The Big Ten is eyeing a monster payday with its expansion plans. But at least one writer cautions that money blinds you to expansion’s negative aspects.
Especially if the conference becomes too unwieldy.
The ACC expansion from nine to 12 teams was supposed to cement it as the nation’s preeminent basketball conference and boost its flagging football reputation by adding Miami (Fla.), Virginia Tech and Boston College. Yet Caulton Tudor of the Raleigh News & Observer says that hasn’t been the case. To wit:
Schedules had to be revamped across the board, travel expenses in minor sports soared, and any semblance of a “conference family” was forever abandoned.
So much ill will was created among the old Big East clan that pre-raid relationships will never be restored.
At the end of the turmoil, the ACC wound up a weaker basketball conference, roughly the same in football and with a baseball “championship” tournament that prohibits four teams every year from even competing.
The per-team television income remained about the same as when the ACC had nine members, and those all-important football championship games have done nothing whatsoever to create any sort of national interest or prestige.
Fair points, though I would say that Miami’s football decline is part of the problem – the early 2000 ‘Canes would’ve been a significant boost in prestige and bowl revenue – but few would argue the ‘Canes and Hokies represent a football problem. If the conference seeks to boost its football image, those were two logical additions.
The larger issue is that the ACC took a shot at becoming a big-time football conference, which hasn’t worked out. Florida State isn’t the same, Clemson and Maryland have underachieved and Duke and Virginia remain also-rans.
If FSU, Miami and Virginia Tech revert to their old form, that’s a worthwhile conference expansion.
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- Archie Supports United - May 19, 2010 at 10:27 PM
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Maybe if he, Adam Wheeler was genuine Harvard Law material, the guy would have thought up a more clever hoax and wouldn’t have been sussed out.
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- Football Folly - May 28, 2010 at 3:50 PM
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Expansion has not been the ACC’s problem, its the way they managed their expansion. Adding BC rather than taking WVU was just foolish. And putting Miami and FSU in oppisite divisions…how much dumber can it get.
What they should have done was add WVU in a division with Maryland, UVA, Va Tech, UNC and Duke. Then put Wake, N.C. State, Clemson, Ga Tech, Miami and FSU in another. Yes you break up the NC schools but it makes more geographic sense, it cuts down on league travel costs and if you schedule correctly the NC schools still get to play one another as would Clemson/Maryland and Miami/Va Tech…
Another thing, put the FSU/Miami as the last game of the season (as well as the UVA/Va Tech game, the Clemson /Ga Tech game and the UNC/N.C.State contest—those games [no matter the records] would generate interest and focus more on rivals). Think about it, if FSU plays Florida one week and Miami the next they are getting prime exposure. Same is true for Ga Tech playing Georgia one week and Clemson the next and so on. Make the SEC contests the appatizer and the final rivalery games the pay-off. And, just think if it comes down to a FSU-Miami game for the division championship talk about league exposure and ratings!
They could have done it well but they blew it.
In the end the lessons that the B10 should take from what the ACC did are these…
Expand, but do so correctly. Stay close to your foot print and figure out a way to maintain your major rivals bumping heads each year. Minimize travel as much as possible when setting up divisions and make the expansion attractive to fans. Everyone wants whats best for their leagues but when the suits sit down they need to see more that whats gonna generate the fast buck. Thats what the ACC did. Think long term impact and how to maxamize whats already in place and any expansion will be fine.
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- Football Folly - May 28, 2010 at 4:05 PM
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BTW—The ACC could fix the majority of their expansion issues this very moment but the powers that be are far too arrogant to do that.
Realign the divisions to be geographically correct, just think of the money this would save each school, plus the natural rivals that would develop or could be rekindled.
Shift scheduling and begin talks with WVU and Louisville on playing ACC teams in all sports with the understanding that all sides could get a feel for the “possibility” of up coming expansion.
The ACC needs to look to the future and maximize the past…that’s all they need to do to come closer to being a true power conference.
You can bet the B10 wont have these problems—well, unless Notre Dame joins and demands some crazy stuff like playing in the same division with Michigan and Michigan State. Remember, much like Miami in 03, ND is on the decline. Yes, they bring a name, a history and a HUGE fan base, but so did the Hurricanes. Look how that’s turned out.
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- Data Recovery Los Angeles - Jun 4, 2010 at 6:42 AM
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Let’s go Gasol! Beat Boston in 5! Show them who is the best team in the NBA!
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- Meghan Graden - Sep 15, 2010 at 3:15 PM
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I wasn’t sure what you were saying in your first paragraph, any possibility you could explain in detail? This writing is also incredibly weird, this sentences and pronouns are very different.
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- Joe - Oct 14, 2010 at 11:41 AM
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Long time reader, first time poster! Great post. Appreciate the work thats gone into the site so far, keep it up!
