The Confidential

The ACC Sports Blog

Archive for the category “Conference News”

11 Jan 2013

ACC Releases College Football Schedule for 2013.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, set to expand to 14 teams for 2013, has released the football schedule for this fall.

First, the divisions.  The ACC insists on eschewing the geographical split, instead opting for this setup:

Atlantic Division Coastal Division
Boston College Virginia Tech
Clemson Georgia Tech
Florida State Miami
Maryland Virginia
NC State North Carolina
Syracuse Pitt
Wake Forest Duke

Obviously, each team plays every team within its division.  Then, in order to get to 8 total games, each team has a primary crossover and a rotating crossover.  The team’s primary crossovers are listed in the above chart, with Boston College being paired with Virginia Tech, etc.  Syracuse and Pitt will be primary crossovers.

The secondary, rotating  crossovers are not as straightforward.  For 2013, the secondary crossover pairs are: Boston College-North Carolina; Clemson-Virginia; Florida State-Pittsburgh; Maryland-Virginia Tech; NC State-Duke; Syracuse-Georgia Tech; and Wake Forest-Miami.

Pittsburgh begins ACC conference play with home games against Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida State.  It will travel to Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Duke, and Virginia Tech.  Syracuse begins conference play by hosting Boston College, Wake Forest, Clemson, and Pitt.  Syracuse will travel to Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, and North Carolina State.

In notable games, Florida State will travel to Clemson in 2013.  Florida State will host Miami.  Miami will travel to North Carolina.  North Carolina will travel to Georgia Tech.  Georgia Tech will travel to Clemson.  With the ability to host both Florida State and Georgia Tech, Clemson has to be considered the early favorite.  The return of Tajh Boyd helps that too.

The Confidential does not know about you… but football cannot come around again soon enough!!!

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Football and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
29 Nov 2012
2 Comments

The College Expansion Game… is it Risk or is it Monopoly?

Everyone talks about college football as if it was a game of Risk.  Delaney and the Big 10 have the blue armies and are moving 10 of them to Kamchatka.  Slive and the SEC have the red armies, and will respond by trying to take Egypt.  Empire creation at its best.  Of course, some of those folks then turn around and say that the Big 10 and SEC are not competing against each other.  Huh–what Risk game involves cooperation?  The goal is to be the last one standing.  In any event, it is sad that college sports is no longer like Monopoly.

Yes, in the old days, college sports was like Monopoly.  The NCAA had the Monopoly of all the properties.  The value to a conference was driven not by the properties (i.e. the individual schools), but what could be done by acquiring all the similarly colored properties (i.e. forming conferences).  The Big 10 was the Dark Blues, with Michigan and Ohio State.  The Pac-12 was the Green properties.  No matter who played in the Rose Bowl, it was special.  Some conferences benefited by location–the Oranges and Reds have a little extra value because you might get sent to St. Charles Place and have to run them.  This is the equivalent to the Big East having the major metropolitan areas in basketball.  Or the SEC having the advantage of the key Southern, football-crazy areas.  Notably the game of Monopoly made the colored properties adjacent.  Indeed, being nearby your neighbors is valuable to a cohesive conference (notwithstanding the development of serious rivalries, of course).  Other than Notre Dame-USC, is there any rivalry that does not involve geographic proximity?  No.

Now, it’s all about a brand.  You might be able to make more money combining Boardwalk and Park Place, but Boardwalk would know its valuable and not want to be dragged down by Park Place.  Conferences are trying to build houses on Boardwalk and Marvin Gardens.  It works because the people paying are only focusing on the relative worth of the properties they are landing on… i.e. Boardwalk is a better property than Marvin Gardens.  The people paying do not realize that pairing Boardwalk with Park Place is more profitable than just Boardwalk alone.  Fans of conferences want to break off pieces of other conferences.  Fans of the Big 10 are drooling over North Carolina, forgetting that part of what makes North Carolina great is its rivalries with Duke, North Carolina State, and Virginia.  Sure, it’s a great school–but you cannot fabricate sports rivalries.  And you cannot just create a trophy and make it a rivalry.

