Some History on ACC Expansion

[cyptomcat]

May 14, 2003: In a 7-2 vote Tuesday, Atlantic Coast Conference university presidents voted in favor of an expansion plan that would increase the number of league schools to 12 from nine.

Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, both traditional basketball powers, voted against the proposed expansion, which would have significant ramifications for basketball, which has been the ACC's signature sport since its the conference's inception in 1953.

Specifically, the ACC's rivalries, double round-robin regular season format, and post-season tournament arrangement would be greatly altered. Additionally, a 12-way split of conference proceeds earned from television revenue would equate to less money per school. Last season, the ACC divvied out $9.7 million to each of its schools, the most of any conference.

http://dukechronicle.com/article/acc-expansion-looms-large-0

 

[buzzn]

This is incredibly relevant right now. Why? According to the Orlando Sentinel's Andrew Carter, Swofford said that the ACC meetings lasted until well after 10PM on the final night and that is very unusual.

We know that representatives from Fox and ESPN were at the meeting. We know that no TV deal was agreed upon, and some prior reports had indicated that the ACC had hoped to reach consensus at the spring meeting. Sooooo....

It's pretty clear that there is dissension among the ranks as to what the ACC should do - go with ESPN or create their own network in some combination with Fox. I can imagine that it breaks down along the exact same lines as you outlined above. The basketball centric powers are more than happy with ESPN, what with constant reach-arounds from Dookie V. and the like. They honestly do not care about the future of the conference beyond its impact on basketball.

The southern football oriented members (UM, FSU, CU, and GT) no doubt must be pushing for the Fox partnership to create an ACC league network in some form. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the debate.

With Mike Gminski (shockingly a Dookie) tweeting this morning that the ESPN deal is a lock, it looks like the roundball schools won. If that is the case, the ACC really has solidified its status as a sitting duck for raiding by the B10 or SEC. I wouldn't be sad to see us go if we got the invite.