rams80

Navy is better in football than half the teams in the ACC. I'm sure 'Cuse and Pitt will enjoy playing against such football powerhouses as Duke, Wake Forest, and Boston College week after week. BC was decent until they fired their coach for daring to schedule an interview with the Jets.

It's a shame Syracuse and Pitt had to leave the Big East. They could have had Navy as a conference foe.

I'm sure Tennessee is going to LOVE losing 3rd Saturday in October.

Or they're waiting for everything to fly apart in 5 years. Option B is Jim Delaney is going to swoop in on Mizzou at the very last second in an attempt to actually get one up on the SEC for a change. It won't work but I can't rule it out.

It's ok. Villanova applied to the ACC too.

Which is probably why you're going to see a 4 team pod setup for scheduling.

It's not like the ACC has enough members to qualify for an autobid either.

I've been to both universities and I think UCF has a little more eye candy. But, then again, when you have over 28,000 females at a school, there's bound to be some lookers. Well with Baylor, *INSERT APPROPRIATE BAPTIST STEREOTYPES HERE* That helps explain it as well.

The SEC's actions are about controlling the narrative (namely, we aren't evil raiders who blew everything up for fun and profit). And avoiding a decade in the courtroom with Ken Starr. The Gentleman's Agreement is fine for #13 and #14, but Silve can legitimately say all bets are off for #15 and #16 and what's best for the league trumps parochial concerns.

1. Publicly no. 72 hours ago the ACC wasn't publicly knocking on Pitt and Syracuse's doors either, and yet here we are. 2. I think the general toxicity of the relationship between the football schools and the basketball schools in the Big East even outweighs considerations such as Miami's sanctions. Judging from what I've read online the football schools were pretty much fed up with being second class citizens in the league despite being the breadwinners.

The ACC buyout price prevents them from leaving. It's going to be UConn and UCF going to the ACC. UConn goes for obvious reasons. UCF goes because I think the SEC wakes up, and adds WVU, A&M, Louisville, and USF. They'll try to go after USF, but when the SEC offers, the jump. So they turn to the next best option. UCF is the largest university in Florida, and very rich. If they do join, they'll probably expand their stadium to around 60,000 (which I believe is already planned). If they join the ACC, they're competitive enough in the major sports to make the jump. Didn't the Big XII up its buyout penalties after last offseason? The ACC's buyout hike is a symbolic deterrent, not a prohibitive factor. If you want out, you'll find the money to get out. Not to $20M. And with the additions of Pitt and 'Cuse, it seems like the changes they're making will make the current members more inclined to stay put. Nebraska negotiated theirs down to $10 million. Since we can all assume that TV deals are going to end up being renegotiated for $Texas dollars, what is another ten million if it means membership in the Big Ten or SEC. The current Big Ten tv deals paid out more than $20 million last season. Again, it sounds nice to the people, but it is not an impenetrable barrier by any means. Wow. Ok, the current members of the ACC now seem to be fine with staying in the ACC. So why would they try to leave simply just to say they got around the buyout? Just because you think they can, doesn't mean they're going to when all signs are pointing to them NOT leaving. The ACC has now aligned itself up pretty well for the potential superconferences and appear to only be "buyers" not "sellers". And I'm sure Florida State and Clemson are perfectly fine with sticking in the ACC. Right up until Mike Silve calls Tallahassee and Clemson. Just because the ACC looks to survive doesn't mean you cannot still improve your lot in life.

The ACC buyout price prevents them from leaving. It's going to be UConn and UCF going to the ACC. UConn goes for obvious reasons. UCF goes because I think the SEC wakes up, and adds WVU, A&M, Louisville, and USF. They'll try to go after USF, but when the SEC offers, the jump. So they turn to the next best option. UCF is the largest university in Florida, and very rich. If they do join, they'll probably expand their stadium to around 60,000 (which I believe is already planned). If they join the ACC, they're competitive enough in the major sports to make the jump. Again, the buyout is simply a starting point for negotiations, not some devastating MAD-scale deterrent and is about as believable a deterrent as a buyout fee of ONE BILLION DOLLARS. You could make up much of the buyout simply by withholding revenue sharing a la Nebraska and Colorado. And again, that doesn't mean the teams will try to get out when there's becoming fewer reasons for them to leave. 1. Can you seriously tell me that if you are Clemson or Florida State and the SEC comes by and says "Hey, you guys want in?", they wouldn't jump? They damn well would bail faster than Cracky the Tiger could go through crack cut with meth and they damn well could find the money to do so since we're talking about large state institutions (What's another thousand dollars in semester tuition? It's just loan money and the students expect the hikes at this point). The SEC is just more attractive to the ACC's more Southern, football-oriented members. (FWIW I suspect Tobacco Road et. al. would shed fewer tears about being rid of those football playing ruffians than some seem to think.) 2. Lost in this general brouhaha is another problem regarding the stability of the ACC's current membership-namely the fact that the NCAA is going to be napalming the out of Miami's athletic department at minimum. There's a good chance the NCAA may just drop Little Boy on Miami Gardens and consign the beast to the South Florida swamps from whence it came. How stable can you be if you're worried one of your ostensible football flagships is about to become a 21st Century SMU.

