re: N.C.St. & Va. Tech rumors

quote:

---

quote:
Getting UNC and Dook is half as good as getting UNC and a team from Virginia. It makes little sense.


Exactly. It will be one from North Carolina and one from Virginia to the SEC. That part isn't really even debatable.

The B1G will not accept a school that isn't an AAU member... That disqualifies NC State, Va Tech, FSU, Miami, etc...That leaves UNC, Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia as viable options for their continued expansion.

I think Virginia and Georgia Tech are B1G-bound. Virginia just wants the academics and Georgia Tech is desperate financially as they see the SEC driving them further and further into irrelevance.

FSU and Clemson are Big 12 bound. These may actually be the first shoes to drop, assuming the $50mil buyout doesn't hold up. This will be followed closely with Virginia Tech to the SEC.

Once that happens, the ACC is no longer viable as a league, and everyone that's attractive enough that they can jump - will jump - the rest will join the Big East to form a(still) elite basketball league.

That leaves the North Carolinan chess match. The only way EVERYONE ends up happy is for NC State to go Big12, UNC to the SEC, and Duke to the B1G. Otherwise, UNC goes to the B1G, NC State to the SEC, and Duke gets left out for the basketball conference they should be in in the first place.

If Duke gets invited to any major conference(other than Big12), that conference will then be beyond the 16-team model, making things no less ridiculous than they currently are.

---

This is the crux of it. When does UNC finally give up on the ACC? They REALLY don't want to but at some point it becomes inevitable. Once they accept the fact the ACC as a viable conference (meaning an AQ level conference with a legit TV contract as basketball just doesn't pay nearly enough) then they have to make some hard choices. They can want to stay with Duke all they want but it just won't happen. I suppose there is a remote possibility that the Big 12 would take them both because the Big 12 is run by idiots. That would be a horrible long term move for the Carolina schools though and they would have to hold their nose big time to be hanging out with academic dogs like WVU, Tech, OSU, and KState. They will hate being in different conferences but they can still play OOC, it's really a difference of one basketball game a year.

No, in the end I think UNC has to decide between going to the Big 1G with UVA or going to the SEC either with UVA or VTech. They are likely strong enough to influence UVA to go with them if they want and the SEC would take UVA over VTech because the Presidents are the ones who vote. You don't pass up a chance to add 2 Top 10 (if not Top 5) Public Universities that are power broker AAU members, period. The Big 1G is more prestigious academically for sure but it really isn't a cultural fit and the distances are huge. Even though UNC is a bunch of snobs at their heart they are still Southerners. The fact that the SEC now has 4 AAU members helps to quell the academic types as well.

The other HUGE issue is UNC controls NC State. Letting NC State go to the Big 12 leaves them as no threat to UNC and takes care of their sibling. Letting NC State go to the SEC though suddenly raises the profile of NC State about 20 fold and assures them of making far more money on athletics than UNC. I just don't see them allowing that to happen.

I also really don't want NC State in the SEC. They are a mediocre school in every way. Decent but not great in basketball. Very average in football with their last ACC Title being in the 70's. Small stadium. Crappy facilities. Mediocre academics. Most of all though they are controlled by UNC and I can't get into the idea of an SEC Member that has to get the permission of a Non SEC member for everything. That's a very, very dangerous idea on multiple levels and is a huge hit to the credibility of our conference which at this point is filled with schools that are powerbrokers and not pawns.