Realignment is real, and UConn searches for a life raft in the ACC
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 3:35 PM EDT
in UConn Huskies News
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Because hey, we could all use a little cheering up today.
The Big East as we knew it died Sunday morning, when the Atlantic Coast Conference officially accepted the applications of Syracuse University and Pittsburgh University to extend the league's membership to 14 teams.
What remains of the Big East is an unwieldy, rickety 15-team structure well on its way to collapse. Seven football teams remain, but the Northeastern character of the league (on the football side, at least) is all but gone - just UConn and Rutgers. The endgame appears obvious at this point - the total disintegration of the Big East as a football conference - and now that the game is on, it's time to make moves.
Elsewhere, other dominoes are about to fall - notably, this report of Texas readying to jump from the Big 12 to the Pac 12, thus destroying a second BCS conference; I doubt Oklahoma (and Oklahoma State/Texas Tech) are far behind.
That part, at least, is good news. Because if Texas won't be parking its non-football sports in the ACC, it means there is a spot open in that conference, should it choose to expand to 16. UConn, Rutgers, Louisville and West Virginia would all be logical candidates for those final two spots.
To her credit, UConn president Susan Herbst is already actively using her connections to lobby for UConn's inclusion in the new super-conference world.
It's the only card UConn can play now: to escape the dying Big East and hope its value is high enough to be an attractive target. The remaining Big East football teams will have to do the same thing.
I don't want to see any of our Big East friends left behind; I rather liked this conference.
But if there's any consolation for fellow Big East-loving Husky fans, if the ACC extends an invitation to UConn, that league would have most of the teams we love to hate (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Duke, Chestnut Hill School of Pretension And Losing To Duke, our old buddy Randy Edsall down at Maryland), with the possibility of Rutgers coming along as the 16th team. It would be weird, certainly, but it's the best thing that could happen for UConn at this point (both in the major sports and the minor - ACC soccer, field hockey and baseball are all near the best in the NCAA).
(Side note: I don't begrudge Pitt and Syracuse one bit for making this move. They were shackled by a league office that continually put basketball first in a football-dominated world. The Big East made half-measures to improve the football league [adding TCU] while continually trying to appease the old-school basketball schools [trying to add Villanova]. The league was simply not sustainable at its current state, and was always going to be easy prey for the bigger-money conferences.)
In the utopia where college sports isn't big business designed to wring the most money out of the biggest brand names, maybe the move towards consolidation wouldn't be inevitable. And maybe UConn would still be a happy, satisfied member of the Big East, playing Georgetown, St. John's and Villanova every year in perpetuity.
But we don't live in that world. We live in the world where UConn (and West Virginia, and Louisville, and Rutgers, and USF, etc.) wants to compete at the highest level of athletics, and that means doing everything possible to stick with one of the new power football conferences. At least until the next paradigm shift.
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It really is sad, but going to the ACC is the best we can hope for now.
It will also become one helluva league that we will grow to love over time. We will have very intense rivalries here on a grand scale in the most dominant conference on the East Coast in all sports. Beating Duke and BC while having the opportunity to still play Syracuse and Pitt in conferences match ups will be fun. I’ll miss the old Big East but we must move on.
I think that Louisville, WVU, and Mizzou all make the move to the SEC to join aTm and Kansas, KState, and ISU ultimately go to the BIG along with their coveted Notre Dame and Texas and Texas Tech head out west with OK and OK ST. Baylor and Cinci probably join the MTN West with TCU deciding to stay there and maybe even BYU who knows. It’s definitely going to be interesting.
Actually if Cinci is lucky they can maybe get into the BIG
Instead of Iowa St. I think it’s smarter to get another team in Ohio for them than to have 2 in Iowa. Anyway, I hope Cinci makes it and not Iowa St. Especially after this stupid mascot stuff.
The Big 10 simply isn't expanding unless they get a powerhouse
i.e. Notre Dame. Their $$$ numbers are more than fine at 12. People seem to keep saying that the Big 10 “has to keep up” with the other conferences expanding, and I have no doubt the Big 10 would expand if the right opportunity came along (again, i.e. Notre Dame), but I don’t think that league is going to add teams for the sake of adding teams (Iowa State and Cincinnati offer nothing that Iowa and Ohio State don’t already bring).
To be clear, I don’t think the Big 10 would take UConn either for the same reason, unless it came as a package deal with Notre Dame and whoever.
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions
C'mon over Huskies!
We’ll be the SEC of bball and I may be overly optimistic but the football is improving. I think you guys will fit right in
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time I do what I have to."
by bluecollarhokie on Sep 18, 2011 4:17 PM EDT reply actions
Probably what's gonna happen
Ingredients for a NCAA Championship: Kemba Walker, Jeremy Lamb, Alex Oriakhi, etc.
With the Big XII and the Big East on the verge of collapse
I think the most likely possibility is a “Big Tweast” Franken-conference. Then again, I don’t know what to expect anymore.
