Prefer not to join the ACC

[ctchamps]

I'm not against Gars sentiment here. If UConn moves to the ACC, I think it would be hurt from what it was. Optimally I would've liked to see them stay in the BE as it was, but now I'd love to see them in the ACC. It's going to suck going to the ACC though.

If I could rewind the clock to three weeks ago and start a thread with two hypothetical options:

1)UConn, Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers going to the ACC and the BE breaking up or 2) The BE stays the same, TCU is added in 2012, and the BE adds fragments of B12 if available, or the military schools, or schools like UCF, Houston, ECU;

I would absolutely have gone for number 1. Only FSU is a realistic football school in the ACC, both in tradition and current ability to attract recruits. Arguments could be made for Clemson and VT as well but they are weak arguments. So if football is driving the bus, and athletic conferences do not mean academic conferences, there really wouldn't be an advantage football wise or $$ wise for UConn, Pitt, Cuse and Rutgers to leave the BE.

The reaction of Pitt and Cuse changed all this. I don't blame them. Too many things could have gone wrong for the BE even if these schools didn't flinch, but I still can't help feeling their bolting was more emotional than logical.

The ship has sailed for UConn's best option. So they will have no choice but to go South. All the bandages many of us are proposing are ok, but Herbst has rightfully made her decision. And for anyone loving the North, South model of the ACC just think of the North, South model of the B12. All the power will be centered in North Carolina and Florida (if FSU decides to stick with the conference). And if people were prickly about the relationship with the Catholic schools, just wait until we see how these new partners treat the northeast schools.

Swofford was smart only in the fact that he made sure that none of the ACC schools (read Wake, NCS) would be outside looking in during this four conference 16 team reconfiguration. But most of all he was smart enough to make sure his conference survived to maintain his commissioner position. He did what Bebe and Marinate couldn't, provide himself with job security.

UConn will survive the switch. So will I. I just will never be convinced the schools that left or threaten to leave understood they had more power and wealth than they thought. We'll never get to prove this because the media contract was still 18 months away.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I think it is a terrible idea to plan around something that has a tiny chance of happening.

 

[ctchamps]

I think it is a terrible idea to plan around something that has a tiny chance of happening.

Who are you responding to?

 

[willie99]

We may have to, but I'd prefer not. I'd rather try to make a go of it with
WVU
Cincy
RU
USF
Uconn
Louisville
TCU
Houston
UCF
ECU
Memphis
SMU

I really would. But there is no way that any one of these schools would not crawl over one another to get out. Like crabs in a barrel. Forget about basketball. Forget about how this resembles CUSA. None of that matters if everyone would hang together. There is enough programming space out there to make this work over time. And this league would be good in short order. Problem is, there would be no loyalty. Coaches would be waiting for their promotion up, just like the big east over the last 7 years. Everyone would be waiting for the phone to ring. The "invitation." It's unfortunate, because that conference, not without controversy, would keep the AQ. But that is the current reality.

I'm with you, I'm a fan of the BEAST.

I would drop Memphis & SMU and add Navy & for football

12/20, and we retain BE hoops and the BET

if you're talking about starting a new conference with those teams, I prefer the ACC

if we ever move to the ACC, conference fandom has been ripped from me. I will be a UConn fan and only a UConn fan, hating everybody else in our conference. I will die never once saying the "ACC ACC ACC" cheer.

 

[gars44]

My choice would be the Big10 along with Ru, but I'm not in charge. But what if it doesn't work out with the ACC? What do you people think the contingency plan is? You can take Memphis out if you want, insert Navy. But there has to be a contingency plan, and this is it, or close to it. The plan can't be hybrid jerry-rigged conference plus ND.

 

[upstater]

If I could rewind the clock to three weeks ago and start a thread with two hypothetical options:

1)UConn, Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers going to the ACC and the BE breaking up or 2) The BE stays the same, TCU is added in 2012, and the BE adds fragments of B12 if available, or the military schools, or schools like UCF, Houston, ECU;

I would absolutely have gone for number 1. Only FSU is a realistic football school in the ACC, both in tradition and current ability to attract recruits. Arguments could be made for Clemson and VT as well but they are weak arguments. So if football is driving the bus, and athletic conferences do not mean academic conferences, there really wouldn't be an advantage football wise or $$ wise for UConn, Pitt, Cuse and Rutgers to leave the BE.

The reaction of Pitt and Cuse changed all this. I don't blame them. Too many things could have gone wrong for the BE even if these schools didn't flinch, but I still can't help feeling their bolting was more emotional than logical.

