(11-22-2015 03:10 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote: (11-22-2015 11:39 AM)JRsec Wrote: It is relevant because South Carolina reversed an age old tendency to lose to Clemson since joining the SEC. That alone means their football fortunes in their home state have improved. ...under Spurrier the Gamecocks did much better against Clemson than they had historically as a member of the ACC or as an independent.
Actually, there was a 9-year span from 1946 to 1954 when Clemson only won once, there was a tie, and SC won the other 7 games... so no, this was not the best ever for the Gamecocks (they'd need to win this year and next to tie). Also, I think it's very presumptuous to claim that it was SEC membership - rather than, say, having Spurrier as coach - which caused this Gamecock run.
(11-22-2015 11:39 AM)JRsec Wrote: ...Virginia Tech's football fortunes have not taken anything but a decided step back into mediocrity since your entrance into the ACC.
Prior to joining the ACC, VT had five 10-win+ seasons under Beamer, but never more than 2 in a row. After joining the ACC, the Hokies had 8 more double-digit-win seasons, all consecutive. I don't think we need some theory about the ACC affect to explain the recent decline - Beamer has simply gotten old and other coaches have used that against him on the recruiting trail.
(11-22-2015 11:39 AM)JRsec Wrote: I responded because of your snarky post...
The SEC & Big 10 shots get a bit old around here, especially when the assumptions are spurious and the conclusions based upon them illogical.
You can't be serious!?! You're trying to play the SEC-as-victim card? The SEC and Big Ten are the favorite sons, certainly NOT victims, and this is an ACC board, not a general public one. ACC fans have to have thick skins because we are constantly bombarded with posts claiming that the league is the weakest of the P5 and will soon be raided. Try living with that for about 4 or 5 years, then feel free to play that card...
The SEC is most certainly not a victim. But posters who associate with the Big 10, Big 12, and SEC on this board most certainly are. Those of us who don't care about the numbers and are secure enough in what we know aren't bothered by it. But we are few. Most of the posters are younger people and it angers and offends them just as much as the constant talk about the demise of your conference bothers you and your posters. Snarkiness won't end until behavior is altered all the way around. In that regard it is much like the differences in our nation. From an older man's perspective, and one who lived through the upheaval of the 50's and 60's I can only say that provocative posts discourage listening, promulgates the trolling, and ends constructive conversation.
I came to the board in 2012 because it was unique. I knew what the SEC fans thought. But I also knew almost first hand what had happened in 1990-2. I was interested in finding the posts of those from other conferences that had the ring of truth to them instead of the usual internet hooey. Many of those posters have left. It is the constant din of jibes and taunts and the romper room antics that follow that have helped them to manage to just lurk at best and to have left at worst.
This stuff is going to wind down. It was interesting to me as a sociologists to see just how far corporate agenda could push in the area of sports broadcasting without producing a walloping backlash from the public. Sadly now I'm convinced it won't be coming. The fabric of our society has been radically altered from the changing of our Bill of Rights through judicial review to include such formally sacrosanct matters such as imminent domain to the very granting of the legal rights of individuals to corporations, a chilling change to be sure. I thought that if the precious institutions that the public universally loved were besieged by corporate America that perhaps the response would be a reflexive "no more".
Our churches were subtly altered by legislation in the mid 50's sponsored by LBJ that made political involvement in the election process a mandated reason to lose tax exempt status. In the last two decades corporate donations to large mainline denominations is up further curtailing what may or may not be talked about. While legislation was not involved with this, the hierarchy of the churches receiving those funds looks down heavily upon the local pastor who might get involved.
When our colleges were first besieged it was in the form of legal entanglements where grants were concerned. Many of our schools had to employ larger legal teams to comb through the grants before they used them just to make sure that intellectual property wasn't forfeited by said use. Then came the networks. Football was a particularly undervalued cheaply produced product that needed to be made more market friendly for the sake of utilizing and maximizing advertising revenue. I figured when that happened that everyone would howl. Instead they blamed it on the Big 10, or the SEC, or anyone else used to acquire the properties that the networks wanted, like the ACC acquiring Big East property.
As usual the great lie stuck. People didn't want to identify the conglomerates that owned the business they worked in as the culprit so they blamed the conferences that were paid to accomplish these ends. I hate to see them win. I hate that old rivalries and the love that alumni have for their schools have been swept away by the loads of corporate money the same way that the once honored bond between representatives and the people have been swept away by PAC money.
I'll sit back now and simply enjoy my family and watch that which once made us the greatest nation on the face of the earth swept away by greed, the corruption that it breeds, and by the freedom that is lost when a few buy their power. I'll only lament the futures of my grandchildren and pray for the coming of the catalyst that brings the change that is needed. This wasn't it. I had hoped it would be because it would have been more peaceful.
We are divided Red / Blue, liberal / conservative, and race against race. Those are all real differences but they are heightened intentionally by the media who are now owned by the same corporations in whose interest is the need to keep us a nation divided. They know that should we ever find a unifying factor that their days of control would be numbered.
I hate what has befallen the SEC. I hate realignment although if fascinates me like a slowly unfolding train wreck. I see it now as just another instrument to keep us divided. I know it sounds paranoid. But just wait until you are my age and then tell the next generation what you think. Maybe somebody will be listening besides the folks at Homeland Security. To paraphrase from Gladiator, "We once had a dream that was the United States, this is not it."
I think we could all benefit from hearing what each other truly knows and truly believes. The rancor of rah rah is too loud. And the only ones that are really beating their chests over the developments are those pocketing the checks. TV money now dwarfs the need to listen to the fans. Thursday night games is proof of that. JR