Tag Archives: John Swofford

Conference Realignment: FSU-to-Big12 Drama; A Georgia Tech Point of View

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A Georgia Tech perspective on the Florida-State-to-Big-12 chatter

ESPN obtained a memo written by Florida State President Eric Barron and then chaos ensued. At this point Barron’s letter is just a pro/con list on ACC membership, and it is probably premature to be giving this story so much attention. As Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim once said, “nothing premature is good”. Nevertheless, everyone is weighing in on the Florida-State-to-the-Big-12 speculation, so now I will do the same. Although I am writing from a Georgia Tech perspective, I suspect my point of view will be similar to other ACC team’s fans.

First, I want to provide my unfiltered, initial reaction to learning about the story. At first, I was shocked that FSU would bring this up after the ACC just made expansion moves to secure its position amongst the top conferences in college sports. I also wondered, why the Big 12? It does not make sense geographically, and personally I think the Big 12 is overrated. Lastly, I was initially a little angry at FSU, as you may expect. I am a proud and loyal ACC guy, so I don’t take kindly to this sort of speculation. Continue reading →

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The ACC’s Tobacco Road Favoritism

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Has Tobacco Road Favoritism Been Detrimental to the ACC? Clemson (and Florida State) Would Say Yes

Last September, the ACC’s addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh was met with a collective “meh” from the league’s football schools. But despite the seemingly lackluster performances of the conference’s new members, their joining was generally interpreted as a sign that the ACC was stable and strong. While the Big East and the Big 12 were facing threats to their very existence, the ACC’s place was secure. It was a conference that people wanted to join, not one threatened by exodus.

Less than a year later, a fresh round of rumors would have us believe that the conference’s collapse is imminent. The football-first schools are supposedly on their way to the Big 12, setting the scene for four power conferences which would line up nicely with the impending four-team playoff. The Big Ten and the SEC might pick up some of the detritus, leaving the league’s weaker schools to fend for themselves.

The culprit is Tobacco Road, or at least the idea of Tobacco Road. The Big 12’s loss of Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and especially Texas A&M was driven by resentment at Texas’ dominance of the league. In a similar way, some ACC schools, especially Clemson and Florida State, begrudge the conference’s domination by the four North Carolina schools, especially Duke and UNC.

It’s no secret that Tobacco Road’s influence in ACC decision-making is disproportionate to the Carolina schools’ numbers. The ACC is a basketball-first conference, after all, and with flagship programs like Duke and North Carolina, numbers three and four on the all-time wins list, it’s understandable that their voices would be louder. ACC football has been an afterthought for most of the conference’s history, apart from brief national runs by Maryland in the 1950s and Clemson in the 1980s, and Florida State’s roughshod run over all competition during the 1990s. Continue reading →

Conference Realignment: Florida State Talks Big 12, Nonsense

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Florida State’s Apparent Flirtation With the Big 12 Reached a Fever Pitch Over the Weekend, With Plenty More to Come

It’s likely everyone caught these shenanigans over the weekend, with Florida State Board of Trustees Chairman Andy Haggard running his mouth about things he knows very little of. Among them, how the ESPN/ACC television deal was put together, the importance of conference academic standing, and his own school’s athletic history, along with that of other schools as well. Said Haggard in his original rant to Warchant.com:

“Schools like Duke, Boston College and Maryland all will receive $17 million a year now. That’s a good chunk of money for anyone’s athletic program, but particularly for one that either sends one of its major revenue sports to the postseason a year, or none.”

He would go on to belabor points about Florida State doing all the “heavy lifting” and try and make a case for unequal revenue sharing. We all know what unequal revenue sharing gets us. As has been pointed out all over the web, his bashing of current conference rivals (poor form which neither he nor the school has yet to apologize for, by the way) seems to conveniently forget 2004-2008. Continue reading →

ACC/Big 12 Conference Realignment & the ACC/ESPN TV Deal

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The ACC TV Deal Has Brought More Questions Than Answers in Terms of Conference Realignment

The big news yesterday was the ACC‘s new 15-year extension worth about $3.6 billion. After taking out a cut for the league office, that amounts to around $16 million per school (as in divided between 14, not 12 institutions). it’s a nice increase for the current 12 schools (a jump of $5 million per year over the previous contract), but a monumental one for Pittsburgh and Syracuse, who see a $12 million jump (per year!). Not only does that number pay for the exit fees they’ll incur (each will likely have to pay an increased amount from the old $5 million-and-27-month-wait agreement), but it also pays for the type of upgrades both schools will need once they switch leagues.

