Let's Use the Off Season to Fix the ACC

[What Would Jesus Do?]

As we've discussed a few times this year, the ACC seems like it's sliding the wrong direction. From a consistent top 3 conference in America until 5 years ago, we were 7th last year (Pomeroy) and 5th the 2 previous years.

Moreover, whereas we seldom had more than a couple team worse than top 100, last year there were 6 such clunkers in the last 2 years.

I suggest it's time to start clearing out the dead wood.

Here's a list of the bottom 4 finishers in the last 5 years.

X = bottom 4 in ACC
Y = 100 or worse on Pomeroy
* = COVID year
** = New coach in this 5-year stretch

Team	2023	2022	2021	2020*	2019	Total
Louisville**	X, Y	X, Y				4
Notre Dame	X, Y				X	3
Ga Tech	X, Y	X, Y			Y	5
FSU	X, Y	Y				3
Boston Col**	Y	Y	X, Y	X, Y	X, Y	8
Syracuse	Y					1
NC State		X, Y				2
Pitt		X, Y	X	X, Y	X, Y	7
Wake**			X, Y	X, Y	X, Y	6
Miami			X, Y	Y		3
UNC				X		1
Va Tech**				Y		1

 

[gauchoheel]

I hope we leave for the B1G/SEC if we get the opportunity. Might take a decade for the GOR unfortunately. In the meantime I'd be fine if we expelled Wake + BC. They are the two weakest links from a financial perspective. Small schools with no TV appeal, and Wake overlaps the NC map for cable carriage fees.

 

[Archer2]

Greed, greed, greed.

 

[vbrs]

Greed, greed, greed.

 

[vbrs]

I have watched the ACC all my life and do not want to see it end. I don't want to have UNC leave the ACC and go to the Big Ten. The rivalries would all end and I fear I would lose interest. So yes, lets fix the ACC.

 

[DSouthr]

The best way to improve the image of the ACC is to stack wins early season, maybe that is now more important than being challenged early on. Look at the scheduling, for example look at UNC this past season, that Portland trip was really poor scheduling. Not just the teams we played in Portland but before we came home we have to play IU at their place and we are both tired as well as down from having a couple losses hung on us so we take another L at IU. Come back home for a single day and then it is off to VT where yet again we got hung with another L BEFORE we could get back to the practice court to work things out? Right there the tone of this season was set and the tone for the ACC was as well set.

One of the FEW things that UNC fans have typically hit K and his dukies for over the years that I never really agreed with is how K scheduled his teams, especially early season. If he had to play a team that was a challenge for his team he tried to make sure his team was rested, did all the could to make sure any real challenger would have to play his dukies either at Cameron or a duke friendly arena like MSG or some place near Chicago or at least on a neutral court. For duke to play a true away game he literally had to be forced to by home and away agreements, usually league agreements like the ACC/Big 10 challenge. This allowed K to stack early wins, by the time his teams got to conference play they had a nice stack of wins and they had momentum as well as usually a top 10 ranking. K LOVED to schedule teams that have big name value but lost a LOT from their previous team, where he felt he had a strong match up advantage. Those bigger name programs even after losing a lot from their prior teams are usually ranked to high early season until their lack of experience shows up so they gave duke a nice NET pop beating them before they were seen as weaker than usual. IT creates a bit of a steam roller effect, by the time his teams get to league play they know what winning feels like, the league season starts off for them as a strong positive. Point being, stack wins early across the league, bank them for NET rankings late season.

I believe the ACC is still one of the best leagues in the sport but ACC teams beat up on each other in season so the league losses in conference get amplified in NCAAT ranking by those early season losses. It is very critical early season that ACC teams don't drop those head scratcher games to lesser programs, happens to big time programs every season early on, BC needs to beat the blind sisters of the poor, when they do not it sends a domino effect across the league because if it is your team that drops to BC at their place you have to as well suffer that BC lost to the lil blind sisters of the poor, even if you beat them you can drop NET spots.

 

[tarheel0910]

I have watched the ACC all my life and do not want to see it end. I don't want to have UNC leave the ACC and go to the Big Ten. The rivalries would all end and I fear I would lose interest. So yes, lets fix the ACC.

