lumberpack4
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RE: Name YOUR conference's 4 Most Valuable Programs
(07-14-2015 12:29 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote: (07-14-2015 10:37 AM)ken d Wrote: (07-14-2015 09:41 AM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote: (07-14-2015 09:31 AM)ken d Wrote: (07-13-2015 08:20 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote: I think value also has to include a schools ability to bind others to the conference as well as their football/basketball prowess, plus their political power behind the scenes.
In the ACC
1. UNC - hands down as they bind NC State, Duke, WF, and UVa in the conference
2. FSU - the bring the sexy football image that some love and some hate
3. Duke - the team that everyone across the nation loves to hate and watches hoping they lose - they also have political power behind the scences
4. VT - they saved football when it was bad and have a unique geophysical footprint with media in Maryland, DC, VA, NC, and West Va.
5. A jumble at 5 - Clemson is the traditional football school in the conference, WF is the traditional peacemaker and deal maker in the conference, Syracuse give the league entry to NYC, and of course ND even if they only play 5 football games.
The ACC could lose FSU, Duke, VT, Clemson, WF, Syracuse, or ND and keep right on going - though the FSU and Duke loss would be a big hit. Take away UNC and you take away the core of the conferences' reason for being.
I never cease to be amazed at the amount of power that people are willing to give UNC. What have they done to earn it? Especially if you believe that football drives the athletic bus.
Yea but the only thing keeping NC state leaving the ACC for the SEC is UNC being in the ACC. If UNC, Duke, and UVA left for the Big Ten, everyone would scatter with Wake Forest and Boston College standing there holding the ACC flag. Now if NC State left the ACC on its on and the ACC added West Virginia or Cincinnati the conference would be fine, but even if UNC just left the Big Ten on its own. Immediately NC State would look to the SEC, UVA would look towards the Big Ten, Clemson, FSU, GT, and Miami would look to the Big 12, Virginia Tech to the SEC, etc. If UNC left the conference all by itself everyone would start to follow like dominoes. UNC is the Texas of the ACC they just hold the conference together.
I believe that UNC would not go anywhere alone. I do believe they would consider moving to a different conference if Duke, Virginia and Georgia Tech agreed to go with them. I would tend to agree with the idea that if they went to the Big Ten, that could lead to the breakup of the ACC. But I believe the league would stay together if those four went instead to the SEC.
The common wisdom seems to be that this bloc would never join the SEC for academic reasons - the snob argument. But I really don't see that they would have such an aversion to associating with schools like Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina that they would prefer to associate with schools with whom they have little cultural or geographic affinity. How is associating with Florida State all that academically superior to Florida? Or Clemson to either Georgia or South Carolina?
If UNC et al went to the SEC, would you assume that NC State would jump on the Big Ten bandwagon? Would you assume they would be asked to? Personally, I believe they would be even more motivated to remain in the same conference as Clemson, Va Tech and Florida State.
But none of this answers my question. That is, not does UNC possess such power, but why?
UNC holds the power because they are in the flagship school of NC where the ACC has the most teams and the headquarters are located just down the road in Greensboro. Also North Carolina is the central school in the conference. The Southern schools NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Louisville, and Virginia Tech all are like minded and are football first. While Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, Pitt, Boston College, and Syracuse are more academics first and then basketball universities. North Carolina is a southern school with culture ties to the southern universities with an ok football program, but is also high on academics and basketball which ties them with the northern schools. UNC is the glue that holds the conference together. The Southern schools want to be in a conference equivalent to the SEC because that is where most of their rivals play and helps them compete for recruits, fans, and money they just are in the SEC hotbed. While the northern schools are more like Big Ten schools. If UNC left the southern schools would not want hardly any ties with the northern schools. Clemson or FSU does not want to play Pitt, Syracuse, or Boston College. They want to play Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Auburn.
NC State is controlled by the UNC System Board of Governors - an almost entirely UNC-Ch controlled entity. NC State's BOT just like ECU's BOT is subservient to the BOG and the System President. Politically NC State is a complete hostage to UNC-Ch. Duke is located just 7 miles down the road and the sharing of research, but most importantly behind the scenes political power is immense. UNC is UVa's only real peer in the ACC - the public AAU, non-stem intensive university. VT is not controlled by UVa, but has no desire to be apart from UVa. WF has been a part of the group since 1937.
This is how UNC-Ch "controls" the other 5.
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Name YOUR conference's 4 Most Valuable Programs
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