Their athletic program is going to stuggle in the ACC. They are going to wished they hadn't left the Big East. They will try to rejoin their northeastern brothers and fail.

David Krysakowski Wrote:Their athletic program is going to stuggle in the ACC. They are going to wished they hadn't left the Big East. They will try to rejoin their northeastern brothers and fail.

Boston College is not going to take a pay cut heading back to the Big East. They are a better fit in the Big East geographically, however the recruiting advantages and cash of the ACC are too much to pass up.

More likely, the ACC expands again to add a couple more Big East members to capture the North East market. There was talk from the Maryland AD of saying 12 in the ACC to start, then maybe more later. The AD of WVU wanted the ACC to expand to 16 schools taking WVU, Syracuse, and Pitt into the ACC.

Quote:More likely...

Both the ACC expanding again and/or BC returning to the Big East are ridiculously unlikely.

The G-5 concept of conferences going to 16 appears to be dead. If there were any merit to it, the SEC or the B12 would at least be at 14 by now. 12 appears to be the max, unless of course there were an economic bonanza out there to make expansion beyond 12 worth it. And the ACC thought there just might have been.

The Maryland AD did indeed hint that the ACC might expand beyond 12 after they had stabilized with the last expansion. But I am convinced that was always the hope of the original expansion plan. BC and SU were chosen because of their relationship with Miami; the ACC wanting to at least have a claim on 'Boston and NYC' markets; on the basis of their being the third and fourth most popular football schools with northeastern college football fans; and as a possible enticement for ND and PSU to enter the league five or six years down the road.

UV and UNC didn't care about the first three reasons and saw the fourth reason as a 'pipe dream'. So Virginia fought for VT (a short-range plus but a long-range negative) and UNC fought to keep expansion from happening altogether for fear of losing its 'southern' appeal - a vain notion since the ACC will never, repeat never, have the heart of the south for that belongs to the SEC.

In the end, under present circumstances, only ND makes expansion beyond 12 a consideration. Even PSU doesn't do that. ND and PSU together is the only combo that would actually make it profitable - although five years down the road an ND-UConn combo might be as well if the Huskies were to develop a Top 25 football program to go along with their Top 5 men's and women's bb programs.

However, 5 years is a long time, and in that time span don't be surprised to see BC gripe about their treatment in the ACC (they griped about their treatment in the BE as well), PSU to continue to gripe about their treatment in the B10, and Maryland to feel frustrated by their lack of respect in basketball and their downward slide in football with the additions of Miami and VT.

And as we know, gripers with some power and prestige (like Miami) tend to become restless and start looking for better opportunities elsewhere.

There's a 5-10 % chance a new Eastern Athletic league might just be where they come together.

Cheers,
Neil

just maybe an Eastern Athletic league forming.

PSU and ND dumping themselves into the current Big East lineup is not a possibility.