The Confidential hopes that someday, the powers-that-be recognize that the real value in conferences was when they were geographically appropriate.  Perhaps they can figure out how to allow the revenues to be apportioned as per the current conferences, but go back to allowing schools to primarily play their neighbors.  More Penn State-Pittsburgh, and less Penn State-Iowa or Pittsburgh-Georgia Tech.

About the only thing we know is that, as of today, the Big East has Baltic Avenue.  Oh, and Connecticut Avenue.  And they had to mortgage Vermont Ave. to pay rent.  The ACC seems like the railroads–nice to have & pretty well spread out, but not generating enough money to keep up.  The SEC is now the Dark Blues–making plenty of money, and winning football and basketball titles regularly.  Or maybe the Big 10 is the Dark Blues.  It sure seems like the Big Ten Network is the “Chance” card sending someone to Boardwalk to make them wealthier every time it comes up.  And Rutgers just landed on Free Parking–from rags to riches on one roll of the dice.

In your game of College Sports/Expansion Monopoly… who is who?  Feel free to share your opinion.

 

Posted by acaffrey in Conference News, Conference Realignment, Opinion and tagged , , ,
28 Nov 2012
2 Comments

Louisville to ACC, According to Sources

As an update to yesterday’s report, ESPN is now reporting that the ACC voted to add Louisville.  If true, this is a great move for many reasons, such as:

  • It likely makes Florida State happy and shows a break away from the North Carolina/Virginia monopoly on decisions (whether real or perceived).
  • Louisville has strong (pun intended) football and basketball programs.  Rick Pitino joins Coach K, Roy Williams, and Jim Boeheim in the ACC.  Heck, maybe Jim Boeheim will even say that he likes this move?
  • Louisville is improving academically.  Probably.  Hopefully.  Maybe.  Doubtfully.  Who cares?  This is not just about academics anymore.
  • It likely makes Florida State happy.
  • Importantly, Louisville was desired by the Big XII, whereas UConn was not.  There is more urgency to add a team needed by the Big XII.  UConn should be there if/when the ACC needs to expand again.
  • All the other reasons mentioned in the ESPN article.  Indeed, that article almost looks like the ACC wrote it, doesn’t it?  ESPN cares about its investment in the ACC.
  • It likely makes Florida State happy.

West Virginia fans will not be couch burning mad over this, but they certainly will not be couch burning happy.  Perhaps will see some ottomans lit on fire due to the hypocrisy of rejecting WVU because of academics, but then taking Louisville.

The Confidential feels sorry for Cincinnati, UConn, USF, and to a lesser extent Navy.  These schools submitted applications to the ACC, but were not accepted.  Yet.  Again, conference realignment is far from over.  So these schools should avoid despair.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Conference News, Conference Realignment, Football and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,
19 Nov 2012
9 Comments

Maryland is Leaving–What it Means

Unless you were living under a rock today, you heard the news that Maryland is leaving the ACC for the Big 10.  Here is the Confidential’s latest take:

1.  Congratulations to the Big 10.

The Big 10 now has 14 teams (assuming the Rutgers rumors are accurate).  Without a doubt, the Big 10 will use these geographical additions to make its universities the wealthiest in the NCAA on a TV revenue basis.  To read Frank the Tank’s commentariat, however, one would think that THIS is the goal of all University athletic programs.  So what if Notre Dame or Alabama win the national title in football, the Big 10 schools get $30M/year?  Revenue has become a statistic not too unlike home runs in baseball or touchdowns in football.  It is a new way of keeping score.  And in this new way of keeping score, the Big 10 will dominate.

