If we were given the option to switch to the SEC...

beej67

beej67

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...is there any reason why we shouldn't take it? I'm not seeing any.


1) Atlanta has shifted demographics to become an SEC town. A shift to the SEC would sell out every game in all sports with sidewalk fans.

2) Better officiating in all sports.

3) Higher revenue sharing in all sports.

4) Any trip to the Championship Game would be a home game for us.

5) Better bowl tie-ins.

6) Being a member of the ACC for Basketball is no longer significantly important, because we suck and there's no parity left at the league's top end anyway.

7) Swofford's a clod.

8) The whole "ACC is a better academic conference" thing is tripe at this point, with the addition of FSU, VT, and Miami, and the perennial performance of such academic giants as NCS and Clemson

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason you guys can think of not to switch conferences if we were offered the opportunity today?
 
beej67 said:
...is there any reason why we shouldn't take it? I'm not seeing any.


1) Atlanta has shifted demographics to become an SEC town. A shift to the SEC would sell out every game in all sports with sidewalk fans.

2) Better officiating in all sports.

3) Higher revenue sharing in all sports.

4) Any trip to the Championship Game would be a home game for us.

5) Better bowl tie-ins.

6) Being a member of the ACC for Basketball is no longer significantly important, because we suck and there's no parity left at the league's top end anyway.

7) Swofford's a clod.

8) The whole "ACC is a better academic conference" thing is tripe at this point, with the addition of FSU, VT, and Miami, and the perennial performance of such academic giants as NCS and Clemson

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason you guys can think of not to switch conferences if we were offered the opportunity today?
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9) The grass is always greener on the other side.
 
beej67 said:
...is there any reason why we shouldn't take it? I'm not seeing any.


1) Atlanta has shifted demographics to become an SEC town. A shift to the SEC would sell out every game in all sports with sidewalk fans.

2) Better officiating in all sports.

3) Higher revenue sharing in all sports.

4) Any trip to the Championship Game would be a home game for us.

5) Better bowl tie-ins.

6) Being a member of the ACC for Basketball is no longer significantly important, because we suck and there's no parity left at the league's top end anyway.

7) Swofford's a clod.

8) The whole "ACC is a better academic conference" thing is tripe at this point, with the addition of FSU, VT, and Miami, and the perennial performance of such academic giants as NCS and Clemson

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason you guys can think of not to switch conferences if we were offered the opportunity today?
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You're wrong on two counts...

Payout (from a previous post)

Read the last sentence of the sentence of the GT section. Our ACC payout was 12.2 million in 2006. This was 2.5 million more than the average SEC payout.

Academics - NC State, VT and Clemson are all very good academic schools. They rate higher in a lot of categories than all but 1 or 2 of the SEC schools. Additionally, Miami is a private school, and aside from it's terrible reputation is an excellent academic university which is also highly rated. Boston college is also a great university in one of the most academic cities in the world.

Plus, we in the ACC have a little thing called class and character, which they are still trying to figure out in the SEC.
 
Our ACC payout was 12.2 million in 2006. This was 2.5 million more than the average SEC payout.
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When you say "average payout," does that mean there's a scale? Where would Tech fall on that scale? I tend to think we'd fall higher than "average," depending on how the scale is calculated.

Also, how much lost revenue do we have via non-sellouts? Does anyone seriously think we wouldn't sell our games out if we moved to the SEC?

Plus, we in the ACC have a little thing called class and character, which they are still trying to figure out in the SEC.
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Have you looked at the ACC recently? FSU+VT+Miami is worse than any combination of 3 SEC schools. Lets not even bother mentioning the UVA explosion this offseason.

Academics - NC State, VT and Clemson are all very good academic schools.
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Neither of those 3 are any better than Auburn or Florida, and certainly their athletes aren't treated any differently than any SEC school.
 
beej67 said:
...is there any reason why we shouldn't take it? I'm not seeing any.


1) Atlanta has shifted demographics to become an SEC town. A shift to the SEC would sell out every game in all sports with sidewalk fans - possible. We would definitely have some sellouts, but don't think you can assume all would.

2) Better officiating in all sports. - I'd have to see some evidence of this. We've seen enough of SEC refs when we've played ugag to doubt it.

3) Higher revenue sharing in all sports. - I don't think there is revenue sharing per se. I assume you're talking about the conference payouts and so far I'm not sure how we stack up. It was about even last I saw.

4) Any trip to the Championship Game would be a home game for us. - True, but it would be in that damn dome.

5) Better bowl tie-ins. - true

6) Being a member of the ACC for Basketball is no longer significantly important, because we suck and there's no parity left at the league's top end anyway. - This is due to us, not the league. If you're saying it would be different in the SEC I'd disagree. If you're simply saying basketball doesn't matter anymore that's a different discussion.

7) Swofford's a clod. - true, but so what?

8) The whole "ACC is a better academic conference" thing is tripe at this point, with the addition of FSU, VT, and Miami, and the perennial performance of such academic giants as NCS and Clemson - The ACC is still superior to the SEC academically.

Am I missing anything? Is there any reason you guys can think of not to switch conferences if we were offered the opportunity today?
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The other question you avoid is what does "opportunity" mean? What does it cost to leave the ACC and what would it cost to join the SEC? Remember Miami, VT and BC weren't full members with a full payout right off the bat. My guess is that it would be a huge financial hit to leave the ACC, at least for the first 3 years.
 
gsu_paintballer said:
You guys do realize there would be a huge dropoff in record for a year or two right?
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Why?

