conference funding. Ya really wonder why other fan bases think we're delusional?
 
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Wtf kind of thread is this? You really think the ACC gives a damn about the academics? Did you see the crowd last night?? Electric atmosphere in a huge stadium. They have the Heisman winner, are ranked in the top 25 consistently in like all sports meanwhile we almost lose to FCS schools and currently have a patchwork basketball roster and as a university faces the reality that the well is dry in terms of state and conference funding. Ya really wonder why other fan bases think we're delusional?

Your handle says it all
 
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The whole "two team conference" joke is last decade. Top to bottom the ACC is every bit as strong and deep in respect to football as the Big 10 for that 2nd best title after the SEC which will never be dethroned simply due to pure regional culture.

FSU and now the surging Clemson give ACC two consistent Top 5 teams and regular mentions in the CFP discussion looking forward. Mix in a very strong and deep second tier with Miami, VT, UNC, GT (when up) and now throw in a very strong Louisville program that has the fan support and desire to be competitive nationally in football, something which we sadly do not have.

In my opinion the ACC is the best all around athletic conference in the most visible sports but it could surely be debated.

That's sort of my point, though. Those were the two teams that everybody knew had the chance to be nationally relevant even when they weren't. The only other program in the conference with the potential to consistently sit at the big boys table is Miami - everybody else is either geographically wanting or a distant second in their state (Georgia Tech). Sure in any given year their teams can compete top to bottom with everybody, but there is a defined ceiling in place where there isn't for other conferences, meaning that when Clemson and FSU go through their next down cycles, they're essentially going to be the new Big East.

Whereas the other P5's are mostly comprised of large, public state schools, the ACC consists of a lot of smaller schools congregated in smaller areas. The league was founded on tobacco road but obviously four schools in North Carolina isn't the way you draw it up if you're starting from scratch today. Contrast that to the other conferences that have more schools concentrated in fertile recruiting grounds (Texas is the epicenter of the Big 12, California in the Pac 12, Ohio and Michigan in the Big Ten, etc.) and you can see why they have an easier time fetching money in contract negotiations. The ACC is essentially a mish mash of leftover SEC schools and useless northern schools. If they're able to pry Texas and/or Oklahoma from the big 12 obviously that changes things, but I don't think Louisville moves the needle much long term. There is a reason Louisville was on a life raft before the ACC picked them up. Everybody knew they could compete athletically but in reality they're not much different than Houston or Memphis. They were the better of bad options the last time realignment came up - what I'll never understand is how Pitt, BC, and Syracuse ended up there before us.
 
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Wtf kind of thread is this? You really think the ACC gives a damn about the academics? Did you see the crowd last night?? Electric atmosphere in a huge stadium. They have the Heisman winner, are ranked in the top 25 consistently in like all sports meanwhile we almost lose to FCS schools and currently have a patchwork basketball roster and as a university faces the reality that the well is dry in terms of state and conference funding. Ya really wonder why other fan bases think we're delusional?

They don't give a damn about academics and frankly neither do I, but in fairness the ACC has branded themselves with a degree of righteousness that becomes precious in the context of them adding Louisville. They were desperate and they acted desperately and it paid off for them, but the only reason it was a decision in the first place is because they had boxed themselves into a corner.
 

BUConn10

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That's sort of my point, though. Those were the two teams that everybody knew had the chance to be nationally relevant even when they weren't. The only other program in the conference with the potential to consistently sit at the big boys table is Miami - everybody else is either geographically wanting or a distant second in their state (Georgia Tech). Sure in any given year their teams can compete top to bottom with everybody, but there is a defined ceiling in place where there isn't for other conferences, meaning that when Clemson and FSU go through their next down cycles, they're essentially going to be the new Big East.

Whereas the other P5's are mostly comprised of large, public state schools, the ACC consists of a lot of smaller schools congregated in smaller areas. The league was founded on tobacco road but obviously four schools in North Carolina isn't the way you draw it up if you're starting from scratch today. Contrast that to the other conferences that have more schools concentrated in fertile recruiting grounds (Texas is the epicenter of the Big 12, California in the Pac 12, Ohio and Michigan in the Big Ten, etc.) and you can see why they have an easier time fetching money in contract negotiations. The ACC is essentially a mish mash of leftover SEC schools and useless northern schools. If they're able to pry Texas and/or Oklahoma from the big 12 obviously that changes things, but I don't think Louisville moves the needle much long term. There is a reason Louisville was on a life raft before the ACC picked them up. Everybody knew they could compete athletically but in reality they're not much different than Houston or Memphis. They were the better of bad options the last time realignment came up - what I'll never understand is how Pitt, BC, and Syracuse ended up there before us.
But that's the power distribution structure of almost every conference. Like it or not the big dogs stay the big dogs consistently by being ultra-competitive in every aspect of the game, they won't just relinquish their seats as the top dogs to others in the conference for the sake of parity for the fans. What I'm trying to say is that there's limited room at the true tip top of CFB, and currently the ACC has 2. So if the ACC has two truly elites, and there are only 4 CFP spots each season, the numbers bode well for the ACC's presence. To counter your point, you think Bama and OU regularly dip below anything but elite in their conference with any regularity? No, they have a stranglehold on their conferences too, all the P5 conferences are technically "top heavy" when your barometer is a championship in CFB, which is an extremely difficult feat with the insane amount of barriers of entry in that sport's elite.
 