However, this new way of keeping score is misdirected.  Nobody cares that Minnesota brings in more money than Florida.  People care that Florida had two national championships in basketball and one in football during the past decade.  The counter-argument, of course, is that lacking money prevents a school from being competitive.  It is not lack of money that keeps Indiana out of the Rose Bowl and Northwestern out of March Madness.  It is not poverty that keeps Ole Miss from going to Sugar Bowls and Auburn from Final Fours.  At the very least, it is not a lack of TV revenue.  A terrible TV contract did not keep UConn from winning national titles.  A terrible TV contract did not keep Boise State from being relevant in football.  Having less money than Illinois is not why Florida State has fallen off the map (and is also irrelevant to how they got back on).  Money only goes so far in making your program interesting on the field.  So, while Maryland will now be able to spend spend spend, it will not alone make the Terps on-court, on-field product any better.

And the correlation is not as direct as one thinks.  After all, the TV revenue is nice, but Ohio State will always have more money.  Michigan will always have more money.  The football elite is elite for a reason.  Having more money than Memphis and Temple is nice, but that does not get you to a nice bowl when you go 2-7 in conference play.

2. Maryland and Rutgers, Part II

Maryland and Rutgers just made decisions that allow them to leapfrog their neighbors in revenue.  And, notwithstanding the caveats above, these schools certainly could use the influx of cash to become better.  More likely, however, is that a kid in New Jersey considering Rutgers now has an even better reason to consider Michigan.  Rutgers and Maryland will receive checks, but a part of those checks is the reality that the elite teams in the Big 10 now have a better chance to take kids from the mid-Atlantic.  Meanwhile, those same kids in that region could still go to Virginia to play a much greater percentage of games within driving distance.  And so on.

3. The ACC’s Future.

As the Big East is proving, it is hard to kill a conference.  But the ACC’s future as a legitimate conference depends on making sound moves in the near future.  The Confidential remains adamant that it be the football schools, rather than the basketball schools, that “get to decide” this next entrant.  The basketball schools are not losing much with Maryland.  This is an opportunity to add the Louisville football program, Charlie Strong, and a nice Southern compliment to Georgia Tech, Clemson, etc.  But, as also noted previously, if Florida State wants Wofford, Swofford needs to go for it.  The basketball schools will be far more relevant if they can maintain the ACC, rather than push the football schools out the door.

As for the football schools, they need to give serious pause before jumping ship.  The Big 10 just took two middling football programs with the confidence that their markets and the injection of revenue will make them stronger football programs.  The same thing is just as likely with Pitt, Syracuse, and whoever team 14 becomes.  The revenue jump for Maryland will not be that much different than the revenue jump from the Big East to the ACC.  If money is so important, then it is just as important for the new additions to the ACC.  Meanwhile, Pitt just landed a top 25 recruit.  Syracuse just beat Missouri on the road to become bowl eligible.  And if the football schools demand Louisville and get it, now you are looking at another top 25 team with a great coach joining the mix.  Not so sure that losing Maryland matters at all.  And football may be on the upswing with these additions.

Oh, and Louisville’s basketball is not too shabby either.  Win/win.

4.  Maryland Leaving Does Not Move the SB Nation Needle Too Much Over the Weekend

As of Sunday, the Confidential could not help but note the lack of discussion on the ACC’s SB Nation representatives until today.  This news was very hot as of Saturday, but only Cardiac Hill (Pitt), TNIIAM (Syracuse), and BC Interruption (Boston College) were really discussing it.  Pretty shocking really.

5.  One More Thing

If Maryland’s donors, such as Mr. Under Armour, are willing to pay towards the exit fee (whatever it is), where were they when Maryland was allegedly in financial dire straits?

Posted by acaffrey in Conference News, Conference Realignment and tagged , , , ,
20 Sep 2012

Reports: Orange Bowl Deal Finalized

CBS Sportsline is reporting that the Orange Bowl deal has been finalized.  According to the report: “The ACC champion will play the highest-ranked team among Notre Dame and available teams from the SEC and Big Ten beginning after the 2014 season.  As the article notes, this deal secures the ACC within the five power conferences that will be dividing most of the college football money.

