OrangeDude
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RE: What would FSU look like had they joined the SEC in 91?
(04-09-2018 04:35 AM)XLance Wrote: (04-08-2018 03:23 PM)OrangeDude Wrote: (04-08-2018 02:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: I'm inclined to think that if the ACC could not have Florida St the 4 schools that voted for them in the straw poll would have shifted their support to Miami. Spit 4-4 but feeling the pressure to make some move so they opt to bring in both.
This leaves the following football schools:
Big East: Pitt, BC
A-10: WVU, Rutgers, Temple
Metro: VT, S Car, Cincy, L'ville, Memphis, USM, Tulane
Somewhere in there there is a conference. Not sure which conference banner or which or all or included.
It's all hypothetical, but I have to believe there was a reason why the straw vote of adding just one came down to FSU or SU. Realistically speaking, if they were thinking "football first" the original straw vote in our timeline would likely have been FSU or Miami. Which when one takes the time to think about, if football first was indeed the only criteria it should have been FSU and Miami. This tells me that they weren't making this strictly as a "football" add.
With FSU off the table in this hypothetical I think a straw vote that came down to Miami or SU would have resulted in a stalemate and no action just as an SU vote only would have resulted in no action. What I know of ACC history would seem to support this, but again, it is all theoretical, so you could be right.
Cheers,
Neil
But Neil, even in the FSU account, it mentions that Corrigan called Syracuse first:
At the annual ACC meetings on May 22 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Florida State was mentioned for the first time. The discussions led Corrigan to schedule another meeting on July 25 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., in the exact room where the conference was formed in 1953.
Frustrated by the league's lack of focus on the expansion issue, Corrigan opted for a different approach at the Sedgefield meeting.
"I said, 'Let's make believe that we've agreed to expand. Each one of you has to write down a name of school,' " Corrigan recalled.
The secret ballot of member schools turned up four votes each for Syracuse and Florida State.
By the close of the four-hour meeting, Corrigan had permission from the ACC athletic directors to approach both schools to gauge interest. His first call was to Syracuse A.D. Jake Crouthamel. Crouthamel expressed interest, but because the Orangemen were charter members of the Big East, said the ACC would have to build a strong case. Corrigan, however, was not interested in wining and dining and told Crouthamel: "Just forget I called."
His call to Goin, however, yielded a different response.
"Bob said, 'Oh my goodness, I was hoping there was some interest [from] the ACC,'" Corrigan said.
Time and popular opinion, at least among FSU's decision-makers, were not on Goin's side and he expressed those concerns to Corrigan during the initial phone call.
Corrigan said that Goin had informed him that talks with Kramer and SEC officials were moving swiftly.
http://nolefan.org/summary/fsu_acc.html
Hail X-Lance,
Not sure in regard to this specific post by me why you feel this particular aspect of what went down is pertinent since I don't think "who got called first" matters to my point. I am sure there is a reason, but I missed it.
Anyway, we have no idea why SU was called first, which could be for a variety of reasons - to telephone lines being busy, to meetings, to availability of Crouthamel and Goin, etc.
To me, the pertinent facts appeared to be as follows:
1) Corrigan wanted the ACC to expand for football purposes due to what was happening at the time in college athletics.
2) Frustrated by the ACC's "lack of focus" on possible expansion a straw vote took place orchestrated by Corrigan forcing the 8 ACC representatives to pick one (and only one) preferred choice for expansion which at some point results in a 4/4 tie between FSU and SU.
(Note A: I am sure several candidates were considered in the past - not just FSU and SU with FSU reportedly being mentioned for the first time in May of 1990 - a shocker really, perhaps revealing more about the ACC mindset at that time then lifelong ACC fans care to think about how that reflects on the conference.)
(Note B: Somehow, if expansion was to take place the discussion was limited to expansion by only one getting to 9, since no mention has ever been made about taking more than one at this time that I am aware of. It should also be mentioned that by this time the B1G had voted to add PSU to expand to 11, the PAC was already at 10, and the SEC had announced in May also that they were considering expansion to 12 - with the worse kept secret in modern expansion history of Arkansas definitely willing to accept an invite which they eventually did in August of 1990).
( Note C: Since we know other candidates had been considered for expansion in the past beyond FSU and SU, we have no idea how many straw votes took place, or if it indeed truly was the only vote - why discussion of this topic allowed for the final choice to be narrowed down to just FSU and SU).
3) Corrigan wanted that expansion of one to be FSU. We can deduce this by the fact that he was keen on expansion, frustrated by the lack of focus of ACC presidents, and of course, the great telephone story. After all, how serious was SU being considered if Corrigan would immediately in the same phone call tell SU to forget about his ever calling, especially without speaking to FSU and securing FSU assurances (or at very least ensuring their enthusiasm) first?
(Note D: Of course Goin obviously gave those private assurances on the phone and in early August Bobby Bowden perhaps sent public assurances by telling the Atlantic Constitution - “I like to win games, and I can’t think of a tougher place to do that than the SEC.”)
(Note E: I doubt Corrigan was prepared for the fact that on September 12th, after already pleading the ACC's case to the FSU BoT, he would only initially succeed in getting three "Yes" votes for expansion from the ACC presidents - Clemson, GT, and UVa, with "No" votes from Duke and Maryland, and the remaining three North Carolina schools abstaining at first according to this linked article FSU - ACC or SEC?.)
Cheers,
Neil
(This post was last modified: 04-09-2018 07:06 AM by OrangeDude.)
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