That's probably what will happen to the teams who are left out of the big conferences
If things work out for UConn, that league would then be some sort of combination of Louisville, Cincinnati, USF, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri + the usual teams who get talked about joining the Big East.
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions
autobid?
If I recall correctly, to be recognized as a conference, it’s a minimum of 6 schools that had to have a previous affiliation for a certain number of years. From that list, there’s the 3 ex BE members (assuming UConn/RU to the ACC and WVU to the SEC), and five ex BXII members (assuming Texahoma goes west, and Mizzou doesn’t get in somewhere else too) – so they wouldn’t be able to keep the BXII name, and automatically lose the BCS autobid, right? Or is it based on win percentage or RPI or some crap? In any case, I hope UConn’s not on that boat, and I do feel bad for those schools.
by junglehusky on Sep 18, 2011 10:01 PM EDT up reply actions
Oh, I would highly doubt that ends up being a BCS league.
To put on the tinfoil hat briefly, I really wouldn’t be surprised if this is all leading to the 64 superconference schools breaking away from the NCAA, or something equally radical.
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions
that's the NCAA rule for basketball
Nothing to do with the BCS. There’s officially a formula for evaluating conferences for automatic bids in the BCS, but its set up to have as few as 5 or as many as 7… and it’s likely the Big SOL would have better numbers than the MWC (if nothing else, they could add Boise State and BYU to make it a sure thing by the numbers). That would last through the end of the current BCS deal, and then who knows.
I feel bad
about losing games against Villanova and Georgetown, though I guess we could still schedule them OOC.
As an FSU graduate
im pissed at what the ACC is doing. They’re basically giving up on football.
Would you rather the ACC sit around
and wait for the SEC to poach VT/UNC/NC St/MD? Pitt and Syracuse have had their moments in football. Its essentially a wash football wise, while adding two top 15 basketball programs.
Truth
But despite what you Nole and Cane fans have hoped for, this is and always has been a basketball conference. This strengthens the argument for the ACC in bball and makes it so one of our better football programs in VT doesn’t get tempted to leave for the SEC.
We aint goin nowheres
VT’s AD and pres have both publicly said thanks but no thanks to SEC. For the most part we really like it in the ACC (unlike some of our colleagues further south cough Clemson cough)
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time I do what I have to."
by bluecollarhokie on Sep 19, 2011 6:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Kind of a bball centric move
Their goal is to kill the Big east. For good this time. Though the Catholic schools will invite Xavier and keep the Big East name. But as coach Krzyszcweiesxzqksy said, this was a coup/knockout blow to the BE as the #1 basketball conference. And it looks like they will keep FSU/Clemson on board (assuming they don’t just nail the doors shut at the next booster meeting to raise funds for the exit fee), so they have a place at the big boy table despite not matching the football firepower of the other superconferences.
That's what I mean
I imagine FSU has gotta have a bunch of Robert Burtons eager for the Ess Ee Cee they can raise 20 mil from.
...or at least
the $7 million difference (20m-13m)
So what advantages does UConn have over other potential ACC adds?
Strong basketball, New York/Boston market (which it already has covered), proximity/ties to other Big East defectors … Herbst’s ties?
A better question, maybe: In a sports world now centered around football dollars, is all that better than what the other Big Easters left on the island, or schools from the Big 12, have to offer? (Awful it has to come to this, but I’m willing to eat Rutgers’ arm off at this point to remain a viable athletic program.)
I feel slightly optimistic because UConn offers a few things others don’t. Then again, they don’t really offer the biggest thing conferences want — a big-time football program. So, on the other hand, I’m scared out of my mind, because if I were running the ACC, I would just take a Kansas or a Missouri if it’s all about football.
by UConnBlog Justin on Sep 18, 2011 5:11 PM EDT reply actions
WVU is probably going to the SEC
And who in the world would bring Kansas over UConn if this were a football discussion? Kansas had the one good year, and they’re back to doormat status. At worst, it’s a push, assuming you don’t factor in the NY/Boston things.
And Missouri is so far out of the ACC footprint, it’d be on the same island Boston College has been on for seven years, and it’s not exactly Texas (for whom an exception in that regard could be made).
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions
OK THAT MAKES SENSE I’M JUST SO NERVOUS AHHHHHHHHH~!
by UConnBlog Justin on Sep 18, 2011 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions
WVU doesn't matchup academically with the ACC or Big Ten
I think its down to UConn, Rutgers, and Louisville. Kansas would have been an option if Texas were still considering the ACC (which appears to be dead at this point).
What do you guys think is going to happen to the Big East post ACC expansion? Conference USA 2.0? Its looking like Cincy, USF, and whichever school the ACC doesn’t want are going to be in a tough situation.
location, I guess
Unlike WV, Missouri, Kansas, Notre Indiana, or Texas, our state actually is on the Atlantic Coast. (Long Island sound counts, right?). Anyway, we’re another Northeastern school to partner with Pitt, BC, Cuse and maybe Rutgers.
