When Florida State and later Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College joined it, the ACC was the richest conference in college sport. Andrew Carter retraces the circle that began with ACC expansion in 2003.

https://www.aol.com/news/conference-expa...00820.html

I think it's a stretch to suggest that the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East was the start of all of the craziness. It started with the 1984 Supreme Court decision that granted the TV rights for college games to the schools. The first round of realignment primarily consisted of independents joining conferences in the early 1990s. However, in that round, the SEC flirted with Texas and Texas A&M before poaching Arkansas from the SWC. Also, Notre Dame withdrew from the College Football Association, which was the consortium through which several conferences sold their television rights, to sign its own deal with NBC.

Fast forward five years and the SEC and Big East withdraw from the CFA to sign deals with CBS. This leaves the Big 8 and the SWC in weakened positions. At that time, Texas and Texas A&M looked at possibly joining the PAC 10 or SEC, but settled on the Big 12 because of its willingness to take two more Texas schools. This was important for selling the departure from the SWC politically within the State of Texas. However, it destroyed the SWC which had been a major conference.

Things remained fairly stable at the major conference level until the ACC's move in 2003. However, a few years prior to that, the Big East failed to get its contract with CBS renewed in 2000. This suggested that conference had issues with its television value. IIRC, the Big East went to uneven revenue sharing at that time, another sign of trouble.

(07-11-2022 01:34 PM)orangefan Wrote:  I think it's a stretch to suggest that the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East was the start of all of the craziness. It started with the 1984 Supreme Court decision that granted the TV rights for college games to the schools.

I agree with you, as the writer would, that the 1984 ruling is the real start of it all. That's why he doesn't 'suggest that the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East was the start of all the craziness.' He's very specific: the expansion rewrote expectations. It set new precedents in the matter of who a conference could invite.

Before 2003, conferences extended bids to independents; suddenly the ACC made waves by inviting schools that were already members of a conference. Accusations flew, lawsuits were launched, reporters decried the 'greed,' and when the dust cleared... the schools moved. The ACC pulled it off with virtually no repercussions.

Other conferences took note, and here we are.

(07-11-2022 02:09 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(07-11-2022 01:34 PM)orangefan Wrote:  I think it's a stretch to suggest that the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East was the start of all of the craziness. It started with the 1984 Supreme Court decision that granted the TV rights for college games to the schools.

I agree with you, as the writer would, that the 1984 ruling is the real start of it all. That's why he doesn't 'suggest that the ACC's 2003 raid of the Big East was the start of all the craziness.' He's very specific: the expansion rewrote expectations. It set new precedents in the matter of who a conference could invite.

Before 2003, conferences extended bids to independents; suddenly the ACC made waves by inviting schools that were already members of a conference. Accusations flew, lawsuits were launched, reporters decried the 'greed,' and when the dust cleared... the schools moved. The ACC pulled it off with virtually no repercussions.

Other conferences took note, and here we are.

Arkansas was not an independent. Neither were Texas and TAMU, obvious SEC targets. It’s bs the ACC gets the rap it does. It’s most likely because that’s when message boards and the internet were around so people started taking note.

Also, PSU was in the A10, S. Carolina in the Metro, and look at the damage the Big East did to the A10 over the years: Villanova, Pitt, Rutgers, WVU…

(07-11-2022 02:09 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  Before 2003, conferences extended bids to independents; suddenly the ACC made waves by inviting schools that were already members of a conference. Accusations flew, lawsuits were launched, reporters decried the 'greed,' and when the dust cleared... the schools moved. The ACC pulled it off with virtually no repercussions.

Other conferences took note, and here we are.

That's bull. Wasn't Arkansas a member of the SWC when the SEC invited them back in July of 1990? The media keeps trying to peg realignment on the ACC but it's been the SEC and the Big Ten all along, with the ACC simply struggling to keep up...

I think the ACC made a tactical error by not going to 12 in 1990. Had they wrapped up Miami and 2 others before Big East football got off the ground there wouldn’t be this stigma that the ACC damaged a league to get ahead.

(07-16-2022 11:20 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I think the ACC made a tactical error by not going to 12 in 1990. Had they wrapped up Miami and 2 others before Big East football got off the ground there wouldn’t be this stigma that the ACC damaged a league to get ahead.

The SEC and Big 8 (XII) literally destroyed an ancient conference and nobody points a finger.

The Big Ten just stabbed their oldest friend in the back and left them to bleed to death. While still wanting to face their champ in the Granddaddy!

Big East football was an abomination that got a mercy killing. The league was founded as a greedy basketball media entity. It got what it deserved.

(07-16-2022 12:03 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(07-16-2022 11:20 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I think the ACC made a tactical error by not going to 12 in 1990. Had they wrapped up Miami and 2 others before Big East football got off the ground there wouldn’t be this stigma that the ACC damaged a league to get ahead.

The SEC and Big 8 (XII) literally destroyed an ancient conference and nobody points a finger.

The Big Ten just stabbed their oldest friend in the back and left them to bleed to death. While still wanting to face their champ in the Granddaddy!

Big East football was an abomination that got a mercy killing. The league was founded as a greedy basketball media entity. It got what it deserved.

Does that help you to sleep at night? The BE and the ACC were founded for the very same reasons. The fact that the ACC coveted so many BE schools boils down to the same reason that both the BE and ACC were founded.

(07-16-2022 12:03 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(07-16-2022 11:20 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I think the ACC made a tactical error by not going to 12 in 1990. Had they wrapped up Miami and 2 others before Big East football got off the ground there wouldn’t be this stigma that the ACC damaged a league to get ahead.

The SEC and Big 8 (XII) literally destroyed an ancient conference and nobody points a finger.

The Big Ten just stabbed their oldest friend in the back and left them to bleed to death. While still wanting to face their champ in the Granddaddy!

Big East football was an abomination that got a mercy killing. The league was founded as a greedy basketball media entity. It got what it deserved.

As, mentioned by others, the partition of the SWC occurred before the era of the internet so it went less notice by the masses.

We also have to look at who was left behind:

Rice, SMU, TCU, Houston

VS

Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple*

Rice hardly resembled a top level college program and the post-death penalty SMU was pretty much at the same level. Houston had only been in the SWC about 20 yrs so not exactly old guard. TCU wasn’t particularly strong at the time and was a small private school.

On the Big East side, I’m going to give Temple a giant asterisk here because the BE already had decided they weren’t good enough and were kicking them out. Rutgers didn’t have a whole lot of history had an elite program and was more of a tag along but those first 3 were definitely programs that most agreed should be part of the club but suddenly we’re without a league.

Had the ACC been ahead of their time they might have gone for 16 in 2004 but that move was a little too bold for the time.