Notre Dame to ACC in non-football sports

[RBHoya]

Sept 12, 2012 10:24:48 GMT -5 whatrocks33 said:

Right. So their options are bring in a non-football playing school - which precludes ND from EVER playing football in the ACC, or wait until ND is ready and then add a football school. Which one makes more sense to you?

Also, a buddy of mine who has good ND connections said the Irish are going to try and bring Navy to the ACC if they ever make the move to full-on ACC membership. It's frustrating to think our geographic location hurts us because we add nothing to the table yet a school an hour away could be attractive to the ACC.

To your first point... it doesn't 100% preclude it. Any number of teams is workable if you really want it to be. But I agree, it's unlikely they'd take any other team now.

It is possible however that over the next few years the landscape shifts in ways that push ND into full ACC membership. ACC is clearly trying to be the league to catch them when/if that day comes, and if you read the ACC statements on this there is a definite "partial member.... for now" sentiment.

So hypothetically a few years from now ND goes all in with the ACC. The ACC then needs another team. They could possibly add Rutgers or UConn or even Louisville if those teams don't have better leagues by then. OR, as you mentioned in paragraph 2, ND could advocate for Navy to be the 16th ACC football team. If that happened it'd almost definitely be Navy as a football only--Navy hoops would lose by 40 points a night in a high major. So, ND makes it conditional that they'll join the ACC as team #15 if and only if Navy is football team #16.

If all that happened they'd have 16 for football and 15 for everything else. They'd likely want a 16th team for all sports other than football, and theoretically we'd slide perfectly into that role. And just maybe some of our old foes like Cuse, BC, ND etc. would like to play us in hoops again, and we would of course get the seal of approval for academics.

Far-fetched? At a minimum. But there is a tiny, tiny tiny sliver of hope for it over the next few years. For now, the future looks pretty bleak.

[deacon]

Sept 12, 2012 10:35:01 GMT -5 hoyabinx said:

Sept 12, 2012 10:30:42 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

I don't think adding a non-football school would preclude Notre Dame from ever playing in the ACC. If Notre Dame wanted to join any conference, that conference would ensure it happens, even if it means adding another school at the time.

I agree about the geographic location thing. Would it really help the conference that much to be in Philadelphia than Washington DC? I doubt it, but some people seem obsessed with geography.

If I am the ACC I pick up Nova with the idea that if ND joins in 5 years, Nova can be brought up.

Right.

The ship be sinking.

[boxout05]

Nova makes a ton of sense. ACC taking us makes almost no sense. We prolly have a better shot of the SEC or Big10 deciding they'll pay us $2M a year to boost their bball and get a DC footprint.

[aleutianhoya]

Earlier in the thread, I confidently wrote that I thought there was absolutely no reason for ND to add a non-football school to the conference. I still think that.

But here is ESPN's Eamonn Brennan, suggesting the ACC would want to add such a school, and specifically naming Georgetown as the primary possibility. To me, it doesn't read as though Brennan has thought through the issue very much (and he does not appear to have any sourcing), but there it is.

espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/63838/notre-dame-latest-to-leap-to-acc

[biggmanu]

Rumors are swirling about Georgetown next to the ACC

[hoyatables]

Pardon me while I throw up my recently consumed lunch.

[Ranch Dressing]

It should not have taken ND's actual departure from the conference for anyone to clamor for Georgetown to implement an alternative plan. The alternative plan(s) should have been implemented long ago.

The much ballyhooed Big East "television contract" that many argue will bring money into our coffers is more illusory than ever. How this contract materializes under the current conference circumstances is beyond me. Don't believe the hype.

We have lacked visionary leadership on this issue from the start. The Big East conference started dying a slow, painful death when BC and Miami left years ago. The final nail in the coffin was Pitt and Cuse leaving. The ND departure is just the next logical, post-mortem exit from an unsustainable conference. UConn, Louisville, and Rutgers will follow shortly.

Whether it is going on hands and knees to the ACC (good luck with the Maryland relationship) or starting a new hoops-centric conference, we best get onto the business of defining our own future, rather than being dragged along in a cooked conference that does not value our non-football programs. We will ALWAYS lose in that scenario.

If we turn back the clock, we should have invested in building a legitimate Division I football program 20 years ago. But that ship has sailed. We are a hoops school. And we should be with other hoops schools, unless I suppose one of the major footbal conferences is willing to value our hoops program enough to make an exception.

Along those lines, I agree that the ACC would appear to be our best hope at maintaining major hoops conference affiliation. Otherwise, it is off to an A-10/Colonial league existance where our national hoops relevancy will depend on the school's ability to attract/retain top-level coaching that transcends conference affiliation (e.g., Mark Few at Gonzaga).

[DanMcQ]

Frankly, ND's move is not all that much of a shock - they've been looking for months. Not as much of a loss to the Big East basketball conference (on a rivalry scale for Georgetown) as Syracuse was.

[Dhall]

Total number of Notre Dame Big East men's basketball regular season and conference championships: 0 (right?).

Total expected number of ACC men's basketball regular season and conference championships: 0.

Goodbye.

[CaliHoya]

I love the Big East. I love seeing my Hoyas play in MSG during the Big East tournament. But I must admit, the conference is completely different than the conference that I have embraced since going to Georgetown.

