(03-10-2017 02:56 PM)XLance Wrote:  Syracuse and Pitt as a pair was the best basketball play available. It was seen around the 2009-10 time frame that the Pitt basketball program would was moving past UConn and as already mentioned, Syracuse was the best basketball program in the Northeast.
Also in the same time frame the ACCN was seen as a possibility IF we could get Notre Dame to partner with us. It was properly perceived that Notre Dame would prefer Pitt and Syracuse out of the other Big East possibilities because they were the two Big East schools that Notre Dame had the most and best ties with.
You might say that the ACC invited who ESPN told them to, but you could also use the argument that Swofford and his staff had a goal and had done excellent research and knew what the ACC needed.

The latter part of this post is correct, but the first paragraph is debatable regarding Pitt being on the verge of supplanting UConn in men's basketball - though they certainly were formidable considering the recruiting gap between Pitt and UConn and SU when they were all in the Big East together.

But to what you correctly wrote in the latter part of the above post, it all goes back to expansion thinking from as far back as the late 90s, when conference sports networks were at best a far-future type concept.

There is a reason why the Big Ten expanded to 11 with PSU and desperately sought ND as number 12 for almost two decades afterward. And it goes back to things I have posted over the years as well as what Crazy Paco has posted in this actual thread.

Crazy Paco, "The overarching purpose of the ACC having moved the tournament to NYC was to help push the conference brand into the large, wealthy, northeastern media markets. This is the entire purpose of the ACC's growth strategy for the past 15 years going back to 2003 when it tried to take Syracuse, Boston College, and Miami. The 2011 expansion was a continuation of that. If you haven't noticed, the Big Ten is pursuing the exact same strategy."

Any conference with both ND and PSU has the college athletics fan base of the large wealthy, northeastern media markets in football (NYC, DC, Philly, and Boston) and while that college football fan base may be the smallest of the various regions, it is still a formidable one in terms of both $$$ and marketing.

That reach can be extended to basketball if the conference also has the likes of Syracuse and at least one of UConn, Duke or UNC (all top 10 favorite bb programs in the areas of NYC and DC for the latter two and Boston for the first one). And unlike college football, the northeast is one of the better regions in terms of that sport.

The B1G believes that having the likes of Michigan and Ohio State along with Rutgers and Maryland is the next best thing to not getting ND, at least in terms of football.

The ACC, not having either ND or PSU as full members, is hoping that one day the Irish will join as a full member and having them along with FSU, a revitalized Miami (both once being a Top 10 favorite football program in the northeast, but replaced by Florida in the late 00s), Pitt, BC, SU, and VT will resonate along the NYC-Philly-DC-Boston corridor in football more so than PSU-Michigan-Ohio State-Maryland-Rutgers.

It's all about IDENTITY. The ACC supposedly wants to re-brand itself as the Eastern athletics conference in the same way the PAC is the Western athletics conference. The B1G supposedly wants to re-brand itself as the Northern athletics conference in the same way the SEC is branded as the Southern athletics conference - I believe there is a good article/post about this by FrankTheTank.

The B1G will be fine whether they successfully re-brand themselves as the Northern college athletics conference or if they remain the Mid-West athletics conference.

But, imho, the ACC can't stay branded as the Mid-Atlantic conference because it is simply too small in scope in comparison to the other three and puts the ACC more in line with the Big 12 which is basically the Texas conference and friends.

The ACC currently has a permanent (or semi-permanent) connection with the states of North Carolina and Florida with the ACC football championship in Charlotte and its contract bowl with the Orange.

It needs more exposure in the states of New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania - and the only place to get this in terms of post-season exposure is in men's basketball. Unfortunately, BC's lack of prowess makes Boston not viable at this time and Pitt is not Philly - meaning NYC, Atlanta, and DC are the best options for the men's basketball tourney rotation while acknowledging the history of ACC basketball and the contributions made by the greatest basketball duo ever in one conference, means that Greensboro should have a place as well in that rotation. Just make it an even rotation is all I ask.


Cheers,
Neil