Watching this realignment stuff go down...
and being a lifetime ACC watcher, its my opinion that the potential future invitations to UConn & Rutgers will be dependent on what Texas does. If Texas goes to the PAC-12, then I don’t see any better options for the ACC than UConn and Rutgers. But as long as Texas is in play, they are the key.
Don't worry about what people think. They don't do it very often.
I hate this ACC thing for two reasons
1. I like being a member of the Big East. It’s got good history, a great tourney every year, solid rivalries.
2. The ACC is not our conference. I don’t like being a part of Duke’s and UNC’s conference. The Big East was ours, and Cuse and Pitt ruined all that.
So this potential move hurts, despite that fact that watching these teams battle thru an ACC basketball schedule would be better than watching just about any other basketball schedule. Here’s how I can accept this move -
Divide the teams into the following division:
1. Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, NC State, UVa, Maryland, FSU, Clemson, Ga Tech
2. UConn, Rutgers, Cuse, Pitt, BC, Va Tech, Miami
Call division 1 the ACC, and name division 2 the Big East. That way I can feel like the BE still exsists (I know the teams split 9 to 7, but whatever, we’ll deal with that later.)
wow, this is crazy
it feels like watching the end of an era. Either way, in the ACC or in some Big East/12 leftover hybrid, some of the great rivalries that the (well, at least, my) UConn tradition were founded on will go by the wayside. I can’t imagine not playing Pitt and Syracuse every year in basketball…. or for that matter, Louisville and Georgetown. It’s a brave new world; hopefully UConn can get theirs and put themselves in a good position going forward.
Linked in the post above
But that doesn’t mean anything. It just means Herbst is calling the ACC, not that they’re listening. Lord knows the ACC has plenty of reasons to act petty and lock UConn out.
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 18, 2011 10:29 PM EDT up reply actions
I suppose...
But it also has plenty to gain monetarily adding UConn as a 15th or 16th school.
Agreed
Thoroughly enjoying life atop the Big East.
by Kevin Meacham on Sep 19, 2011 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions
As a Syracuse fan, I definitely want UConn to come along
The rivalries in both football and basketball are too great to leave behind. Expecially in football, where the Orange need a chance to even out the record after the Greg Robinson debacle.
Villanova… ehh, call us when you have a real football team.
maybe im a homer but,
How could the acc want cuse and not uconn?
by amp343 on Sep 19, 2011 12:13 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
cuse, nyc?
Weird I’ve never noticed any cuse love there
by amp343 on Sep 19, 2011 2:36 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Despite their recent struggles in football, their legacy in the sport is probably the key.
by UConnBlog Justin on Sep 19, 2011 2:58 PM EDT up reply actions
If I’m UConn I’m filing that application today, and it reads something like this:
Yo ACC bitches. Congratulations! You have successfully taken all the teams we hate the most and formed some sort of Anti-UConn Legion of Douche. And while we’d love nothing more than to fart on all y’all faces, we really don’t have a choice but to kiss your ass and ask to be part of your stupid conference.
Now we really shouldn’t have to get on our knees and beg here, even though I know the thought of that is giving Coach K and Jim Boeheim simultaneous boners right now. You just let Pitt and Syracuse in, which in swag terms, is like letting Fat Joe and Paul Wall (respectively) into your 50/50 club. We’re at least Rick Ross (Arggggggghhhaaa) in this analogy.
So you want to improve the quality of football in the ACC? Then why not let in the defending Tostidos Fiesta Bowl runner-ups? And have you seen Johnny Mac’s trick shot video? It’s right up there with guy getting hit by ice cream truck. Plus it’d be great to show Randy “Billy Zane’s character from Titanic” Edsall that revenge is a dish best served cold, and we’re about to give him a whole motherfudging bowl of gazpacho.
What’s that? THIS season? Has that started already? We were too busy recruiting Andre “hide yo’ point guards, hide yo’ centers, and hide your small forwards cuz he rapin’ errryyybudddyyy out here” Drummond for our National Title defense to notice.
Oh yeah, maybe you saw our little run last March? You know, when Duke and UNC and all your other golden boys were shitting the bed…remember that? If your secret agenda here (and we can only assume this is the case) is to create a basketball conference that is equivalent to a Dick Vitale wet dream, you absolutely need our service.
And, not that you care, but we also pretty much own women’s college basketball. And soon Pat Summit isn’t going to know the difference between a full-court press and a panini press, at which time the NCAA will just give us the trophy at the start of every season, and save everyone the trouble of having to sit through five months of women’s basketball. Zing.
So, in closing, as much as we’d like to go all Braveheart on your ass, we’ve seen the movie and Mel Gibson gets beheaded at the end. Let’s get this clusterfuck going and I can promise we’ll make some average-looking football babies, but a whole bunch of sexy-as-shit basketball babies.
by TheSwagMachine on Sep 19, 2011 12:23 PM EDT reply actions 3 recs
“And soon Pat Summit isn’t going to know the difference between a full-court press and a panini press”
classy
"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time I do what I have to."
by bluecollarhokie on Sep 19, 2011 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions
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