Here we go again. Conference expansion

boozinbuzz

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Seems like this is trending toward a Football Factory Conference. Wave enough money and Clemson and OSU will join soon too while the dead weights like Vandy/Carolina get cut loose.
 

cyptomcat

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Absolutely. When you have so many teams, and so many of them are far away, the only reason to care about the games as a casual fan is if one or both teams are highly ranked, which in the ACC doesn't happen a lot. No one other than hardcore fans really cares about 4-3 GT versus 3-4 BC.

Having a smaller number of teams that play each other every season and are within close geographical distance helps allow other storylines and reasons to care about the games to develop. People care about Clemson/GT every season, even back before Clemson was so good.
The only reason I care about a BC game is that it is a winnable game. Or if we are having a great season, it's a good week's rest.
 

Akinji07

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Seems like this is trending toward a Football Factory Conference. Wave enough money and Clemson and OSU will join soon too while the dead weights like Vandy/Carolina get cut loose.
European Super League
 

knoxjacket

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It is like college sports are actively trying to get me to stop caring.

Can we just go back in time and go back to the 9 team ACC? Not the best league for football, but I enjoyed that a lot more than this 14 team bag of öööö. I can't wait to play this Big East schedule of Pitt, VPISU, BC, and Miami. It just sucks we don't have Syracuse to complete it.
My hope is conferences go to 18 creating 9 team divisions which are basically de facto 9 team conferences where everyone plays the same in conference schedule.
 

ScionOfSouthland

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Exciting to think about but would be a strategic folly for both teams from an on field perspective. Plus I’m sure Texas won’t be able to keep all the longhorn network cash if they move.
 
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This doesn't specifically apply to this thread, but after watching this video, more than ever, I wish Tech had never left the SEC. If you have 41 minutes to spare and have not seen it before, check out this video of Tech's 1952 NC Season. Boy, I miss those old SEC rivalries.


BTW, if anyone knows a better thread to put this link in, please do so.
 

Taintlunch

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I want to play teams where I can talk öööö to their fans occasionally. That’s what makes it fun. That’s why playing öööö like BC, Syracuse and Wake sucks.
we have played wake exactly ONCE at wake since 2007.
it's a killer road trip and a good city. Syracuse? it rotates around often like an ugly stripper on tuesday/thursday morning shifts. we can't get away from them.
 

savbandjacket

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That need will only be satisfied if Tech is back in the SEC.
There’s a few other teams that also meet that bill, but it’s a short list. I hate playing pretty much all ACC teams other than FSU, Clemson, Miami and the NC schools not named Wake (and playing Duke isn’t great). UVa and VT are mildly tolerable.
 

GT flunkout

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It is like college sports are actively trying to get me to stop caring.

Can we just go back in time and go back to the 9 team ACC? Not the best league for football, but I enjoyed that a lot more than this 14 team bag of öööö. I can't wait to play this Big East schedule of Pitt, VPISU, BC, and Miami. It just sucks we don't have Syracuse to complete it.
This. Every conference road trip outside of College Park and Charlottesville within 6 hours.

we have played wake exactly ONCE at wake since 2007.
it's a killer road trip and a good city. Syracuse? it rotates around often like an ugly stripper on tuesday/thursday morning shifts. we can't get away from them.
That game was an eternity ago. Crazy to think we haven't been back to Winston-Salem in 10 years, and have had multiple games at Pitt and Syracuse since.

I get why we thought we needed expansion in 2004, but everything since, including divisional alignment has been garbage.
 

GT76

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That need will only be satisfied if Tech is back in the SEC.
There’s a few other teams that also meet that bill, but it’s a short list. I hate playing pretty much all ACC teams other than FSU, Clemson, Miami and the NC schools not named Wake (and playing Duke isn’t great). UVa and VT are mildly tolerable.
There’s a lot of good science in both these comments. I would much prefer an ACC South schedule to our current conference mix. But imagine playing Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, and ugag every year. And maybe Bama. Sure, we’d have to up our game, but that’s the goal, isn’t it?
 

Taintlunch

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This. Every conference road trip outside of College Park and Charlottesville within 6 hours.



That game was an eternity ago. Crazy to think we haven't been back to Winston-Salem in 10 years, and have had multiple games at Pitt and Syracuse since.

I get why we thought we needed expansion in 2004, but everything since, including divisional alignment has been garbage.
heck, we've been to NC State 2-3 times since 2010
 

savbandjacket

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Truth be told, it would be best for there to be complete realignment that kills all of the existing conferences and reforms with regional super conferences they have minimal overlap.
 

The Champ

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It is like college sports are actively trying to get me to stop caring.

Can we just go back in time and go back to the 9 team ACC? Not the best league for football, but I enjoyed that a lot more than this 14 team bag of öööö. I can't wait to play this Big East schedule of Pitt, VPISU, BC, and Miami. It just sucks we don't have Syracuse to complete it.
Yea. I really just wish we'd pick up FSU every year. Would make our schedule feel a lot different. Hopefully we get back there eventually; maybe with the 4 pod system for a 16 team league and we are grouped with Clem FSU and Miami in the South.
 
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Best case scenario for GT? The SEC is making a play at their original 90's dream conference and GT squeezes in. The SEC adds OU, TX, Clemson, FSU, and GT. You get to even by having Vandy be a everything-but-football member.

Worst case scenario for GT? That's a dark place. Some ingredients:
- The SEC could add OU, TX, FSU, Clemson and not GT
- GT could be part of some B1G southern money grab that includes UNC/UVA and left playing a geographically isolated and uninteresting schedule full of rust belt teams and told to sooth its woes with bags of money ... which are still less than the bags of money everybody else GT is competing against locally is getting
- The B1G could make a southern money grab that DOESN'T include GT but does remove UNC/UVA/Duke.
- GT could live in an ACC that has effectively become the original football Big East
- GT could start its athletic budget at a $100m deficit relative to it's area competition (Clemson/FSU/TN/UGAg/Auburn/etc)
--- This could cascade down the athletic departments and lead to ugly things like Vandy being able to hire away our baseball or basketball coaching staffs by literally doubling their salary
- The SEC could get a guaranteed 6 of 12 slots in an expanded CFB playoff and press home an even more ludicrous revenue advantage since the postseason is becoming such an enormous money prize in CFB you're talking about CFB disbursements potentially being more than the ACC TV disbursements.
- Because all of this involves schools which are overwhelmingly public institutions, Congress gets involved and royally screws everything everywhere up.
 
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