RyanMcD29

Well, that whole "Root for the Devils if the Isles leave town" gameplan's not looking too good right now. Let's go Buff-a-lo?

I think realignment has taught us not to take anything that anyone says at face value. Virginia Tech is the one school in the ACC that I'd consider "safe" as long as UVA is still in the conference. There are unfathomably powerful forces at work keeping the two of them joined at the hip. Miami and UNC face upcoming NCAA sanctions too. If you want to talk about the viability of the ACC as a football conference, they have VT and they have whoever the "flavor of the season" team happens to be (this year it's Clemson). In a couple of years you might see people question whether the ACC deserves a BCS bid when they only have two teams out of fourteen that appear to be anything north of mediocre. I still believe there's going to be something that comes up creating a schism between Cuse, Pitt, BC and the other nine schools. The ACC built itself as a southern basketball conference and although adding northeast schools adds revenue, I don't know if they'll all fit together (nothing says football rivalry like Syracuse vs. Wake Forest!). Or maybe I'm one of the few who still believes that tradition actually means something in this day and age. See, the only issue with that is, I don't know, BC's been very happy with being in the ACC up to this point being in it for 7 years or so now being the only school in the region, and now they're getting two more northeastern schools. And if say the ACC loses VT or FSU, they're gonna add UConn and Rutgers. The northeastern schools would be well satisfied at that point, and other than Penn State it's back to pre-04 Big East where every major northeastern school's in the same conference. Besides, of let's say those 3 schools to have a schism, why the hell would the Big East have them come back anyway after all 3 left the conference, plus the possibility of UConn and Rutgers doing the same. And if Rutgers joins the B10, then the idea of a northeastern football conference is completely out the window and you better be watching FCS if you want any all-northeastern conference. And about tradition, well, at least with Syracuse, BC's more of a traditional rival than anyone else we play in the Big East save for West Virginia, who's not even gonna be in the Big East anymore anyway. And it's not like Syracuse has been playing Colgate and Cornell every year for the past 40 years, either, and those were some pretty big rivalries back in the day. And if we must bring up the Georgetown basketball rivalry, we'll play them the same amount of times that we do now this season in the Big East when we move to the ACC anyway, so that's not going away.

1. The Big East actively pursued Penn State at the time of the inception of the conference. However, Paterno rejected the idea (remember the Big East was built primarily as a basketball conference) and eventually sent Penn State over to the Big Ten. 2. NYU is D-3 in every sport that they even have, which is arguably one of the smallest athletic programs in D-3. By that logic, rich schools such as Johns Hopkins, Tufts, MIT, and whathaveyou should be playing D-1 FBS football as well.

NYU? NYU? NYU??? Why not just have the whole Ivy League and LIU-Brooklyn join them in the Big East while we're at it considering we're thinking 1940's here I was gonna respond to the whole "Why didn't the Big East ask Penn State to join?" argument, which clearly proves you don't know the history of the Big East and Joe Pa, then you hit us with this. And you're completely failing to bring up the obstacles Title IX brings with football programs. The Big East had their chance to make an impact, and they failed. Simple as that

I totally just realized the SEC's going to have 3 schools named the Tigers. Memphis is coming next in the SEC's plans (E2)

The Big Leftovers Conference The Big Empty. The Big...Yawn. The Big Thank God We're Getting Out of This Clown Car

I wonder if during the Holidays the AMC gets filled up with more people watching the latest Harry Potter or w/e Fall/Christmas blockbusters than there are people going to Jobing.com Arena for the Coyotes /Yes I should be the last person to say something like that as an Islander fan //No I don't care. That and once the Islanders get better fans will come unlike Phoenix

Gooses, Geeses I want my geese to lay gold eggs for Easter You know what, it. That's now the official theme song of conference realignment

The Islanders had less of a deficit than the Ducks, Sabres, Sharks, Lightning, and Capitals last year? Grey skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face!

Sorry to use a blurry picture as an example, but recently Syracuse put this up because we love to shove this New York's College Team deal down everybody's throat The problem? 1. This is the only bowl game to have a banner 2. This is more detailed than every other banner hanging up, including the 2003 Basketball Championship. My fix? Either put up bowl banners for every bowl victory and/or re-do all the football/basketball championship logos. For the basketball banner, do it kinda like this style, maybe replacing the 20 S 10 with a 2003 and the basketball logo they used back then underneath that. Add on the 2003 Final Four logo like the Pinstripe Bowl banner. The 1959 football banner too can use something more stylized, too, maybe with the 59 helmet and of course the number 44 on it. The lacrosse banners can stay the same I think due to it being non-revenue and the fact that stylized championship weekend logos have only come around since the championships have been played in NFL Stadiums (which means only the 2004, 2008, and 2009 championships apply to logo treatment) I'll try to do some concept for how I'd like Syracuse banners to be sometime in the near future

McGill to the Ivy League?!?! Or the University of Toronto to the Big East?!?! I can't wait to see what this rumor amounts to In other reel-line-mint news, word's coming out that UConn was to be the 2nd ACC invite with Syracuse, but that move was struck down by no other than Boston College. Still no love lost between those two from the 2004 ACC raid it looks like