The ship has sailed for UConn's best option. So they will have no choice but to go South. All the bandages many of us are proposing are ok, but Herbst has rightfully made her decision. And for anyone loving the North, South model of the ACC just think of the North, South model of the B12. All the power will be centered in North Carolina and Florida (if FSU decides to stick with the conference). And if people were prickly about the relationship with the Catholic schools, just wait until we see how these new partners treat the northeast schools.

Swofford was smart only in the fact that he made sure that none of the ACC schools (read Wake, NCS) would be outside looking in during this four conference 16 team reconfiguration. But most of all he was smart enough to make sure his conference survived to maintain his commissioner position. He did what Bebe and Marinate couldn't, provide himself with job security.

UConn will survive the switch. So will I. I just will never be convinced the schools that left or threaten to leave understood they had more power and wealth than they thought. We'll never get to prove this because the media contract was still 18 months away.

You're underestimating the red-headed stepchild treatment. Trust me, it's not pretty. There are all sorts of ways that conference administrators rig things for the favored sons. Why do you think the B12 commish was just hired? BE commish look out for schools, the ACC will be that much worse.

 

[HuskyHawk]

u guys aren't seeing the reality of the situation. are those schools a step down? some of them are. but they can build and be good to great just like usf/uconn/lville/cincy did. the minute the sec touches the acc, our looks change 180 style.

Except Rutgers, they are all a huge step down in national reputation. Cincy is tolerable. The rest are the dregs. Our currnt U.S. News ranking of 58 would plummet to something closer to 88. Applications would go down, SAT scores would go down.

If we cannot score an invite the B1G or ACC, then I'd propose this:

UConn
Rutgers
Cincy
Navy
Army
Temple
SMU
Rice
Tulane
Air Force
TCU
Colorado St.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Who are you responding to?

Anyone who thinks UConn should focus on getting into the ACC. It is not happening, so we is UConn planning around it? Where is the leadership to circle the wagons with the other 6 football schools and focus on replacing Syracuse and Pitt?

Plan A should be rebuilding the Big East.
Plan B should be throwing Hail Mary's.

Not the other way around.

 

[ctchamps]

You're underestimating the red-headed stepchild treatment. Trust me, it's not pretty. There are all sorts of ways that conference administrators rig things for the favored sons. Why do you think the B12 commish was just hired? BE commish look out for schools, the ACC will be that much worse.

LOL. No underestimation on my part. But I love the hyperbole.

 

[ctchamps]

Anyone who thinks UConn should focus on getting into the ACC. It is not happening, so we is UConn planning around it? Where is the leadership to circle the wagons with the other 6 football schools and focus on replacing Syracuse and Pitt?

Plan A should be rebuilding the Big East.
Plan B should be throwing Hail Mary's.

Not the other way around.

You could be correct. I don't believe in insisting on one particular outcome over another in an uncertain future. But it is my opinion that the odds are more likely UConn ends up in the ACC than any reconfigured model of the BE all of us are proposing or hoping for. And time will prove who is correct, you or me. I'm not invested in one outcome or the other and have actually argued why I don't like entering into a relationship with the ACC. But my computer has flow charted all the parameters and has spit out UConn is ACC bound. Your computer has done the opposite. I can't entertain an argument on the unknown. It's irrational. Heck I'm aggressively dreaming the B!G swoops up UConn and Rutgers, and Swofferd, Pitt, Cuse, and BC get the shaft. But that is just my fantasy, i.e. the odds of that happening imo are next to nil.

 

[uconnric]

This thread only serves to hammer home the point that right now the only good option is the ACC. In today's unpredictable world of college athletics, who knows when that will come. (In spite of the efforts of the disciples of Iggy Loyola.)

 

[gars44]

Anyone who thinks UConn should focus on getting into the ACC. It is not happening, so we is UConn planning around it? Where is the leadership to circle the wagons with the other 6 football schools and focus on replacing Syracuse and Pitt?

Plan A should be rebuilding the Big East.
Plan B should be throwing Hail Mary's.

Not the other way around.

