Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[McCall]

The ACC at this point isn't breaking up. They have positioned themselves well.

Who said anything about the ACC breaking up?

We've been discussing possibility of FSU to the SEC.

[mkg74]

Glad to see TCU out of the BIG MESS. Didn't make sense geographicaly, they can renew some great rivalries again. Kudos!!+

[Island_Style]

FSU adds households, too. You think because I live in Florida I watch the Gators? Well, I dont. Like I said, You will get new regions with three of the new teams. Use your 4th to get a national presence. Do you disagree with that? FSU adds households.

BTW, Thats my point with LeBron. FSU can do that.

Obviously not every person in Florida is going to watch the Gators. You must have missed the memo that I'm about as big a FSU fan as there is. FSU doesn't add households they add eyes. The households are already counted under the contract and the added eyes mean nothing. Yes the Noles bring in big ratings but the SEC already has big ratings with brands like UF, Bama, LSU, etc. They don't need FSU and FSU will not be going to the SEC unless the league goes to 16 and that's most likely not happening in this round of expansion.

Can this all just be over with already?

I have been saying if they go it wont be till 15 or 16. I said it makes the most sense to get three regionals then one national.

[RyanB06]

Breaking: TCU makes its big break for the Big 12

This means UConn to the ACC is a fait accompli. The Big East is dead.

[DCDuck]

Breaking: TCU makes its big break for the Big 12

This means UConn to the ACC is a fait accompli. The Big East is dead.

Why would the ACC want UConn? UConn has no fanbase.

That fact was shown to be painfully obvious at the Final Four this past March. CBS had to pay students from nearby Rice to dress up in UConn gear and root for the Huskies because there were huge chunks of empty seats in the UConn student section.

Consider this: Butler has an enrollment of around 4,000 and yet they still managed to get fans from Indy to Houston to root for the team during the Final Four.

[ESTONES6]

The ACC at this point isn't breaking up. They have positioned themselves well.

Who said anything about the ACC breaking up?

We've been discussing possibility of FSU to the SEC.

So one school leaving the only major 14 school conference legitimizes ACC breakup discussions?

[McCall]

The ACC at this point isn't breaking up. They have positioned themselves well.

Who said anything about the ACC breaking up?

We've been discussing possibility of FSU to the SEC.

So one school leaving the only major 14 school conference legitimizes ACC breakup discussions?

I don't think he meant the ENTIRE conference, just a generalization.

[DCDuck]

As to the point about FSU to the SEC, I think they'd get the same treatment Mizzou got when it comes to support. Georgia and Florida would block the move, South Carolina too (fearing the next logical step would be to bring in Clemson and NC State). FSU doesn't expand the geographic footprint either.

And don't even start with the "Virginia Tech to the SEC" talk. There are powerful forces at work in the Commonwealth of Virginia holding VT and UVA together. They're practically joined at the hip. Virginia doesn't add anything that VT couldn't (nobody gives a snot rocket about baseball and lacrosse) aside from AAU Member Institution status... and nobody gives a snot rocket about that either.

[Island_Style]

And don't even start with the "Virginia Tech to the SEC" talk. There are powerful forces at work in the Commonwealth of Virginia holding VT and UVA together. They're practically joined at the hip. Virginia doesn't add anything that VT couldn't (nobody gives a snot rocket about baseball and lacrosse) aside from AAU Member Institution status... and nobody gives a snot rocket about that either.

You are right about VT. Thats why they are in the ACC today. It was suppose to be Syracuse.

[crashcarson15]

Breaking: TCU makes its big break for the Big 12

This means UConn to the ACC is a fait accompli. The Big East is dead.

Why would the ACC want UConn? UConn has no fanbase.

That fact was shown to be painfully obvious at the Final Four this past March. CBS had to pay students from nearby Rice to dress up in UConn gear and root for the Huskies because there were huge chunks of empty seats in the UConn student section.

Consider this: Butler has an enrollment of around 4,000 and yet they still managed to get fans from Indy to Houston to root for the team during the Final Four.

With a bunch of rich-ass mother:censored:ers that go there.

[rams80]

I don't see Maryland leaving the ACC for the B1G. Abandoning Duke in basketball wouldn't be worth the tradeoff for Penn State in football.

Even if it means they might actually sell out the stadium?

[DCDuck]

It speaks volumes when a program wins two National Championships in basketball in 12 years (now three) and still has trouble getting fans to show up to the games. UConn athletics is the Tampa Bay Rays of the college sports world.

And then there's UConn football...

[DCDuck]

I don't see Maryland leaving the ACC for the B1G. Abandoning Duke in basketball wouldn't be worth the tradeoff for Penn State in football.

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.

[RyanMcD29]

I don't see Maryland leaving the ACC for the B1G. Abandoning Duke in basketball wouldn't be worth the tradeoff for Penn State in football.

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!

[Geoff]

Why would the ACC want UConn? UConn has no fanbase.

That fact was shown to be painfully obvious at the Final Four this past March. CBS had to pay students from nearby Rice to dress up in UConn gear and root for the Huskies because there were huge chunks of empty seats in the UConn student section.

Consider this: Butler has an enrollment of around 4,000 and yet they still managed to get fans from Indy to Houston to root for the team during the Final Four.

Because Swofford is a Tobacco Road puppet and Tobacco Road doesn't want to admit that football pays the bills and they prefer to just focus on basketball.

[DCDuck]

Boy, we're gonna fit in just well in the ACC! And Duke and UNC too! Woo!

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 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).

[RyanMcD29]

Boy, we're gonna fit in just well in the ACC! And Duke and UNC too! Woo!

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.

[rams80]

Boy, we're gonna fit in just well in the ACC! And Duke and UNC too! Woo!

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.

Because the Big East basketball schools attempted to sell the football schools down the river during the last TV contract negotiation vis a vis potential money in the name of getting more dollars for glorious Big East basketball. Because the Big East just lets Notre Dame dictate everything and bitch out any football school for the audacity of looking out for themselves. And there was the "why don't you pay Villanova's way into Division I-A" thing.

So yeah, I could see why they wanted to leave.

[HedleyLamarr]

From CBSSports.com:

TCU has been invited to join the Big 12 Conference and is expected to accept the offer for the 2012-13 school year, college football industry sources told CBSSports.com.

TCU was scheduled to join the Big East on July 1, 2012, but instead will join the Big 12. By leaving the Big East before it officially became a member, the Horned Frogs will have to pay a $5 million exit fee but is not bound by the Big East?s 27 month requirement for notification.

The addition of TCU replaces Texas A&M, which is headed to the SEC. If Missouri remains in the league, sources said the Big 12 is expected to remain at 10 schools.

If Missouri leaves for the SEC, the Big 12 likely would add three more schools to get to 12. The leading candidates would be Louisville, BYU, West Virginia and Cincinnati.

The loss of TCU is another blow to the Big East. The league also lost Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC, but Commissioner John Marinatto has said previously the Big East would make Pitt and Syracuse stay the 27 months until 2014.

The Big 12 is still waiting to get a commitment from Missouri.

So much for that alledged BYU-Boise State joint effort to join the Big XII together.

Nobody wants Boise State.

[jgiff17]

Why not Houston to the SEC along with Louisville and west Virginia one the big east collapses? Houston evens out the west and gives a&m, lsu close comp and they are about to finalize plans on a brand new stadium (and renovation of arena) and will more than likely play in reliant for a couple of years until it's completed. West Virginia and Louisville not only bring in good comp in football, they raise the bar even higher in basketball. Louisville and Kentucky are rivals. Houston area has some of the best high school recruits in the country. Thoughts anyone?