Left unsaid, of course, is how it will be determined that an SEC or Big Ten team is “available.”  Nevertheless, even the 3rd or 4th best team in these two conferences will present an outstanding gate/matchup for the Orange Bowl.  Georgia-Virginia Tech anyone?  Clemson-Nebraska?  Florida State-Michigan?  LSU-Miami?  Notre Dame-Wisconsin?  Yeah, the ACC and the Orange Bowl will be fine.

The report also notes at length the way the playoff structure will work in just a few years.  There will be ample tie-ins for the 5 major conferences, and then six more slots reserved for all teams.  If it is 6 SEC teams in the top 12, so be it.  If it is 3 teams from the Big East, so be it.  Everyone will have the same access and it will be filled based on merit.  Or, at the very least, the merit as determined by human beings.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Football, Orange Bowl and tagged , , , , ,
19 Sep 2012

ACC To Determine Notre Dame’s 5 Football Opponents

The announcement of the ACC partnership with Notre Dame was accompanied by news that Notre Dame would play 5 opponents per year, as well as every team every there years.  ACC commissioner John Swofford explained recently that the ACC, rather than Notre Dame, will have the decision as to which 5 opponents Notre Dame plays every year:

Q: How will you allocate the five Notre Dame football games to your conference members?

A: It’s up to the ACC to do that. Notre Dame will accept whatever five games the ACC gives them on any given year. Conceptually what we intend to do is rotate through the entire membership — 14 schools for those five games. We do have some teams that currently have contracts with Notre Dame and we need to take a look at that. We would like to accomplish this without disrupting those particular games that are currently under contract. But once we reach a clean point the idea is to rotate the games through the membership. So that every school knows they will get Notre Dame once every three years either in their home stadium or at Notre Dame.

This, of course, is notably different from the Notre Dame “promise” to schedule 3 games a year against Big East teams.  What has been negotiated is Notre Dame limiting itself to 7 games it can schedule and leaving the rest up to the ACC.

While nobody should be under the illusion that the ACC will make these scheduling decisions in total disregard for Notre Dame’s interests, the bottom line is that the deal between the ACC and Notre Dame is quite an acquiescence by Notre Dame.  After all, Notre Dame could have requested the right to determine its opponents each year.  In any event, this allows the ACC to schedule every team, every three years… plus allow one team to play Notre Dame twice in that period.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts the already-existing contracts between Notre Dame and ACC schools.  Even Swofford has no idea how that will work out yet.  Stay tuned.

 

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Conference Realignment, Football and tagged , , , , ,
18 Sep 2012
1 Comment

Orange Bowl Details Still Being Finalized

As reported last week, the Orange Bowl is looking to set itself up with an ACC team on one side and Notre Dame/SEC/Big 10 on the other.  ESPN is now reporting that a deal is close–details are being discussed as to how to make the determination of opponent.  This is important to the ACC, which owns the TV rights to the game.  Locking up the valuable ND/SEC/B1g trio will be huge for marketing purposes.

The interesting thing is that Notre Dame’s arrangement means that they could be on either side of the game.  If, for example, Florida State is a playoff team, the Orange Bowl could select the ACC runner-up–say a 10-3 Virginia Tech team to play a 10-2 Notre Dame team.  Or, if Virginia Tech played the Orange Bowl the year before, perhaps it would select 10-2 Notre Dame to be the ACC team and have the Irish play a team like Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, etc.  The flexibility of the Orange Bowl will give it additional marketability.  To be sure, Virginia Tech getting bumped in that example will be controversial.  But the financial rewards for the conference as a whole will be significant.