I honestly don't know why Cuse and Pitt felt the need to leave. Maybe they just got jumpy watching all the posturing and chest-puffing in the Big XII. The Big East provided both schools with traditional rivalries and the opportunity to get to a BCS bowl in football without actually having to have a good football team (see Connecticut, 2010). The ACC provides a slight upgrade in football (in any given year West Virginia is as good as any team the ACC has to offer, Va Tech included) and a bump at the top of the basketball league (after Duke and UNC the ACC is mediocre in hoops, compared with the likes of Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, Villanova etc. in the Big East), but little else. Pitt-Maryland would be somewhat of a forced rivalry. Maryland's "rivalry" with Virginia went cold after Virginia's football program started to stumble. Syracuse-BC? Syracuse-who? Honestly, who is Cuse's rival in football? Cuse makes sense in lacrosse, but everyone knows that lacrosse is irrelevant in the scheme of realignment (just like academics are irrelevant). Syracuse-BC, Syracuse-VT, Syracuse-Miami (sorta) from the Big East days, Syracuse-Maryland was regularly played back in the day (the Marrone-Edsall rivalry's really the thing that would push this), obviously Syracuse-Pitt. Syracuse's Big East rivalries are mainly basketball to begin with, save for Cuse-Rutgers which only popped up as an actual rivalry a few years ago and Cuse-WVU, so that's a push regardless for football. Really, in all honesty, not even us Syracuse students and fans know who our main football rival really is. It should be West Virginia, but I dunno it doesn't feel that much of a big rivalry like Georgetown and UConn and Villanova/Pitt are for hoops or even the Johns Hopkins/Virginia/Cornell/Princeton/Hobart/Notre Dame/Georgetown/Every team we play rivalry complex of lacrosse. But yeah, you know why Cuse and Pitt left? Just take a look at the conference leadership. Nobody wants to stick. Cuse and Pitt are gone, TCU's gone before they even arrived, UConn publicly says they're the next cog in the ACC machine come next expansion/reaction to raid, West Virginia tried going to the SEC and ACC, Rutgers wants in the B10. Oh, and of course it's all about the benjamins in the grand scheme of things.

Even if it means they might actually sell out the stadium? Unfortunately they can't play against Penn State every week. With the way Randy Edsall is "guiding" the program it'll be a wonder if any fans show up to the games at all. It's bad enough that Maryland is a basketball and lacrosse school situated smack in the middle of pro football country (between two passionate fanbases in the Redskins and the Ravens). Add in a coach who clashes with players, an Athletic Director who has lost the favor of many boosters and alumni, and a budget shortfall thanks to having to pay Ralph Friedgen's buyout, and you have an unmitigated disaster known as "Maryland Football". I joked about Tulane joining the B1G a while ago, but Tulane would actually make more sense for the B1G than Maryland at this point in time (i.e. the next five years or so). Maryland football is in that deep of a hole right now. Boy, we're gonna fit in just well in the ACC! And Duke and UNC too! Woo!

Apologies to Ram, the Photoshop wasn't gonna come out right. But..... IT'S DOC GERBIL'S WORLD..... IT'S DOC GERBIL'S WORLD And thus another big blow to the Big East plus another reason why I'm glad we're out of the clown car before it fell off a cliff

Let me also provide some visuals http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/submap.htm http://www.mta.info/lirr/Timetable/lirrmap.htm http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/mnrmap.htm http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=TrainSchedulesMapTo

There's a famous cover of The New Yorker that depicts "The New Yorker's Concept of Geography" or something, which consists of Manhattan in painstaking detail, followed by an abstract "Jersey" and the rest of America being inconsequential. We need to come up with The Rays Fan's Concept Of Geography, wherein St. Petersburg is separated from the rest of greater Tampa by a vast ocean marked "Here There Be Monsters," because apparently this is THE ONLY FREAKING PLACE IN AMERICA where it's moderately difficult to get to a sporting event. Does that comparison kind of fail when you think about the transportation system in each city? Honestly, if you live in the Metro NYC area...you're only a short walk away from a ride to the stadium. The Tampa Bay area is in desperate need of a public transportation overhaul...it ranks among the worst in America of air quality because of all the commuting on highways within the bay area. Unfortunately, it is a spread out area so public transportation takes a backseat. Your idea of the NYC public transportation system humors me. Huh? Citi Field's right next to a 7 Train/LIRR stop, Yankee Stadium's right next to a 4/Metro North and I wanna say another subway line (one of the 1 2 or 3?), MSG's on top of Penn Station, there's a NJ Transit stop at the Meadowlands, and the Prudential Center's also about a block or two away from a NJ Transit/Amtrak station Now the Nassau Coliseum, on the other hand.... The stadiums are close to the transits, but how many people live close to the transits? A ton. There's a subway line on every other street in Manhattan, there's 10 LIRR lines, there's 8 NJ Transit lines, there's bus service in practically every town in NYC, Nassau County, and much of Jersey. You're never really further than 5 minutes away from mass transit in the NYC area, save for maybe Northwestern Jersey or Rockland County

