The End of the ACC

Yes, you read that right. The end of the ACC as a dominant conference is about to end. In the last week, much has happened that has caused myself and numerous others to believe that a major conference realignment and shift is about to occur. It all started last weekend when Florida State Board of Trustees Chairman Andy Haggard dropped the bombshell that FSU could be interested in investigating other conferences, namely the Big 12. Then, this week at the annual ACC coaches conference in Florida, FSU was not in attendance. And if that was not enough to make you think this is a reality, the FSU President laid out a pros and cons list of a move to the Big 12. This is huge for the landscape of the ACC and the power conferences of football. If Florida State were to bolt to the Big 12, would they bring anyone with them, and would it spur other teams to follow suit and jump ship to other conferences?

Now, with the rumors of Florida State leaving the ACC circling around, the Big 12 and SEC announced today that it would be creating a new bowl where the winners of each respective conference would play each other in a game on New Years Day. This is significant because this lays the groundwork for a 4 team playoff to be created in the new BCS playoff system. Since the winners of the Pac 10 and Big 10 already play in Pasadena in the Rose Bowl, and now the winners of the Big 12 and SEC playing in this new bowl game, this works out perfectly for the 4 team playoff system. The winners of these two games could play for the National Championship. But here is the problem... Where do the rest of the BCS conferences fit in to this system, namely the ACC and Big East? No where. With collegiate athletics and especially football geared around money, no one is going to want to pay to see the ACC winner play the Big East winner in the Orange Bowl. So both of these conferences in my opinion have the death sentence written on them in terms of football. Now, with FSU rumored to leave to the Big 12, who else in the ACC is ready to jump ship, and where will they go? Let's find out.

We all know that the SEC is looking to expand to 16 teams, even the SEC commissioner says so. So with the SEC currently at 14 teams, who would be the other two that the conference are likely to tap? Currently, the SEC television footprint extends into every state in the south except for North Carolina and Virginia, so it would make fiscal sense to look to expand to those TV markets. UNC would be the most sought after in NC for obvious reasons, but the hierarchy at UNC-CH would not even consider stepping down to the SEC level in academics. Also, I doubt Carolina would leave the ACC without Duke, which the SEC probably would not consider. So that leaves NC State as the next viable option. In my opinion the Wolfpack would be a perfect fit for the SEC. The football program is decent enough in the sub-par ACC, but with a few years of the recruiting boost the SEC brings, it could pose a problem to some teams within the conference. State would also be in the top tier in basketball automatically as well. Add that to the NC TV market which is home to two top 30 markets, and we have a very viable candidate.

Next is Virginia, and Virginia Tech is the only team that makes sense. They hold their own in football and are decent enough in basketball and would fit in nicely in the SEC.

So where do the other teams in the ACC go? Well, I think this is how the new power 4 conferences will shape up to look like after the dust has settled (new teams in bold):

Big 12                                    Big 10                                 SEC                             Pac 10

Baylor                                    Illinois                                Florida                         Arizona

Iowa State                              Indiana                               Georgia                       Arizona St

Kansas                                   Iowa                                   Kentucky                    Cal

Kansas State                          Michigan                            South Carolina            Colorado

Oklahoma                              Michigan State                   Tennessee                   Oregon

Oklahoma State                     Minnesota                          Vanderbilt                   Oregon St

Texas                                     Nebraska                           Alabama                      Stanford

Texas Tech                            Northwestern                    Arkansas                      UCLA

TCU                                      Ohio State                         Auburn                        USC

West Virginia                        Penn State                         LSU                             Utah

FSU                                      Purdue                              Miss State                     Washington

Miami                                   Wisconsin                         Ole Miss                       Wash St

Pittsburgh                            Duke                                Texas A&M                  Boise State

Clemson                               Virginia                           Missouri                         BYU

Georgia Tech                       UNC-CH                         Virginia Tech               Hawaii

L'ville (or Cincy)                 Notre Dame                     NC State                       San Diego St

And the ones left out of the mix to fend for themselves in a new ACC/Big East leftover conference:

Boston College, Wake Forest, Maryland, Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, Cincinnati (or Louisville), South Florida, and UCF.

This would not have as huge of an impact on basketball as it does football, because the number from each conference that goes to the NCAA tournament varies each year, but it does heavily affect the football landscape... but who knows if we will even have football 20 years from now with the lawsuits and insurance liabilities we see with injuries today.

Regardless, I do know this. The ACC as a dominant, power conference is no more. The days of ACC Sunday Night Hoops on Fox Sports Net and the Boston College-Wake Forest football games on the ACC Network at 12:30 are the things about this conference that I will not miss. It has been a fun ride while it has lasted, but the grass is greener on the playing fields of the SEC, and I cannot wait for myself to see "SEC" written on the 25 yard line at Carter-Finley in the near future.