I think in a perfect world, that's what everyone here wants. We don't live in a perfect world, though. Bottom line is both of the profitable sports are in a decline as a whole for the conference. That's not a good way to continue to exist.

 

[WoadBlue]

As we've discussed a few times this year, the ACC seems like it's sliding the wrong direction. From a consistent top 3 conference in America until 5 years ago, we were 7th last year (Pomeroy) and 5th the 2 previous years.

Moreover, whereas we seldom had more than a couple team worse than top 100, last year there were 6 such clunkers in the last 2 years.

I suggest it's time to start clearing out the dead wood.

Here's a list of the bottom 4 finishers in the last 5 years.

X = bottom 4 in ACC
Y = 100 or worse on Pomeroy
* = COVID year
** = New coach in this 5-year stretch

Team	2023	2022	2021	2020*	2019	Total
Louisville**	X, Y	X, Y				4
Notre Dame	X, Y				X	3
Ga Tech	X, Y	X, Y			Y	5
FSU	X, Y	Y				3
Boston Col**	Y	Y	X, Y	X, Y	X, Y	8
Syracuse	Y					1
NC State		X, Y				2
Pitt		X, Y	X	X, Y	X, Y	7
Wake**			X, Y	X, Y	X, Y	6
Miami			X, Y	Y		3
UNC				X		1
Va Tech**				Y		1

If a conference plays 1A (FBS) football, it is defined by its football, and its football wealth and prestige will largely define everything else about it. That means that everything really valuable in terms of helping ACC basketball will be tied to making ACC football better, more viewed, more respected.

To clean out the dead wood means first that Wake must be booted. And ESPN either really wants BC because of location and will pay for BC, or else BC is also booted. Cincinnati and WVU should be added.

 

[WoadBlue]

I think in a perfect world, that's what everyone here wants. We don't live in a perfect world, though. Bottom line is both of the profitable sports are in a decline as a whole for the conference. That's not a good way to continue to exist.

Why the league has never faced is cutting total dead weight in terms of drawing fans. That means Wake especially. If the ACC falters, Wake will not rescued by anyone. So get it over with to try to save the ACC.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

The other side of the equation is which schools to add after we have made some room.

If it's really true that football will be driving the decisions, will we find anyone who is good enough for FB while also being an upgrade in BB?

 

[tarheel0910]

The other side of the equation is which schools to add after we have made some room.

If it's really true that football will be driving the decisions, will we find anyone who is good enough for FB while also being an upgrade in BB?

You wouldn't necessarily need to add anyone. More teams don't always mean more money per school.

 

[WoadBlue]

The other side of the equation is which schools to add after we have made some room.

If it's really true that football will be driving the decisions, will we find anyone who is good enough for FB while also being an upgrade in BB?

OH is easily one of the biggest football states in the country. It is 5th in production of D1 football players, and it produces huge HS Friday night audiences as well as huge audiences for CFB and NFL. So Cincy, which a huge state school located in a football rich TV market, is a no-brainer it seems to me. Also, Cincy is Louisville's most played rival in both revenue sports, and ND always recruits OH heavily in both revenue sports.

 

[al would]

Greed, greed, greed.

Yeah .. fng geniuses thought expanding the ACC was a great idea and that turned the ACC in to being a "who" conference. Ask Anheuser-Busch and thousands of other big time sports biz's what trying to f with tradition does for ya !! Get woke go broke. If it aint broke don't f with it morons.

 

[WoadBlue]

Yeah .. fng geniuses thought expanding the ACC was a great idea and that turned the ACC in to being a "who" conference. Ask Anheuser-Busch and thousands of other big time sports biz's what trying to f with tradition does for ya !! Get woke go broke. If it aint broke don't f with it morons.

ACC football was broke, in a big way, before FSU was added. As football is at least 4 times bigger than basketball, not expanding the ACC to try to get caught up in football would have been a death wish that have come true long before the end of the 20th century. The great mistake the ACC made then was not going to 12 sooner. If the ACC had added Miami, VT, and WVU for the 2000 football season, it would have solidified itself immediately as a rising super star league.