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The following is the latest column for The Washington Post ----
The clouds and misty rain that shrouded Kenan Stadium for most of Saturday afternoon were an apt metaphor for the ever-changing world of college athletics. Less than 24 hours after Big East founder Dave Gavitt had died, the ACC was preparing to gleefully announce a raid that could signal the death knell for the league Gavitt created.
While word was quickly spreading Saturday that Syracuse and Pittsburgh were on the way, four current ACC teams were hosting the kind of games the conference presumed it would regularly be part of when it added Virginia Tech, Miami and Boston College seven years ago.
The results of those games — a split for the ACC, with wins for Miami and Clemson and letdowns for Maryland and Florida State — served as reminder: All these football-motivated moves don’t do nearly as much to help the ACC as they do to hurt the Big East.
Florida State’s loss to top-ranked Oklahoma likely means, once again, no ACC school will seriously contend for the mythical national title. More likely, the ACC champion will play a three-loss Big East champion in a bowl no one really wants to watch.
Adding Pitt and Syracuse doesn’t really change the league’s football profile at all. They are no different and certainly no better than Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Maryland et al: teams that will win a lot of little ones but not very many big ones.
Click here for the rest of the column: Saturday was an eventful day for the ACC
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5 comments:
John, Really missed your thoughts about Navy vs South Carolina. Those guys played so well. I think the whole country got a taste of what you have been writing about for years.- Magnificent Valor
Quick question, why do I always seem to hear about revenue whether it's college or pro sports, I have my own revenue problems I don't need to hear about conferences, owners or players money issues.
Two more things I would like to read your comment on with MLB playoffs a couple of weeks away why aren't more games played during the day, I guess money. I have a son and I would like him to watch the games however staying up to midnight seems ridiculous. Also why is it that the modern day sports announcer can't just call the game being played, versus making the game sound lop sided when a NFL team is down by ten in the 2nd quarter
John,
Would love to hear what the endgame is for the conference realignment. I am a fan of a "lesser" school (Colorado State) and I am just curious where the "leftovers" are going to end up. There are a ton of "lesser" schools pouring a ton of money into facilities and it appears that they might be left out. What, then, is the future for those schools? And, are the 64-Super Conference Schools going to gain fans or lose them? I think they are going to lose fans, not gain them. Doesn't that mean less TV $?
It's interesting to me that in all the talk about the ACC adding Pitt and Syracuse no one has mentioned how much this will change the ACC's men's lacrosse landscape.
so just give up on Navy?
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