that UNC and the ACC leadership have always acted to reign in football, to curtail football, to keep it from ever becoming as big as SEC or BT, or Pac or SWC or Big 8, football, is that the whole basketball emphasis was just an accident that happened because the Tournament was huge ticket seller from Day 1 and in 1957 UNC won the NCAA Tournament - which means that the ACC became basketball-concentric only because of winning a national Championship early in that sport.
How many people who post on the football board even know that in 1953, the ACC's first year, Maryland won the National Championship in football? In its first year of existence, an ACC team wins the National Championship in football, and yet the league goes on as if that were no big deal, nothing to crow about and focus on, while it simultaneously was crowing endlessly about what a wonderful thing the ACC basketball tournament was, unparalleled competition and excitement and ticket revenue.
A whole bunch of UNC people, and fans of other ACC teams, will always continue to have faith that such things never happened, but if they did, they occurred by happenstancce and have no meaning, and anyway, do you not see how wonderful ACC basketball can be again? UNC basketball is God's precious gift and can never be seen in any light that suggests ACC football failure to grow across the decades is linked to the endless promotion of ACC basketball.
Are y'all confident that UNC would leave the ACC if FSU and Clemson leave? That standard UNC/ACC thinking still would be: well, look at the huge upside of our basketball and bask in that glorious history, and then think how wonderful it would be to be in a league with Cal and Stanford and SMU and Tulane. Schools in those locales will upgrade ACC football too. Why would UNC leave all that to go join up with the rednecks? UNC is above that. That truly BIG Time football desire is aspiration only for trashy people like WVU fans.
The way the ACC office has handled things since the BT yet again proved that is just plain nasty at its core and acted to ruin The Alliance with the pac and ACC proves that either isn is totally incompetent or else it sees its mission as to do everything but make rate moves that are best for ACC football to remain as a truly Major/Power conference. Its like trying to decide whether whether, say, Detroit is what it is because of massively widespread corruption or just plain, old fashioned incompetence. And, over time, such things always entwine.
The idiot ACC leaders did not see any need to arrange to offer and quickly add Oregon and Washington, the 2 remaining Pac teams with major value, but after that pair is safely in the BT is ready to add Cal and Stanford? That is either total incompetence or else people following an ancient game plan to keep football in line, and such game pan eventually gets in the DNA and operates units won.
