ACC needs drastic action to salvage its football pride
Tim Stephens Orlando Sentinal

You know you are in trouble as a conference when you need Wake Forest to defend your honor.

That’s all you need to know about the sorry state of Atlantic Coast Conference football, which was saved even further embarrassment Saturday when the Demon Deacons (2-0) used a last-second field goal to beat Ole Miss 30-28.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Jim Grobe is a fantastic coach, and the job he has done in making the Demon Deacons the ACC’s only nationally ranked team, according to the The Associated Press, is nothing short of spectacular.

But that’s just the problem. That Wake Forest has been able to do this is the best sign available that the ACC is pitifully weak.

Wake Forest, a private school with little tradition or fan support in relation to the alleged elite in the ACC, simply should not be able to sustain long-term success. It does not have the infrastructure to do so.

The Deacons have not strung together three consecutive winning seasons since 1950-52. They are more Vanderbilt than Alabama. They are more Stanford than USC. More Northwestern than Illinois, much less Michigan or Ohio State.

And yet here they are, the standard bearer of a league quickly becoming the joke of the conferences with automatic bids to the Bowl Championship Series.

Teams like Wake Forest are great stories, but they generally can rise for extended periods only when more affluent neighbors have issues. An example: Ole Miss and Mississippi State aren’t going to become the elite of the SEC. They are, at best most years, going to be the fourth-best team in their division. They rise primarily when teams with more resources like LSU, Alabama, Auburn are going through problems, usually the self-inflicted kind. They don’t stay there long.

Every league has teams like this. The ACC has Wake Forest to benefit from the internal soap operas at Miami and Florida State.

Leagues go through inevitable up-and-down cycles but the ACC’s raid of the Big East in 2003 was supposed to elevate it to superconference status. It hasn’t happened yet, at least on the football field.
That BCS bowl victory drought now extends to 1999 when FSU last won the national title. And the prospects, at least now, don’t look good it will end this season. Week 1 saw the ACC’s alleged favorite, Clemson, get throttled by Alabama and its defending champion, Virginia Tech, lose to a team from Conference USA, East Carolina, that is smack-dab in the middle of the ACC’s footprint. And Saturday, Maryland lost to Middle Tennesseee of the Sun Belt.

Can it get worse than that?

One can take the positive view that FSU and Miami will rebound to become national powers again soon, though at this point it’s too early to tell. FSU has apparently decided against scheduling real football teams these days and we don’t know yet what the NCAA sanctions will be for that academic fraud case. And, seriously, has Miami sunk so low that its fans will cling to morale victories against Florida?

While the ACC is in flux, the other conferences are not sitting still. The Big Ten will begin to reap big benefits from owning its own network. The SEC will soon own ESPN. Well, not really, but you get the idea. The SEC’s new television deals will only make the league generally regarded as the nation’s best even stronger, not to mention richer than Donald Trump.

The SEC is to the ACC in football what a good stiff-arm is to your little kid brother.

The ACC should get a strong TV deal in the next go-round but it’s doubtful it will approach the SEC’s. And that means the ACC must be bold and proactive. The problem with the ACC’s expansion is not that it happened, but that it did not go far enough.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford should not allow the SEC to smother the ACC from the West and the Big East to chip away from the North.

He should finish what he started in 2003. Raid the Big East again of four teams, split into two geographically compact divisions that restore the rivalries broken as a result of the 12-team lineup and reduce travel costs, and get serious about owning the TV markets from New York to Miami.

Failure to act will only allow the reshaped Big East to grow stronger while the SEC beats his teams over the head with its moneybags.

"That Guy Orlando Sentinal" is on crack. We are talking about the ACC here not the NFL. The ACC needs to concentrate on building it's own football programs instead of fantasizing about raiding the Big East.

What "That Guy Orlando Sentinal" is proposing amounts to fiscal suicide. The ACC is making money at it's present level. Adding 4 teams from the Big East isn't going to increase the pay-outs. ACC officials have already ruled that out years ago.
CJ

Interesting. Add 4 teams from the Big East and split into geographical divisions. Ok lets say this happens and the 4 teams would be Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, WVU. All this will do is cause a split amongst the North and South of the ACC. Lets be serious. This is be the same result that happened to the WAC. Thats why this would never happen. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if the football schools would raid schools from the ACC and get more money than the ACC would offer. But that is unlikely as well. No win for either side.