As many of us started to discuss over at Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician once the news hit, getting the per-school figure closer to that of the Big 12 would likely mean that all those rumors of Florida State and Clemson defections would be put to rest. Unfortunately, we were dead wrong (as we quickly found out in the comment thread).

The ACC’s deal — unlike that of the other power conferences — also includes tier-three rights. These tier-three rights usually come in the form of local broadcast options (so Time Warner Sports, MSG, SNY, Raycom Sports, etc), team-specific channels (Longhorn Network) or league networks (B1G Network, the Pac-12′s collection of regional content providers), and the web. In the other four power leagues, teams retain these rights, and can in turn, sell off the games (in all sports) not picked up by the main distributor and make an additional profit. Not so in the ACC, however. Continue reading →

ACC Expansion Rumors: Notre Dame and Rutgers Join, or Georgia Tech and Maryland Leave?

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Rumors Say ESPN Wants Rutgers and Notre Dame to Join the ACC... or the Big Ten?

Some may have noticed the rumor mill got bored over the past 48 hours and decided it was time for another radical theory on conference realignment. Specifically, the ideas in question — brought to wider attention by SBNation’s From the Rumble Seat — toss out a couple of ideas with varying degrees of plausibility. We’ll discuss each one below:

Rumor 1: The ACC is actively courting Notre Dame and Rutgers, at the urging of ESPN

Not only does this fail to really surprise me (or most readers), but I’d think the league dumb not to be actively pursuing one or both of these schools. While I may favor Connecticut as Notre Dame’s expansion partner, I suppose it doesn’t really matter all that much one way or the other. The part I’m kind of up in the air about though is ESPN’s involvement. Sure, they’ve been rumored to have fueled realignment (specifically the ACC’s) before, but like the last time this theory came across the board, how legitimate is this argument? ESPN has an invested interest in the Big East, so why dilute one product a lot to increase the other (the ACC) a little? As much as some want to believe the Syracuse and Pittsburgh move was a push by the “worldwide leader,” it’s tough to see them gaining too much from such a seedy transaction. The new rumor, however, does have some legs in this regard. An ACC Network (run by ESPN) with the three largest draws in the New York market (SU, Rutgers, Notre Dame) makes a lot of sense from a cable-carrier standpoint. Grabbing the Irish’s football games from NBC’s another reason ESPN stands to gain from such a move. Continue reading →

ACC Realignment: Divisional Setups

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We Take a Look at Which Divisional Setup Would Work Best For the ACC

Once Pittsburgh and Syracuse join the ACC (whenever that may be), the biggest issue outside of renegotiating the league’s TV contract will be divisional alignment. Given the conference’s unorthodox divisional setup to begin with — dividing teams by no geographic lines in particular, and just splitting up the best teams to assure more competitive title game matchups — the sky is pretty much the limit. Now even though ACC commissioner John Swofford has virtually ruled out anything but plugging Pitt in one division and Syracuse in the other, it would still be fun to bounce some ideas around, right? So without further ado, some of our favorite possibilities:

Option 1: The Swofford Plan

Atlantic Division — Boston College | Clemson | Florida State | Maryland | NC State | Syracuse | Wake Forest

Coastal Division — Duke | Georgia Tech | Miami (FL) | North Carolina | Pittsburgh | Virginia | Virginia Tech

In this scenario, the current Atlantic and Coastal divisions remain the same, with SU rekindling its yearly rivalry with BC, and Pitt jumping back into its sort-of grudge matches with both VPI and Miami. Concerns over lost games are remedied by a simple “protected cross-divisional matchup.” So in this case, the Orange could play the Panthers every year, while the Eagles could resume a more heated annual rivalry with the Hokies (all hypothetically, but very plausible).

Option 2: The Mason/Dixon Plan

North Division — Boston College | Maryland | NC State | Pittsburgh | Syracuse | Virginia | Virginia Tech

South Division — Clemson | Duke | Florida State | Georgia Tech | Miami (FL) | North Carolina | Wake Forest

While the model above makes a lot more sense than the current setup, it’s fairly imperfect. One of the North Carolina schools is always separated from its three counterparts, plus competitively, the South becomes a real bear (in kind making the North a theoretical cakewalk for the Hokies) every year. The biggest concern for schools is the fact that they don’t play a Florida school every season — hurting exposure to that recruiting hotbed.

