Good. Let them spend their $ to break it up, and we'll waltz right on over to the B10 with 5 of these programs.
Not unless the GTAA can shake loose its Mike Bobinsquatch hangover. Pastner was the last remaining Bobinsquatch in the GTAA. J Batt's first hires in his career as an AD are the most high stakes hires made at the GTAA since 1991. Key and Stoudamire are going to be GT's final public face before the ACC GoR clock runs low enough that the ACC dissolves. If they flop just as spectacularly as those they replaced GT will spent most of another decade bleeding fans and interest to arrive at a nadir not seen since the 70's just in time to be relegated out of the P2. Cabrera is the right guy at President. I hope Batt is the right guy at AD *and* that both hires work out. The stakes are high.
Don't just automatically assume GT would still get in the B1G, or that it would be such an amazing time even if some combination of Duke/Cavman/UNC/Pitt/BC/Cuse/Miami come to the B1G too. You want to play your region if you can. It drives interest even during bad years. It puts visitors in the crappy seats which generates GTAA revenue. A winless South Carolina is going to put 10 times more fans in Bobby Dodd Stadium than an undefeated #1 Boston College is. Joining the B1G is signing up for 3 or 4 shockingly large expat visiting sections and then a bunch of empty. Do you go to road games? How does Bloomington, IN in October sound? No? Minneapolis in November? East Lansing in September, maybe? At least they have legal weed there, so that would be something. If you go to a road game in Columbus, be sure to say you're on a mission from the Governor's office to see if there's anybody left or if we should brace for more of you.
If you're not absolutely full of öööö, you want Stoudamire and Key to be homeruns so that when the GoR expires GT is part of the SEC acquisition out of the ACC. And you want that acquisition to be as big as possible for competitive balance across all sports. Yea, of course we'll take going to the SEC with FSU, Clemson, and a fourth banana. But the wet dream is SEC + FSU, Clemson, GT, UNC, Duke, NCST, UVA, VT, UofL. With Kansas being the 10th to send MIssouri back West in the schedule with a travel partner and rival to boot. Have Vandy drop to an all-but-football member. Bring in WF for all-but-football. In everything other than football you have a division of 7. In hoops you'd play a full home-and-home round robin with your division. That's the absolute ideal scenario. We won't get there, but I could see something close happening under ideal circumstances. That monster would make *even more* money for ESPN and every team per capita and offer almost year-round live college sports and a total monopoly on advertising to the 2nd biggest sport in the country and two more in the Top 10. All three (CFB, CBB, CBaseB) are still undervalued for the level of maturity of the product, the level of eyeballs seen on *LIVE* TV (not commercialless DVR), and the level of underpromotion they receive (other than CFB).