I’m fascinated with the ACC’s position right now because their teams can’t do much of anything. I keep reading that several ACC schools have researched the legal and financial wrangling that it would take to get out of their contracts and it’s not financially feasible to do so. Some estimate the “grant of rights” payment to leave the conference would be as high as $500 million. Who knows if that’s accurate but it’s a scary number even for the Clemsons, Florida States and Miamis of the world.
So they sit. For better or for worse. And I can easily see two potential scenarios where the ACC either stays powerful or sinks to a “level 2” compared to the Big Ten and SEC. Still some great programs with Clemson, Florida St., Miami, NC, NC State, Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, V. Tech as its core for football revenue. Duke, Georgia Tech and Wake are great to have for hoops. BC seems to rise above water once every 20 seasons or so. I’m not a UConn fan at all but adding them for full sports away from the Big East makes a ton of sense.
Imagine if the ACC changed its name (ever so subtly) to the AMERICAN Coast Conference and added a Western division with the PAC12 schools plus a couple replacements for USC and UCLA (San Diego State and Boise State)? It doesn’t help my SMU Mustangs any sitting in the middle of the country, but now you’ve got:
– a strategic mission of holding down the two coasts
– have great media markets in NYC, Boston, DC/VA, Miami, Atlanta, SoCal, Bay Area, Seattle
– a strong relationship with ESPN (including the ACC Network)
– have programming that can literally last all day long between Eastern time games and Pacific time games
– have legit perennial championship contenders and a fistful of top 25 programs in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf, softball, lacrosse, track & field, volleyball, tennis, and swimming & diving
– have a chance to place multiple teams in the top 10 standings of the Directors Cup every year (they should just rename it the Stanford Cup)
The more I think about it, I really like that conference.
What do you think? Would an American Coast Conference work?