Option 3: The Zipper Plan

Division One — Boston College | Clemson | Florida State | North Carolina | Pittsburgh | Wake Forest | Virginia

Division Two — Duke | Georgia Tech | Maryland | Miami (FL) | NC State | Syracuse | Virginia Tech

Of all the “alternative” plans, one cut like this would probably have the most legs. Basically, each team is paired with a “rival” and then split down the middle (with that game protected as well). You can probably guess which teams were paired up above, and you’ll probably also see that this creates a format much like the current one. Everyone’s guaranteed trips to the Northeast and Florida and it keeps intact plenty of rivalries within teams’ own divisions, too — UNC/UVa, Clemson/FSU, VPI/Miami, etc.

Option 4: The Deadliest Warrior Plan

Deadly Division: Boston College | Clemson | Georgia Tech | Florida State | Miami (FL) | NC State | Pittsburgh

Not-So-Deadly Division: Duke | Maryland | North Carolina | Syracuse | Wake Forest | Virginia | Virginia Tech

Most can probably guess, but these teams are divided up into a division of deadly mascots and a division of not-so-deadly mascots. While the large majority of them were cut and dry (Orange — not deadly, Hurricanes — deadly), others were not (a Blue Devil might be pretty frightening, and could potentially kill you pretty easily). The problems here are endless, too, as there’s an enormous talent gap between the two divisions (you’d actually do well in an ACC pick’em league going with who’d win in a fight, I think), and the Florida schools are not split equally.

Verdict: As boring and unoriginal as it may seem to keep things as they are and just split the two new additions, it would appear the ACC is probably better off with that solution. Since Swofford has recently discussed a nine-game conference schedule, this would be a fairly easy setup for all involved: Six intra-divisional games, one protected inter-divisional game and then two additional inter-divisional games on a rotating basis. So for example, a Syracuse conference schedule could potentially look like this for their first two years:

2014: Home — BC, FSU, NC State, Pitt, Miami; Away — Clemson, Maryland, Wake, Duke

2015: Home — Clemson, Maryland, Wake, Ga. Tech; Away — BC, FSU, NC State, Pitt, UNC

In this setup, every team would alternate home-and-homes with their six divisional foes and one protected inter-division rival each year. The downside is how frequently they play the other teams in different venues. Looking at Syracuse’s mock schedule above, they play Miami at home in 2014 and wouldn’t play the ‘Canes again at all until 2017 (this time in Coral Gables). Miami then would not return to the Dome until 2020. It’s imperfect, of course, but it may be the best method available.

Is there a better alternative? Let us know below.

Big East Will Hold Syracuse, Pitt Hostage Until 2014

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John Marinatto Continues Bitterness Toward Syracuse and Pittsburgh

Per Big East Commissioner/Mayor of Providence John Marinatto’s comments today, the conference will be holding on to Syracuse and Pittsburgh until 2014. While ACC commisioner John Swofford has already said he’s fine with waiting for the two squads to come aboard, why delay the move if the Big East can get itself to 12 teams by next season? History has proven 12 is a pretty stable number for any conference, so with their house in order, the league should step aside and let SU and Pitt be on their merry way. Still, let’s look at the best case/worst case scenarios here:

If the Big East keeps both teams hostage until 2014: Not only is the league faced with the awkward “we’re staying together even though you cheated on me” situation, but there’s also the potential repercussions of either winning the title in the next two years (unlikely, but humor me) and then subsequently bouncing over to the ACC, money and BCS evaluation boost in hand. Plus, there’s the perception issue of having 14 teams one year, and then 12 the next. Why not allow everyone to view the move as a positive jump from eight, straight to 12? For Pitt and Syracuse, specifically, leaving for the 2012 season means a more immediate influx of cash from the ACC, plus the obvious cost savings that come with not having to travel to Boise, Idaho and Houston.

If the Big East lets SU & Pitt leave for the 2012 season: With awkwardness averted, both parties split and move on with their lives — the Big East is $10 million richer in the short term ($5 million from each school in exit fees), and Syracuse and Pittsburgh are richer in the long term from the ACC’s media rights deal. Perception for the Big East is that they’ve improved their ranks with the likes of (potentially) Boise State, Houston, SMU and UCF (among others) and are a more stable league than before. Plus with two of the more eastern teams gone, the league can reduce travel costs for its members across the board.

What’s likely to happen: The sides will eventually settle on a revised exit date and some additional fees (probably an extra $3-5 million per school to leave in time for next season). But this will likely depend on how the expansion process goes for the Big East. If Missouri stays in the Big 12, all of the current members will still be around as part of the new 12-team league (barring all of the invitees say yes — not guaranteed right now). If the Tigers depart for the SEC though, then all bets are off. At that point, the Big East either folds the football side or keeps Pitt and Syracuse as collateral to lure an additional one or two members on top of the six they’re planning right now. With luck, Missouri makes up its mind soon, so all of this can be resolved.