North

B.C
Rutgers
Syracuse
Pitt
WVU
Maryland
Virginia
Virginia Tech

South

FSU
Miami
Virginia
Wake Forest
NC State
North Carolina
Clemson
Duke

I don't know about fiscal suicide. NY TV market, savings from travell costs, can you imagine what that BB tourn brings in, FB CG has to be worth 2 or 3 times more, another 8 million in bowl revenue, Lax conf, baseball tourn, WBB tour would double

Great Article!!!! Go Swofford!!! Snap up Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, and UCONN.

ACC North
BC
Cuse
Pitt
Rutgers
UCONN
Maryland
UVA
VT

South
UNC
NC st
Duke
Wake Forrest
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Miami
FSU

That conference would dominate the whole Atlantic seaboard!

Yep, been sayin' this all along, here comes Spectre. They can't get it done w/ 12 teams, why not 14-16? Even that probably won't work.

Hey softshizzle, go away...

The thing that he does not take into account is that if ACC forms that 16 team league they MUST still play a certain number of cross divisional games to be considered for NCAA championship games.

I find it hilarious that the only solution these guys can see is the destruction of The BEast, which is 'chipping away from the north'...

They tried to kill us once and failed, and now they see their failure as the one thing standing in their way...

That article is hilarious because it's pathetic. The ACC won't expand, and who the hell wants to go to an inferior conference at this point? The Big East is the one who needs to expand.

I agree. We've had success recently, and everyone bet against us too...

stupid article by a stupid papers writer.. the slantinal is in the middle of a slow death roll.. and they write anything to stir the pot..

But destroying CUSA is ok? I think we all know it is about survival.

templefootballfan Wrote:I don't know about fiscal suicide. NY TV market, savings from travell costs, can you imagine what that BB tourn brings in, FB CG has to be worth 2 or 3 times more, another 8 million in bowl revenue, Lax conf, baseball tourn, WBB tour would double

How's the NY TV market working out for the BE. Problem is you have to win big to get the NY market. Going to the ACC will not make Rutgers and SYR big winners. How can you become a winner by joining a bunch of losers?

I think what the article is really saying is that the ACC needs to expand north before the BE expands south. adding ECU. Memphis, UCF. That would give the BE the south with teams that will at least be as good as the ACC and TWO hungry schools in Florida.

Things were different during the raid. Miami was a giant back then. All the BE wanted to be where Miami was. Frankly, Pat White graduates this year and right now USF is the lead team in the BE. I guess the ACC will have to take USF- give them 3 teams in Florida.
(I said USF is the lead team for right now which they are- get off my back.)

Lets say Swofford took four BE teams- That leaves the BE four empty slots to fill. The BE still adds UCF, Memphis and ECU. In two years the new 8 team BE will still be better than the 16 team ACC. What's the point and probably making more money with those eight than we are making now because of attendance in the south. Imagine ECU fans and Memphis fans in a BCS conference. Cincy and Louisville will have the BCS bid they need and they invite three former CUSA hungry buddies to join them. If they keep the Hybrid, they will still be a pretty good BB league- heck, Cincy and Louisville and Memphis equals a pretty anchor for any BB league. They have tradition and current success.

TAke four teams from the BE and the 16 team ACC still loses to a new 8 team BE.

If Swofford makes that move he would be the greatest thing that ever happened to Cincy, Lousiville, USF and Memphis. Let's face, deep down, those schools have to already love Swofford, he's the best thing to ever happen to their FB programs in the BCS era and this article says he could even get better-- for them.

What on earth could the ACC possibly offer that 4 teams from the Big East would jump ship? More money? I doubt that. The raid worked last time only because people were afraid we'd lose our BCS autobid. Right now, if the ACC didn't have their tie in to the Orange Bowl, they'd be in danger of losing theirs. Lets not make any mistake here, the BE is the better FB conference and BB conference. If Swofford called, I'm not sure any of the BE schools would answer.

HiddenDragon Wrote:But destroying CUSA is ok? I think we all know it is about survival.

The truth is CUSA has been preparing for Big East expansion to 12 since the last round of conference shuffling.

Think about how vocal Terry Holland has been about travel for teams from CUSA-East. Holland knows CUSA is working to become a Texas based league like the SWC was and he doesn't like it.
CJ