G'Tech, Maryland, Virginia, Duke, UNC, and Florida St should leave the ACC and join Syracuse, Boston College, Miami, and Penn St, in a new 10 team conference called the Atlantic League, which would dominate the nation in every sport and every way, football, basketball, overall sports, rivalries, fun, academics, prestige, recruiting, fan base, TV, exposure, revenue, etc. This would double or triple everything including exposure, ranked teams, championships, and revenue per school, important since most schools currently lose money on athletics. Tripling the TV region would greatly increase the number of applications each of the 10 A League schools received, with constant exposure along the entire east coast and dominating the rest of the country. Academic rankings, selectivity, donations, and endowments would rise.
This also improves the Big East as a new better allsports 12 team BCS league with great TV markets, balance, football, basketball, and revenue. North division with Connecticut, Pitt, Rutgers, WVU, Marshall, Cincinnati; south division with NCSU, Wake, Clemson, VT, Louisville, East Carolina.
Remaining Big East schools should form a powerful Catholic basketball league with great TV markets: Georgetown, Villanova, St. Johns, Providence, Seton Hall, Notre Dame, Marquette, Depaul, Xavier, and St. Louis.
ACC and Big East are the only BCS conferences in the nation with schools that lose millions overall on athletics, while the Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10, and SEC, each make tens of millions, and even the Mountain West, Independents, and 117 average div.IA schools makes money overall. According to a 2/9/03 Orlando Sentinel article, Big East athletic programs lost $12.8 million in 2002-03, ACC lost $2.2 million, while the SEC made a whopping $81.7 million. The ACC is distant 2nd of 2 conferences in the southeast in football, basketball, overall sports, and revenue. The Big East is just a complete mess with different members for football and basketball and constant rumors of demise. The ACC and Big East are the two youngest, weakest, most unfair, disunited, and unstable BCS conferences.
One of the biggest problems with the ACC and Big East is the unfairness of conference tourney location. 43 of 50 ACC mens basketball tourneys have been in the state of NC, and 43 of 50 have been won by NC schools, obviously not a coincidence. Local NC fans buy tickets from fans of losing teams so UNC or NCSU can have 8-1 fan advantages and as high as 5-1 even in the first round, which is why those 2 built their programs at the expense of others and won as many ACC titles as all 7 others combined. First 22 ACC tourneys were in NC with 21 of 22 won by carolina schools, UNC has won all of its last 12 ACC semifinals, while Maryland lost 10 of its last 11 semifinals, including during its national title year. UVA hasn't won an ACC tourney game since 95, GT lost in 2nd round in 01 and lost in 1st round every other year since 97, Clemson lost in 1st round last 5 years and in 18 of last 22 tourneys, FSU lost in 2nd round its first year in 92 and lost in 1st round all 11 years since then. Studies show that referees are affected by home crowds making it almost impossible for visiting teams to win 3 or 4 in a row on the road, plus ACC refs probably live in NC and headquarters is in Greensboro. ACC was formed to be a small regional basketball league, not a national or eastern or even southeastern sports power.
Atlantic League should move its conference basketball tourney between 4 locations every year, Continental Arena in NJ/NYC, MCI Center in DC, Charlotte Coliseum, and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Either that or play it in domed stadiums seating 46,000 in Atlanta, St. Petersburg, and any of the 3 planned in NYC for the Jets, Mets, and Yankees, since the ACC tourney in Atlanta drew 40,000. The womens basketball tourney could even be played at the same time in the same location as the mens tourney, if that would increase interest and revenue. A League tourney should be during spring break for all schools, so everyone from students on spring break to retirees and local and other alums and their families, can attend and watch 9 or 18 great games over 4 or 5 days in great vacation destinations. These changes maximize fairness, attendance, revenue, and exposure in key areas, for the premier sport and conference in the country.
As for conference football champ game revenue, that's insignificant considering all 10 teams plays 11-13+ games each every year. 12 team leagues SEC and Big 12 shouldn't be allowed to play any more games than any other league's teams so should be banned from playing preseason kickoff classic type games which should only be played by 10 team or less leagues like new Atlantic League, Big 10, or PAC 10. So revenue before or after the season wouldn't make any difference for any conference.
There are too many ACC schools in one small media market and state, Duke and UNC are national powers but the rest hold the league back and leech revenue from the others without contributing. Clemson has 15-20 NCAA violations every year and the worst academics in the ACC. NCSU also never did anything without cheating and is notorious for recruiting players like Chris Washburn with 470 SATs. Wake Forest has almost no fanbase, and football is 116th of 117 div.IA programs in alltime win percentage even while playing in a weak ACC.
Syracuse just won the mens basketball national title and has the biggest stadium in the world which is the only college dome, has the best lacrosse in the nation with 8 titles, 15 straight winning seasons in last 16 years in football, and NY location. Boston College is the only div.IA school in the country with a whole huge region New England all to itself and has great academics and potential in all sports including hockey national titles. Miami has 5 football national titles and 4 in baseball, along with good basketball and recruiting and potential. Penn State has the biggest school and stadium and best football tradition in east and national titles, and great overall sports. UMD has national titles in basketball and football and 7 in the last 8 years in womens lacrosse, and has both of ACC's 2 biggest markets. UVA is the top public school with great overall athletics and recruiting and potential and 4 mens soccer national titles. Duke is the best basketball school in the country with best academics in ACC and great overall athletics which is more nationally televised than any other. UNC has the top selling logo in the country and great basketball and overall sports including 17 womens soccer national titles. GT is the nation's best public tech school with 4 football national titles and key Atlanta location. FSU has 2 football national titles and great baseball and potential in all sports.
