Bring Back the ACC/ Big East Challenge
Give the people what they want
In this downtime before the start of another basketball season, college football has done a lot to make sure that there are no boring weekends during the fall. The fans, plays, and bands among other things, give us college sports fans ample opportunities to release energy held inside during the work week. But this fall has also given us the annoying tendency of analysts to bring up the ACC/ Big East conference shift over…and over…I think you all get the point. Remember the days of the late 80s and early 90s, when the two leagues would meet in the ACC/ Big East Challenge? Those games over the course of two or three days would give basketball fans across America, not just those on the East Coast, hard-nosed hoops played at a skill level nearly as high as a Final Four game. So in this era of lawsuits and name-calling, why not get the two leagues back together to settle the bragging rights once and for all. Below is an open letter to the commissioners of the two leagues, Mike Tranghese (Big East) and John Swofford (ACC).
Dear Commissioners Tranghese and Swofford,
My name is Raphielle Johnson, and I write this letter to you on behalf of the majority of college basketball fans throughout America. The last year has given us all a crash course in the new landscape which is college athletics. Cases such as Maurice Clarett, Mike Williams, and even more underclassmen leaving school for the NBA have littered the headlines in the past year. But the most significant event was the realignment of your two conferences.
Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College (starting in 2005 for the Eagles) have packed their bags in hopes of making the Atlantic Coast Conference the best football league in America. In response, Big East members filed lawsuits, both leagues engaged in a war of words, and five Conference USA schools hopped on board the Big East wagon for next season (Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette, and South Florida). Everything financially has been finalized, but the equally important bragging rights are still up for grabs.
This is why I write you both today, in hopes of bringing back the ACC/ Big East Challenge. Yes, Mr. Swofford, you already play the Big Ten in a similar scenario, but has the Big Ten ever won a challenge? I don’t recall a year when they did. Plus, how many years have we been “blessed
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