ACC expansion, 5 years later
The Washington Post looks at the ACC 5 years after expansion, and the reviews are, to put it kindly, mixed.
The Post does well to point out the biggest unintended consequence of ACC expansion – the rise of the Big East. Faced with losing Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College, even the Big East commissioner saw bad times ahead for that conference. But the result has been the rise of football programs like West Virginia and Rutgers. While Virginia Tech and Boston College have done relatively well in the ACC, their arrival hasn’t done much to boost the overall quality of the conference.
And in one of the most critical and unforeseen byproducts of the realignment, the rival Big East Conference — forced to expand in response to the flight of three of its schools to the ACC — has strengthened its standing as a big-time football conference and fortified the depth of its basketball programs to an extent the ACC has yet to realize.
The Post mentions the turnover among ACC football coaches as a factor that has held back progress on the gridiron. Some feel a similar upgrade in coaching talent is necessary to restore ACC basketball.
It is important to note though that while the ACC might be struggling in its competitiveness they are still, for now, bringing in the cash. The conference “has signed a seven-year, $258 million contract with ABC and ESPN — which nearly doubled the annual income of its previous TV deal.” From 2001-2002 to 2006-2007, the average revenue paid out annually per program has increased by over $2 million. There’s even a glass-half-empty reaction to that news. Outgoing UNC chancellor James Moeser said, “(The financial impact of expansion) has been positive, but not overwhelmingly.”
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Thomas Brown
July 14th, 2008
11:42 pm
As for the expansion of the ACC, it’s been a total bust.
Florida State, last to join the ACC before the latest 3 joined, has been horrible.
Miami of Florida has been worse.
Both on the field and off the field, for both Miami of Florida and Florida State. As for the turnover in coaching pinpointing the reason for the lack of impact by the ACC expansion, both Miami of Florida and Florida State are in desperate need of coaching changes right this second.
There is no ACC highly ranked team.
There has not been an ACC highly ranked team.
While The SEC has 5 teams who finished in the Final AP Poll Top 14 teams 1 LSU 2 UGA 12 vols 13 Florida 15 Auburn, the ACC has but 2 teams in the Top 20 and no team higher ranked than Number 9.
The year before last, was no different with The SEC having 6 teams ranked in the Final AP Poll Top 25. Compare this with the stinking America’s Cupcake Conference and you find but 3 ACC teams ranked in the Final AP Poll Top 25. There were no ACC teams the year before last ranked in the Top 17. The highest ranked ACC team the year before last was Number 18. Good Lord. The SEC has both Number 1 and Number 3.
And, both years, The SEC are the National Champions.
As for basketball, the teams added by the expansion – none of them – can play basketball.
And, with regard to the ACC expansion in baseball, only Miami of Florida can play that sport yet have been beyond horrendous at both Football and Men’s Basketball.
The expansion 5 years later ? The ACC is a flop. They play very weak strength of schedules, play in conference against a whole host of nobody teams who cannot play their way out of a wet paper bag and have had zero impact on the national championship. The ACC attendance is weak and way behind The SEC. The ACC has very weak enrollment in their student bodies. And, in the Directors’ Cup All-Sports Trophy, the ACC is so way behind The SEC as to deem any comparison of the 2 conferences, a total abysmal failure on the part of the ACC to live up to half the hype they threw at us. And, spanning more than 24 hours and more than 1,500 miles from Boston to Miami, the ACC expansion has accomplished nothing trying to call this wide spread association of very small colleges a success when the entire ACC all of whom do far worse in multi-year NCAA APR Academic Progress Rate by ACC Football student-athletes as a result than even The University of Georgia.
It was doomed to failure from the start.
The impact of the ACC expansion with all their claims of greatness top to bottom, has been to make it abundantly clear to everyone nationwide that The SEC is far better than every other conference. That is the only impact of the doomed to failure ACC expansion.