Conferences are always evolving, constantly adding and dropping schools, the link below shows that every major and minor conference has had multiple changes over the years, lots of teams leave for better conferences and more money:
www.angelfire.com/sports/...story.html
ACC and Big East have the worst traditions among the 6 major BCS conferences, and are the two weakest overall, that along with the gap between the haves and have nots in each conference and the worse than communist distribution agreement and archaic and reactionary voting system and unfair conference tourney location and unwieldy distribution with each concentrated in just part of the coast and ACC concentrated in just one small market, etc., make those 2 the most unstable conferences.
ACC is like the old Southwest Conference which had 8 Texas schools plus Arkansas shortly before it disbanded in 96. Mountain West's 8 schools left in 99 to form a profitable conference after earning almost all the revenue in 16 team WAC which lost money.
All conferences change, and schools are always looking to be in better leagues, preferably the best, but if they ever do get in the best like the Ivy League, they never leave and have no reason to. Atlantic League would dominate the east with half the US population and more than half the media and money and be free from the mediocre and unfair past history of the ACC and Big East. The first conference of the third millennium would be the best in every sport and every way, immediately and forever.
The ACC was formed in 1953 when 7 schools left the Southern Conference, which itself was formed in 1921 by 14 members of the 30 member Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Southern Conference has had 41 different members and changed several times, like when 13 of 23 members left to form the SEC. Southern Conference used to have schools like Washington and Lee, University of the South, and Wake Forest, obviously that doesn't mean those schools are worthy of being in top conferences now.
www.soconsports.com/secti...typeid=139
With increasing parity across the nation and the rise of sports as big business, conference success is determined by TV regions, fan bases, and recruiting territories, since Big 10, SEC, PAC 10, and Big 12, is better in each of those things, it is not surprising all of them have improved and will continue to improve while the ACC has fallen and can't last. ACC has most schools in and around one state and even including outliers only takes up one third of the strip of land along one coast, SEC by contrast has an entire quadrant of America, Big 10 TV region stretches from midwest to midatlantic and northeast, Big 12 dominates the heartland, PAC 10 the entire west, etc.
Not only is the ACC mediocre to terrible in everything, including basketball, football, and overall sports, according to SI, ESPN, Sporting News, USA Today, Sears, Sagarin, computers, Vitale, ACC media, national media, fans, and recruits, the league has never been close to balanced or fair, in any way. ACC splits TV and postseason revenue equally, so schools like Wake, Clemson, and NCSU, which are mediocre to horrendous in everything and have small fan bases and second or worse tier status among recruits and no TV draw, steal millions from powers like Duke which has an annual $5M athletic deficit despite being the most nationally televised program in the country, as well as FSU, UNC, UMD, UVA, GT, etc., each and every year, and this has caused lots of unrest and bad feelings. The only way to correct this injustice is for the top programs in the east to form a league with no weak links, where every school and athletic program contributes.
The 4 NC schools are bad in football, Duke's share of the ACC title in 89 which was bogus because Duke lost to the cochamp UVA is the only one by any NC school in over 20 years, so the out of state ACC schools have dominated for decades and will continue to. The reason for this is, with 5 div.IA football programs in NC, there isn't enough talent to go around and every program suffers. Wake's alltime win percentage is 116th of 117 div.IA program, dead last among BCS schools even while in a lame conference, and must sell out academics and title IX just to have a team as the smallest div.IA BCS school in the country, all NC programs would benefit if they dropped football. NCSU has the second worst football history in NC according to cfrc.com. Clemson has 15 NCAA violations every year and never accomplished anything without cheating. By contrast, the 4 NC schools have combined to win 43 of 50 ACC basketball tourney titles with 43 of 50 being played in NC, compared to only 6 titles for the other 5 ACC schools combined.
All of these problems can be fixed while making a new conference best in the country in every way instead of distant second of 2 in southeast. Syracuse, BC, and Miami, should switch with NCSU, Wake, and Clemson, this would benefit all schools involved because they would be more competitive in their new conferences, athletically, academically, and in every other way. Penn State should join as the Atlantic League's 10th member instead of being 11th in the Big 10/11, again every school and conference benefits because B10 returns to sensible schedules playing everyone every year in football and all sports like they used to and back to 10 in midwest, while the biggest eastern school and athletic program joins the others to form the best and most profitable conference in the nation.
Atlantic League with Syracuse, BC, Miami, Penn State, Maryland, UVA, Duke, UNC, GT, and FSU, would be much improved in every way with no downsides, be the best in the nation in every way, basketball, football, overall sports, rivalries, fun, academics, prestige, recruiting, fan base, TV, exposure, revenue, etc., doubling or tripling everything, and dominate the east with half the US population and recruits and more than half the media and money, as well as the rest of the nation.