There's a famous cover of The New Yorker that depicts "The New Yorker's Concept of Geography" or something, which consists of Manhattan in painstaking detail, followed by an abstract "Jersey" and the rest of America being inconsequential. We need to come up with The Rays Fan's Concept Of Geography, wherein St. Petersburg is separated from the rest of greater Tampa by a vast ocean marked "Here There Be Monsters," because apparently this is THE ONLY FREAKING PLACE IN AMERICA where it's moderately difficult to get to a sporting event. Does that comparison kind of fail when you think about the transportation system in each city? Honestly, if you live in the Metro NYC area...you're only a short walk away from a ride to the stadium. The Tampa Bay area is in desperate need of a public transportation overhaul...it ranks among the worst in America of air quality because of all the commuting on highways within the bay area. Unfortunately, it is a spread out area so public transportation takes a backseat. Your idea of the NYC public transportation system humors me. Huh? Citi Field's right next to a 7 Train/LIRR stop, Yankee Stadium's right next to a 4/Metro North and I wanna say another subway line (one of the 1 2 or 3?) station, MSG's on top of Penn Station, there's a NJ Transit stop at the Meadowlands, and the Prudential Center's also about a block or two away from a NJ Transit/Amtrak station Now the Nassau Coliseum, on the other hand....

8 trips to the dance in the past 9 years is more than any team in the SEC not named Kentucky can say. Doesn't everyone from the Big East get in the tourney anyway Beating everybody to the punch about 9 out of 11 teams not making it out of the first weekend IT'S DOC GERBIL'S WORLD.... IT'S DOC GERBIL'S WORLD Why haven't I used that picture at all regarding conference realignment? In retrospect I totally should've used that multiple times in this thread, especially once the Cuse/Pitt to ACC news started coming in

Army? With Cuse leaving, this shouldn't matter. St. John's anyone? Where would they play football, if they decided to reinstate the sport? Do what their lacrosse team does, play on top of a parking garage

A few steps? That would be the WAC. That's like saying the Central Hockey League is significantly lower than the ECHL. There's a dropoff but it's only slight. Define "meaningful". Last season: ECU beat NC State SMU beat Washington State Southern Miss beat Kansas Tulane beat Rutgers Tulsa beat Hawaii UCF beat UGA UTEP beat New Mexico This season: Houston beat UCLA Rice beat Purdue UCF beat BC Those lists include wins against AQ schools and current (or future) MWC schools. For reference, UTEP was the only C-USA team that played a MWC school (New Mexico). There's already 3 on the list for 2011 and we're just entering week 4. And since you're a fan of analyzing a current team's success, or lack there of, and what it means for a league they're no longer in, BYU is currently losing to UCF. AT Rutgers. Us Syracuse fans had a field day with that at Rutgers Stadium last year /Yes I know a MAC school will probably beat us tomorrow

Not true on either point in certain cases. While football controls the discussion in college athletics, men's basketball and academics both are a decent part of it for certain conferences (ACC for both, Big Ten for academics only, etc). Academics, pfft. You know, as much crap as SEC fans rightfully get for that S-E-C-S-E-C "I hope our rivals win because somehow it makes us better" chanting, the Big Ten is the most masturbatory conference in college sports. At least all that South-will-rise-again stuff terminates at the end of football season; Big Ten circle-jerking permeates every aspect of everything. At least college hockey's immune from the Big Te... Oh shiii

I know the Big East is talking about sticking together, but I have a funny feeling that's not gonna last too long (*cough*UConn*cough*) 14's a good round number for now, and it's better than 16, but I'd like to have UConn join Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC. Granted, considering it's looking more and more likely we're staying in the Big East for, again, three lame duck basketball seasons, a lot can change from now to then. I know it would bring it to a bulky and uneven 15, but I just feel like the Huskies would be a natural fit in the new ACC. Rutgers.... eh they can stay in the Big East for all I care.

You know, Boise might not be in terribly bad shape staying in the Mountain West. They'll get some of the scraps from the Big 12, probably keep TCU with the Big East disaster going on, they've got the WAC's stronger programs coming in next year, and who knows they might get the Big East/Big 12's BCS bid to keep it 6.

I guess this whole "academics matter in conference realignment" spiel actually does matter in the case of WVU in ACC. I'm a bit bummed out by that, though. If they weren't able to go to the SEC, I would've loved for them to tag along with us and Pitt to the ACC and keep some good football rivalries alive (well, the Backyard Brawl will more than likely survive but you know what I mean).

Anyone arguing that the move to the ACC isn't a net plus for Syracuse has their head firmly implanted in their nether regions. As far as rivals go, Duke + UNC + Maryland > Villanova + St. John's + Georgetown any day of the week. Tell that to like 80% of the student body. I swear for one of the smartest schools in the FBS level, we sometimes have the stupidest fans as students. I won't even go into the "sorority chick that goes to games just to dance to music during timeouts and knows nothing about sports" or half the student section leaving by halftime for football epidemic we got going on. /End rant usually I reserve for talking about the Islanders fanbase