Gchatting the Eagles #7: ACC Expansion or: Dreaming of Digger Phelps

percDMhey 

It is clear from our discussion yesterday that we are both pleased with the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh. But, now is the time for rampant and uneducated speculation. And I've got a whole lot of ideas about conference expansion and realignment to discuss.

timstwrtdoes it involve UConn to the Gateway?

 percDMis that the new big12/big east conference?

  because that's where i see uconn going

 timstwrtno, it's the former name of the MVC

  but it's a better name

 percDMthat is a better name

i guess i envision four possible scenarios for the ACC, and only one involves uconn

  and its the one i think is the worst for the conference

these are reasonable scenarios

  i saw a guy today discussing nd and penn st as the 15th and 16th members

 timstwrtsounds awesomely implausibleif nothing else, this upheaval has given pretty much everyone license to speculate on pretty much everything

  see: whatever you're about to say

percDMyeah, it was crazy from intro to conclusion

  i see the best scenario as nd and georgetown joining as non-football playing schools

timstwrtok, start with ND

  why would a conference take them without football in 2011?

 percDM

  good question, and i think it goes to their fan base, strength in other sports and their academics

or, let's put this another way, how do you feel about villanova and georgetown joining in all non-football sports?

timstwrti feel great about it

  i would consider that my #1 ACC option

 percDMwhy villanova over notre dame?

  location is a plus for villanova

  but what else

timstwrtmainly location, and the fact that they're a better basketball school

  so if you're enhancing the basketball brand, notre dame doesn't do much

percDM i agree that nova is a better basketball school, but they're not that much better than notre dame in recent years

also, notre dame has quality programs in a lot of non-revenue sports, which matters a little

  more importantly, notre dame would probably be tied into bowl games with the acc, which could mean better bowls for the conference

which is an added bonus, since nd is so rarely bowl eligible

 timstwrthold on

villanova's a way better basketball program in recent years

  4-1 sweet sixteens in the last ten years

  2-0 elite eights

  1-0 final fours

so you're wrong there

  and i don't really care how good notre dame is at women's soccer

 nor does anyone other than the north carolina women's soccer team percDMbut the acc might care about how good the other sports are

 acc baseball might care

acc men's soccer might care

  i know non-revenue sports are 5th or 6th in the factors considered for conference expansion, but its a factor

 

 timstwrt the other thing in villanova's favor is television

 percDM

how so?

 timstwrtif you're not taking notre dame football, villanova's a better TV draw in basketball

 percDM and you are sure villanova basketball is a better tv draw than notre dame?

  where, in philadelphia?

  maybe southern jersey

timstwrti'm not sure how you've missed that villanova's a basketball power, but it has been for a while

  they beat us in the sweet sixteen, you should have seen that

 percDMgonzaga is a basketball power too

  but i don't think they have better tv revenue than schools with more national appeal

i know notre dame basketball doesn't have the same fanbase as their football program, but they still have a lot of fans

  villanova is definitely a basketball power

  but, i think their fanbase is regional

timstwrtnotre dame is guaranteed a minimum of 11 national television appearances in the 2011-12 season

villanova 18

  so, people whose jobs depend on ratings think villanova's a bigger draw

percDMok, so let's say both villanova and georgetown have better basketball fanbases than notre dame, i'm not sure if that is true, but i'm granting that for now

timstwrt is this 1977? you might be the only person who thinks it's debatable that villanova and georgetown are bigger basketball draws than notre dame

  kelly tripucka isn't walking through that door

  adrian dantley isn't walking through that doorpercDM what about the potential bowl tie-ins with notre dame?timstwrt

  the bowl thing seems like a negative to me

is there a lower rung that we can get pushed down to in the bowl world if we ever get back to going 8-4?

 percDMyeah, we can get bumped down a rung

  but we can also move up

  like if the acc gets the gator bowl

and notre dame doesn't make a bowl or makes the bcs

  which are their two most common moves

 timstwrtthe ACC had the gator bowl...i remember them not taking us twice

 percDM but, with the BC rule in place and another high level bowl, we could actually end up in a good bowl for once

timstwrtok

  that's an argument

percDM i don't think we are far apart on this, but right now, we will have to disagree on which of those two scenarios is better

 timstwrtbut we agree that football expansion isn't a great option

 percDMright  my second scenario is your number one

  my third scenario is that the acc just stay at 14

  i like the idea of two 7 team divisions, nine conference games, and 1 cross-divisional rival

i don't like two 8 team divisions, or 4 pods

i like an acc division of the old big east schools plus virginia and maryland

  then we play clemson as a cross-division rival

  the other division is a little weaker, with the four carolina schools, but i'll take it for the more interesting matchups

  i want to play syracuse, vatech, clemson, and miami yearly

i would also like to play pitt yearly

  i don't really care about how often we play the carolina schools, florida st, or georgia tech

timstwrtthat all checks out

  although i'd rather play one of the carolina schools than pitt, because i don't care about any of them and pitt's likely to be better

percDMfair enough

  what i don't want to see, is the acc adding rutgers and uconn

i get that it establishes a string of institutions all along the eastern seaboard

  and i get that those schools may be ways into the nyc market

  but, i don't like what it does to the football scheduling

  and i don't like uconn

if we get stuck in a pod with uconn, rutgers, and syracuse, that's going to suck

 timstwrthopefully it ends with us poised for a BCS bowl with a win over a terrible syracuse team

  because that can't go wrong

 percDMnever goes wrong