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They don't give a damn about academics and frankly neither do I, but in fairness the ACC has branded themselves with a degree of righteousness that becomes precious in the context of them adding Louisville. They were desperate and they acted desperately and it paid off for them, but the only reason it was a decision in the first place is because they had boxed themselves into a corner.
Exactly! For years they painted themselves as the academically superior conference, just barely below the ivy league. So I feel justified throwing some shade.
 
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The ACC is thanking their lucky stars every night that they took Louisville over us.
 
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But that's the power distribution structure of almost every conference. Like it or not the big dogs stay the big dogs consistently by being ultra-competitive in every aspect of the game, they won't just relinquish their seats as the top dogs to others in the conference for the sake of parity for the fans. What I'm trying to say is that there's limited room at the true tip top of CFB, and currently the ACC has 2. So if the ACC has two truly elites, and there are only 4 CFP spots each season, the numbers bode well for the ACC's presence. To counter your point, you think Bama and OU regularly dip below anything but elite in their conference with any regularity? No, they have a stranglehold on their conferences too, all the P5 conferences are technically "top heavy" when your barometer is a championship in CFB, which is an extremely difficult feat with the insane amount of barriers of entry in that sport's elite.

I agree to an extent. But I think that power structure is a bit more pronounced in the ACC. I don't follow college football recruiting that closely, but I was scanning the rivals top 250 from 2017 to test my theory and the results sort of jived with what I expected. The ACC accounts for 35 of the top 250 recruits in the country. That's good for 14% of the share, which makes them under-represented relative to the fact that they're are five power conferences. Even when you account for the ten recruits that didn't go to P5 schools, they're only at 15%. Of the 35 recruits, 15 went to either Clemson or Florida State. That includes all seven of the conferences top 25 recruits and eight of their ten top 50 guys. It also includes 6 of the 11 guys the conference has represented in the 51-150 slots.

The simple read of the numbers is that it's a conference with a couple heavy hitters and a lacking middle class. The break down from the class I'm referring to is as follows:

Florida State - 9 (4 top 25)
Clemson - 6 (3 top 25)
Miami - 8 (1 top 50)

The other 11 schools combine for just 12 in the top 250 and 3 in the top 150. This would be less noteworthy if not for the fact that it corresponds almost exactly with the geography I outlined above. Nobody north of Clemson gets the chance to eat and as a result you have a top heavy conference that actually ends up working out really well for Clemson and FSU - you get to monopolize all of the talent in the conference instead of always fighting for the same pie. Ironically it works the other way in basketball.

I'm not trying to hate on the ACC. I'm obviously jealous of their situation as a UConn fan. It's just hard not to see how FSU and Clemson live large off this system. This isn't Saban and Alabama where they're that much better than everyone. They're really good and really only have to play 2-3 games per year against teams on par with them from a talent standpoint. That's why an average Auburn can come to death Valley and it looks like two like size opponents and then they blow the doors off a Louisville team that was a favorite in the league at their place.
 
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4 and 5-star recruits from 2014-2017 using Rivals:

Ohio State- 64
Michigan- 48
Penn State- 34
Michigan State- 29
Nebraska- 21
Maryland- 18
Wisconsin- 16
Illinois- 5
Northwestern- 5
Rutgers- 4
Iowa- 3
Minnesota- 3
Indiana- 2
Purdue- 1



FSU- 62
Clemson- 42
Miami- 33
UNC- 22
VPI- 22
Pittsburgh- 14
Louisville- 12
NC State- 12
Duke- 7
Georgia Tech- 6
Virginia- 6
Boston College- 3
Wake Forest- 2
Syracuse- 1



USC- 62
UCLA- 44
Stanford- 33
Oregon- 27
Arizona State- 23
Washington- 21
California- 15
Arizona- 10
Oregon State- 4
Washington State- 4


It all looks fairly similar however you slice it. You can nitpick I'm sure, but the fact is that all 3 conferences have defined tiers that roughly correspond to one another.
 

kobe

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As much as a despise Rick the Vampire, Uof(many)L's is a big time program and them replacing Maryland is an upgrade for the ACC.
 

CL82

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The ACC is thanking their lucky stars every night that they took Louisville over us.
Perhaps not.
th
 

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