The ACC buyout price prevents them from leaving. It's going to be UConn and UCF going to the ACC. UConn goes for obvious reasons. UCF goes because I think the SEC wakes up, and adds WVU, A&M, Louisville, and USF. They'll try to go after USF, but when the SEC offers, the jump. So they turn to the next best option. UCF is the largest university in Florida, and very rich. If they do join, they'll probably expand their stadium to around 60,000 (which I believe is already planned). If they join the ACC, they're competitive enough in the major sports to make the jump. Didn't the Big XII up its buyout penalties after last offseason? The ACC's buyout hike is a symbolic deterrent, not a prohibitive factor. If you want out, you'll find the money to get out. Not to $20M. And with the additions of Pitt and 'Cuse, it seems like the changes they're making will make the current members more inclined to stay put. Nebraska negotiated theirs down to $10 million. Since we can all assume that TV deals are going to end up being renegotiated for $Texas dollars, what is another ten million if it means membership in the Big Ten or SEC. The current Big Ten tv deals paid out more than $20 million last season. Again, it sounds nice to the people, but it is not an impenetrable barrier by any means.

The ACC buyout price prevents them from leaving. It's going to be UConn and UCF going to the ACC. UConn goes for obvious reasons. UCF goes because I think the SEC wakes up, and adds WVU, A&M, Louisville, and USF. They'll try to go after USF, but when the SEC offers, the jump. So they turn to the next best option. UCF is the largest university in Florida, and very rich. If they do join, they'll probably expand their stadium to around 60,000 (which I believe is already planned). If they join the ACC, they're competitive enough in the major sports to make the jump. Again, the buyout is simply a starting point for negotiations, not some devastating MAD-scale deterrent and is about as believable a deterrent as a buyout fee of ONE BILLION DOLLARS. You could make up much of the buyout simply by withholding revenue sharing a la Nebraska and Colorado.

The ACC buyout price prevents them from leaving. It's going to be UConn and UCF going to the ACC. UConn goes for obvious reasons. UCF goes because I think the SEC wakes up, and adds WVU, A&M, Louisville, and USF. They'll try to go after USF, but when the SEC offers, the jump. So they turn to the next best option. UCF is the largest university in Florida, and very rich. If they do join, they'll probably expand their stadium to around 60,000 (which I believe is already planned). If they join the ACC, they're competitive enough in the major sports to make the jump. Didn't the Big XII up its buyout penalties after last offseason? The ACC's buyout hike is a symbolic deterrent, not a prohibitive factor. If you want out, you'll find the money to get out.

You're saying that the University of Texas was the direct reason for the dissolution of the SWC and potential dissolution of the Big 12? Not the only one, but Texas' insistence on wanting to pretty much dominate its conference in all things administratively and financially has not exactly been helpful to keeping conferences together. Please note how the most stable conferences are the ones in which even the big fish are willing to behave more or less as equals with the small ones.

At this point, what options do the SEC have other than West Virginia? It seems like Virginia Tech, Clemson and Florida State are not options due to the increased buyout money the ACC wants to let a school leave, plus general lack of interest from those schools. Maybe Mizzou? Of course, this assumes that the SEC won't fold on their position about the Longhorn Network to get Texas in the mix. Do they really think that a conference without Texas but with the precedent of disallowing school-specific TV networks is worth more than having Texas and working out the TV revenue piece so everyone wins? Let's ask ourselves again what has happened to the last two conferences Texas was in. Yeah, umm, that particular cuckoo bird isn't worth inviting into your nest.

1. Those rumors are not true. 2. Even if they were, the terms of admission in that post are not worth it.

But he who controls the Rutgers controls the universe.

Just have nonconference games or series during that time. That's how other leagues handle this.

Maryland isn't really a rival, so that would go if need be. I know the Huntington crowd and the state government would like to keep the "coal bowl" alive, but I don't think it's an untouchable rivalry. I was about to say, there seems to be a whole lot of gnashing of teeth over a game that I didn't realize had all this bad blood. I was under the impression Maryland only cared about Virginia, and not some Appalachian hilljacks. And yeah, my general read is that West Virginia would love to be rid of Marshall as an annual opponent. ------------------------------------------------------------ FWIW I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the College Football Premiership were to push for a 4 non conference, 9 conference 13 game schedule.

There are these things called "Non-Conference Games". Perhaps you have heard of them.

Syracuse, yes. Pitt, not so much. Pitt has been "showing itself" to the other conferences, trying to get out of the BEast for a while. Strangely enough, their chancellor is head of the Big East Committee. The irony is kind of laughable. Anyway, I hate to see Syracuse/Georgetown turn into a once-a-year affair. That's one of the better rivalries in college basketball, even if it doesn't get the ESPN "omfg classic stuff here!" treatment that Duke/UNC receives. Syracuse was thisclose to bailing in 2003 and would have if not for some meddling Virginia legislators. So them jumping to the ACC isn't exactly shocking either. They'll stick around for the basketball. Villanova may move up, Georgetown....*laughter* They will stick together for basketball and revel in 80s nostalgia. No. You mean field a football team? AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahaha....ha...ha...ha.... No.

It's not going to be comfirmed because its from a guy who spent all of last year making crap up.

West Virginia is not going to the Big Ten. Bank on it.