I don't agree that Uconn should not "focus on getting into the ACC" or that it's "not happening." It is reasonably likely to happen if Notre Dame is forced to declare. Notre Dame will never pick a conference if it has a reconstituted Big East to hang out in. Therefore, the Big East needs to form a football only conference, including the assortment of schools discussed above, Navy, Umass, Temple, I don't really care who all that much. Houston, ECU. UCF. But no Notre Dame. Notre Dame has to find a new place. It has to declare. Once the ACC or the Ten get it through their collective heads that ND is not coming, or ND is coming, whichever, then they can look around and make decisions as to Uconn, RU, and whoever else. If the ACC/Ten decide no expansion, so be it. We will have our little football conference with our little AQ bid, and we will survive to fight another day. But Notre Dame is destabilizing this whole thing just by being out there. She is the sexy single gal in the neighborhood. The hubbies are all eying her. Destabilizing.

 

[upstater]

Except Rutgers, they are all a huge step down in national reputation. Cincy is tolerable. The rest are the dregs. Our currnt U.S. News ranking of 58 would plummet to something closer to 88. Applications would go down, SAT scores would go down.
If we cannot score an invite the B1G or ACC, then I'd propose this:

You're right, Vandy has now become an awful school that no one wants to go to because of its affiliation with the SEC.
What you're writing is beyond preposterous.

 

[willie99]

Anyone who thinks UConn should focus on getting into the ACC. It is not happening, so we is UConn planning around it? Where is the leadership to circle the wagons with the other 6 football schools and focus on replacing Syracuse and Pitt?

Plan A should be rebuilding the Big East.
Plan B should be throwing Hail Mary's.

Not the other way around.

I don't dislike Plan A, but I totally disagree with you about UConn and the ACC

if you were right, Suzie would be pushing Plan A hard, not walking away from it

all the writing on the wall tells me UConn is in

 

[upstater]

LOL. No underestimation on my part. But I love the hyperbole.

What hyperbole?

 

[ctchamps]

What hyperbole?

I stated the view the northeast schools would face political problems. I thought your response I underestimated the situation was an exaggeration of my point.

 

[Icebear]

We may have to, but I'd prefer not. I'd rather try to make a go of it with
WVU
Cincy
RU
USF
Uconn
Louisville
TCU
Houston
UCF
ECU
Memphis
SMU

I really would. But there is no way that any one of these schools would not crawl over one another to get out. Like crabs in a barrel. Forget about basketball. Forget about how this resembles CUSA. None of that matters if everyone would hang together. There is enough programming space out there to make this work over time. And this league would be good in short order. Problem is, there would be no loyalty. Coaches would be waiting for their promotion up, just like the big east over the last 7 years. Everyone would be waiting for the phone to ring. The "invitation." It's unfortunate, because that conference, not without controversy, would keep the AQ. But that is the current reality.

That is one nice mid America and non-BCS conference that will be going nowhere.

 

[gars44]

That is one nice mid America and non-BCS conference that will be going nowhere.

I'm trying to envision an outcome if the ACC doesn't come calling for a few years. I think the other BCS conferences would not have the political or moral will to strip the AQ from this conference.

 

[ctchamps]

That is one nice mid America and non-BCS conference that will be going nowhere.

How could you say that. People will be going to a lot of places. It's all over the map. I hate it for geographical reasons. Hypothetically if it does well in the major sports no one cares about pedigree. It's all about winning. The only going nowhere happens if any of these configurations end up losing BCS AQ.

 

[intlzncster]

I'm not against Gars sentiment here. If UConn moves to the ACC, I think it would be hurt from what it was. Optimally I would've liked to see them stay in the BE as it was, but now I'd love to see them in the ACC. It's going to suck going to the ACC though.

And that's the crux of it. Doesn't matter if it is worse than where we were. All that matter is that it is better than where we are. We are taking a hit in one way or another, no matter where we go.

 

[Icebear]

I'm trying to envision an outcome if the ACC doesn't come calling for a few years. I think the other BCS conferences would not have the political or moral will to strip the AQ from this conference.

I think that you are completely wrong about that.

 

[UCHuskies08]

That is one nice mid America and non-BCS conference that will be going nowhere.

How do you figure a league led by WVU and TCU is MAC-level? That doesn't make any sense.

 

[gars44]

I stated the view the northeast schools would face political problems. I thought your response I underestimated the situation was an exaggeration of my point.

He's talking about Penn State's welcome to the Big 10 about 20 years ago. Correct?

 

[Icebear]

Because of the lack of competition deep in into the conference two to four good teams does not make a quality conference. If so, the WAC wouldn't be a mid America type conference. The BCS will have no interest in such a conference at all. TCU and WVU are great for filling out a BCS league but not as their showcase teams any more than we are.

 

[Dann]

to many keystones for this guy