If the ACC is a possibility (and if Maryland really wanted to play us in all sports, they shouldn't stand in the way), we should take it in a heartbeat. We'll get back our rivalry with Syracuse, start a nice rivalry with UMD, and get to play Duke & UNC every year. It just would be a lot more exciting for me as a basketball fan.

That being said, I am keeping my expectations low with all these rumors. But I do hope the AD and President are being proactive this time instead of reactive. The Big East football schools won't be loyal to us, so I don't think Georgetown should blindly make a decision based on loyalty. Rather, they should compare all the options on the table, and make the best decision for our sports programs as a whole.

[Jack]

So now the ACC can set up for basketball with 3 5-team divisions, where you play everyone in your division home and home and get everyone else at home in alternate years. The divisions almost even make sense, although somewhat unbalanced:

Northeast:
BC
Cuse
Pitt
ND
UMCP

Carolinas:
Duke
UNC
Wake
NC St.
UVa

South:
Miami
Fla St.
Clemson
Ga Tech
Va Tech

The MD/VA schools are caught in the middle and get split up, but its not like they are traditional rivals in hoops. The South division is a bit weak, though all of those teams have had their moments. Everyone gets either Duke or Carolina at home every year for ticket sales.

[hoyasaxa2003]

There is some speculation online that St. John's could be a target. I don't see this as a real threat. The only thing they bring is the New York market - and really, is the New York market for basketball-only really that much of an asset? Having grown up in New York, I can tell you St. John's hoops is never priority #1 for sports viewing in the New York area.

[professorhoya]

Sept 12, 2012 11:22:41 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

Earlier in the thread, I confidently wrote that I thought there was absolutely no reason for ND to add a non-football school to the conference. I still think that.

But here is ESPN's Eamonn Brennan, suggesting the ACC would want to add such a school, and specifically naming Georgetown as the primary possibility. To me, it doesn't read as though Brennan has thought through the issue very much (and he does not appear to have any sourcing), but there it is.

espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/63838/notre-dame-latest-to-leap-to-acc

Think about it. If Georgetown joins the ACC then the Big East is for all purposes dead.

[nodak89]

Sept 12, 2012 11:47:51 GMT -5 professorhoya said:

Sept 12, 2012 11:22:41 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

Earlier in the thread, I confidently wrote that I thought there was absolutely no reason for ND to add a non-football school to the conference. I still think that.

But here is ESPN's Eamonn Brennan, suggesting the ACC would want to add such a school, and specifically naming Georgetown as the primary possibility. To me, it doesn't read as though Brennan has thought through the issue very much (and he does not appear to have any sourcing), but there it is.

espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/63838/notre-dame-latest-to-leap-to-acc

Think about it. If Georgetown joins the ACC then the Big East is for all purposes dead.

and if the ACCs goal is to kill the BE, taking Georgetown wouldn't be that far fetched.

[guru]

Sept 12, 2012 11:45:50 GMT -5 Jack said:

So now the ACC can set up for basketball with 3 5-team divisions, where you play everyone in your division home and home and get everyone else at home in alternate years. The divisions almost even make sense, although somewhat unbalanced:

Northeast:
BC
Cuse
Pitt
ND
UMCP

Carolinas:
Duke
UNC
Wake
NC St.
UVa

South:
Miami
Fla St.
Clemson
Ga Tech
Va Tech

The MD/VA schools are caught in the middle and get split up, but its not like they are traditional rivals in hoops. The South division is a bit weak, though all of those teams have had their moments. Everyone gets either Duke or Carolina at home every year for ticket sales.

that seems really unwieldy

[Ranch Dressing]

Sept 12, 2012 11:47:51 GMT -5 professorhoya said:

Sept 12, 2012 11:22:41 GMT -5 aleutianhoya said:

Earlier in the thread, I confidently wrote that I thought there was absolutely no reason for ND to add a non-football school to the conference. I still think that.

But here is ESPN's Eamonn Brennan, suggesting the ACC would want to add such a school, and specifically naming Georgetown as the primary possibility. To me, it doesn't read as though Brennan has thought through the issue very much (and he does not appear to have any sourcing), but there it is.

espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/63838/notre-dame-latest-to-leap-to-acc

Think about it. If Georgetown joins the ACC then the Big East is for all purposes dead.

The Big East Conference is already dead. Come on.

[Dhall]

We don't have the facilities to compete in the ACC

[deacon]

Anyone who thinks this is a remote possibility is fooling themselves.

The ACC doesn't need us.

We are on a sinking ship with no life boats in sight. That's the harsh reality of the situation.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Really, this has to do with whether the ACC takes another non-football school. If they don't, we need to cling to the remains of the Big East and hope for the best. If they do take another school, I think it's us, Villanova, or St. John's. In my opinion, we should be a favorite among those schools, unless they want Villanova as a potential football option years down the road (unlikely).

[Ranch Dressing]

This looks like an awfully good hoops conference with stunning past and future rivalries all the way around.

ACC North

BC, ND, Cuse, Pitt, UMCP, Georgetown, UVA, Va Tech

ACC South

Duke, UNC, NC St., Wake, Clemson, Ga. Tech, Fl St., Miami,