Outside UGA we're undefeated against SEC competition this century. (including 2 over Auburn) And moving to the SEC would make UGA a CONFERENCE GAME, so we could downschedule if we really wanted to.

I'd have to see some evidence of this. We've seen enough of SEC refs when we've played ugag to doubt it.
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Compare the officiating of the SEC officials for Tech-UGA to the officiating of the ACC officials for the Tech-UGA game (nonexistant fumble, failure to roll the down marker) and get back to me.

You may be totally right about finances, ncjacket. There's probably contract buyouts to consider too. Do you have any access to information about what it would actually cost, for curiosity's sake?
 
beej67 said:
Why?

Outside UGA we're undefeated against SEC competition this century. (including 2 over Auburn) And moving to the SEC would make UGA a CONFERENCE GAME, so we could downschedule if we really wanted to.
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this includes?
 
Payout - lame argument, we'd be right in the middle in either conference, though you did not mention that the 2006 payout included an ACC camp game appearance which skews the stat a little, but ill mention it for you.

Academics - proof is in the pudding..
Here you go, do your own research....

or wait, I'll do it for you,

Duke - 8
UVA - 23
UNC - 28
Wake Forest - 30
BC - 35
GT - 35
Miami - 52
Maryland 54
Clemson - 67 (better than Auburn)
Virgnia Tech - 71 (better than Auburn)
NC State - 85 (better than Auburn)
Florida State - 112


Vandy - 19
UF - 49
UGAG - 59 (it's sad when UGA is one of your conference's academic powerhouses)
Alabama - 91
Auburn - 96
UT - 96
South carolina - 112
Kentucky - 122
Arkansas - 124
Ole Miss - Unrated
Miss State - Unrated
LSU - Unrated

The SEC has 5 schools lower than our lowest rated school! Plus our top 8 are higher than all but 3 of their schools.

maybe YOU belong in the SEC, I'll stay here in the ACC with the smart people...

Class and character - You win, Touche Salesman!
Though I still think our fans are a little more "with it" than SEC fans.
 
beej67 said:
When you say "average payout," does that mean there's a scale? Where would Tech fall on that scale? I tend to think we'd fall higher than "average," depending on how the scale is calculated.

Also, how much lost revenue do we have via non-sellouts? Does anyone seriously think we wouldn't sell our games out if we moved to the SEC?



Have you looked at the ACC recently? FSU+VT+Miami is worse than any combination of 3 SEC schools. Lets not even bother mentioning the UVA explosion this offseason.



Neither of those 3 are any better than Auburn or Florida, and certainly their athletes aren't treated any differently than any SEC school.
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Florida and Auburn are on completely different levels of academic quality - Auburn is essentially the same as Alabama et al, while Florida is up in the top tier of public schools.
 
gsu_paintballer said:
this includes?
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Auburn, Vandy, best as I recall. And if UGA gets shifted to a conference game, it actually makes our schedule strength easier.


My point regarding academics is that the ACC has no interest in stressing academics as a selling point. That some of the schools in it have good academics really doesn't make any difference to them. And the ACC's class level is essentially in the toilet.
 
Miami is alot better of a school, academic-wise, then most people here are giving credit here. Yes, the football team is a bunch of thugs, so I can see where the impression comes from. The only school in the ACC that is a terrible academic school is FSU.

As for jumping over to the SEC, I don't think we have the required number of bat-**** crazy fans needed to be a true SEC school.
 
Also, be prepared for every home football game to be about 30-70 in terms of attendance from the opposing team's fans. The proximity of all the SEC schools is not a good thing for us.
 
If the chance was there and the cost not prohibitive, I'd do it in a minute.

The reason for the last round of conference expansion that primarily affected ACC and Big East was dollars, of course. That motivation is still out there. I think expansion to super-conferences of 16 will happen in the next ten years for the sake of $$$.

I hope we are always prepared for what is best for us among options should any reorganization take place.
 
beej67 said:
Why?


Compare the officiating of the SEC officials for Tech-UGA to the officiating of the ACC officials for the Tech-UGA game (nonexistant fumble, failure to roll the down marker) and get back to me.

My point was they both suck, not that either is good. I really don't see any difference.

You may be totally right about finances, ncjacket. There's probably contract buyouts to consider too. Do you have any access to information about what it would actually cost, for curiosity's sake?
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I don't have anything handy and would have to look at some old articles. But I do know that every conference seemed to toughen up their bylaws dealing with schoosl pulling out after the Big East was torn apart. I'll see what I can find.
 
Don't know the actual numbers, but at the time BC joined their penalty from the BE was $1M, but the league had passed a rule that increased it to $5M. They went to court I believe to reduce it back to the $1M since it was pushed through to stop them specifically. Don't know what it is now.

I don't know what the ACC penalty is, but would expect it's a couple of mil anyway.

Also the new ACC members paid a $2M entrance fee and didn't fully participate in the conference split right away.
 
Thanks for the info, Ncj, and point taken about all officials sucking. Hard to argue with that.

Did the ACC help defray that cost at all?
 
I don't think so but don't know for sure. I also found a table on the Indy Star website that shows financials for NCAA schools. It showed the range for ACC returns from the conference in 2005 at $12.7M - $8.5 and for the SEC $11.7 - 3.1. Again, I don't know if the formula's have changed since then but one of the big selling jobs the ACC did with Miami, etc., was that the payouts from the league are more equal and more reliable.
 
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