Amile Jefferson and the state of ACC Basketball

As most of us NC State fans know, Amile Jefferson finally made his decision yesterday as to where he would be attending college in the Fall. Unfortunately for us State fans, he chose Duke. However, I do not think this should cause us any worry. State is returning several key post players from last years lineup, including CJ Leslie, a junior, and Richard Howell, a senior. Both of these players proved themselves last year, and as long as both of them can stay out of foul trouble, I can see these two being a force to reckon with in the ACC next season. Beyond these two, State will need some help from redshirt junior Jordan Vandenberg and sophomore Thomas de Thaey. If one of these two can step up their game and be a competitor, State will be the team to beat in the ACC.

We now know for certain that UNC-CH and NC State will be playing each other in a home-and-home series next season, but after that it may be a few years before the Pack and Tar Heels face each other in each team's respective arena. NC State and UNC have been playing each other twice each season for almost a century, so why is the ACC deciding to change this long standing tradition now? Besides, the ACC prides itself on upholding tradition. The only somewhat logical reason to end this home-and-home series is money. With everything in college athletics now dictated by the dollar signs, I can see where ACC Commissioner John Swofford (I'll have more on him later) and ESPN decided to end this. I will admit, ESPN and subsequently the ACC make a lot of money off of the Duke-UNC rivalry, but what is going to happen to this so called rivalry when both Roy Williams and Coach K retire? K announced this week that he was not going to coach the 2016 US Olympic team, and I have been hearing rumors recently that K will retire after the 2013-2014 season. With NC State on the rise, and Duke appearing to be on the decline after their somewhat boring season last year and loss to Lehigh in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, I think this is a stupid move on the part of the Commissioner and ESPN. One way this could be solved is to institute two divisions. Once Syracuse and Pitt join the conference (probably in the fall of 2013), there will be 14 teams in the conference. Seven of these teams will be the original teams from the ACC, and the other seven will be implants from the Big East. So my two proposed divisions would shape up like this:

• Original ACC Teams
• Clemson
• Duke
• Maryland
• UNC-Chapel Hill
• NC State
• Virginia
• Wake Forest
• Old Big East Teams
• Boston College
• Georgia Tech
• Florida State
• Miami
• Pittsburgh
• Syracuse
• Virginia Tech

With this system I would have each team play every team in their division twice, home and away, and every team from the opposite division once. The only negative to this system is that there would be 19 conference games as opposed to the 18 game schedule that is proposed for next season. Another problem would be cross-state rivals in different divisions (i.e. UVA-VPI), but that could be easily rectified by scheduling a non-conference game in addition to the regularly scheduled ACC game. Even though this system would more than likely work, it would never be implemented because it is fair to all teams, which the ACC does not want.

Which brings me to my last point, ACC Commissioner John Swofford. Swofford has got to go. There are so many reasons that bring me to this conclusion that I do not have the time to list them all. However, I will highlight a few important ones. First, Swofford is a UNC grad. Why on earth is a commissioner of a league a graduate of one of its member institutions? This is just asking for trouble. When UNC was in trouble with the NCAA for their numerous athletic and academic scandals (more on that in a later post), who went to all or most of the meetings UNC had with the NCAA? You got it, John Swofford. But when the University of Miami and Georgia Tech were going through the same ordeal with the NCAA, who was no where to be found? You got it, John Swofford. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but there is no telling what went on behind closed doors in those meetings. However, I probably don't want to. Second, the ACC as a football power conference is no more. When did this all start you may ask? In my opinion it began when the conference expanded in the early 2000s to bring in Boston College (what a joke), Miami, and Virginia Tech. At the time, these schools were somewhat decent at football. But since their inception into the league, Boston College has become non-existent (literally), Miami is in trouble with the NCAA, and Virginia Tech is actually holding its own. How this relates to John Swofford is he orchestrated this expansion, and in my opinion has watered-down the quality of competition we every Saturday on the football field. I also think that this will repeat itself with the addition of the two perennial powerhouses (yeah right) Syracuse and Pittsburgh... Once again, it is all about the $$$ and expanding the ACC market into these new territories. My third and last reason is the sub-par officiating crews that run the basketball games for the league. It frustrates me to watch an ACC game, and see fouls called on the most subtle touches up by the top of the key. LET THE GUYS PLAY! If someone blatantly fouls someone on a layup or something similar, then by all means call that a foul, but not on something small like touch fouls. When I watch other conferences play, specifically the Big Ten, fouls are only called when they are rough fouls, and this is the reason why many people hold the Big Ten to be the best basketball conference in the country. I could also write a whole story here about the Hess-gate scandal as well since I witnessed the ordeal from 20 feet away, but for the essence of the time I will not delve into that topic today, but that also goes along the lines of favoritism showed by the ACC elite and the officiating crews. Had Karl Hess thrown Michael Jordan or Rasheed Wallace out of the Dean Dome for the same "objectionable behavior", all Hell would have broken loose and we would never hear of Karl Hess again. But like I said, that is for a different day.

So in summary, State will be just fine without Amile Jefferson, State better enjoy this year's home-and-home with UNC because it may be a while before it happens again, and John Swofford needs to be fired, plain and simple.