What is clear is that the Orange Bowl will NOT be an ACC vs. Big East game.  And, for that, the Confidential is pleased.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Football, Orange Bowl and tagged , , , , , ,
14 Sep 2012
1 Comment

The Orange Bowl Issue

A few months ago, the SEC and Big XII announced a Championship Bowl that would add another pile of money to those conferences’ already large piles of money.  Many saw this as a sign that the ACC was relegated to second tier status as a football conference (or 19th tier, if you are a Florida State fan and looking for excuses for why the team cannot win 10 games anymore).  Some time later, the ACC announced that it had extended its relationship with the Orange Bowl AND earned the right to take the TV revenue from that game.  On the heels of that, the Confidential noted that Notre Dame would likely be a partner with the ACC in the Orange Bowl (here) or perhaps more.  Well, with the news of the ND/ACC partnership, left under-discussed was this tweet from Notre Dame’s athletic director Jack Swarbrick: “We are on track to participate in other side of the Orange Bowl along with SEC & Big Ten. Details to follow.”

This is huge news for the ACC.  Granted, the SEC or Big 10 opponent would be a #3 or #4 level opponent, but these are outstanding matchups.  With all the SEC power teams, the Orange Bowl would feature an outstanding matchup from a regional basis.  If it is a Big 10 school, Miami becomes a great vacation destination.  The Orange Bowl could see a Florida State-Nebraska game.  Of course, if both programs return to their 1990s days, they would be playing that game in the playoffs.  But assuming those teams are 9-10 win teams, that would be a great TV matchup, meaning more revenue for the ACC.  Needless to say, Notre Dame being an option is also very lucrative from a TV standpoint.  While the potential for a rematch is always there, with ND playing only 5 games, that is far from a certainty.  This, of course, is why the Orange Bowl would have the flexibility to go the B1G or SEC route.

One has to note the absence of a comment by Swarbrick regarding a Big East relationship with the Orange Bowl.  Maybe that was an oversight.  Or maybe the Orange Bowl wants nothing to do with the Big East programs.  While Louisville would probably be a good fit, as well as South Florida or Central Florida for geographic reasons, it is doubtful that an ACC-Big East matchup involving those schools would move the TV dial.  And Boise State is just too far away from Miami to think that there would be a large crowd.

In any event, ACC fans will have to continue to monitor this Orange Bowl situation.  Like the TV contract, the Orange Bowl is about ACC revenue.  The more, the better.

UPDATE: Frank the Tank is FAR more optimistic that the Orange Bowl opponent will be a high-quality SEC or B1G opponent, with the arrangement being one of timing:

The upshot of this would be that ACC #1 will be playing either Big Ten #1, SEC #1 or a highly-ranked Notre Dame team in the Orange Bowl in any given year, which will likely yield a media rights payout for the ACC that will be in line with what the Big Ten and Pac-12 are receiving for the Rose Bowl and the SEC and Big 12 are receiving for the Champions Bowl.  Thus, any chicken little beliefs that the ACC is going to end up playing subpar opponents in the Orange Bowl are going to go by the wayside.

If so, the Confidential was way off in suggesting that it would be a #3 or #4 conference representative in the Orange Bowl.  All in all, with the exception of the TV revenue flowing from the ESPN deal, ACC leadership has really rallied quite well.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Football, Orange Bowl and tagged , , , ,
03 Jul 2012
3 Comments

The Orange Bowl Tie-In: An ACC Cash Cow Now

For several years now, the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Orange Bowl have had an official tie-in.  That relationship to continue for the near future, as the ACC and the Orange Bowl have reached a 12-year deal, which will carry the relationship through 2026.  While that news is great, the outstanding news is that the ACC also has the right to market the TV revenue from the Orange Bowl:

Sources told Schad that the ACC will negotiate and sell the Orange Bowl TV rights and plans to keep at least 50 percent of the revenue. Whatever network gets the Orange Bowl will get to broadcast it, even when it’s a semifinal.

Thus, not only is the new deal great for ensuring that the ACC will remain at the big boys’ table, it is also a financial cash cow.

Just imagine the ratings and revenue resulting from a Florida State-Notre Dame Orange Bowl.  Or, when the Orange Bowl hosts a semifinal, it will feature two of the top 4 teams in the country.  Again, this is a huge “get” for the ACC leadership.

The Orange Bowl remains the logical landing spot for ACC schools due to its location.  Now it will contribute money even when an ACC school is not playing in the game.

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Conference News, Football and tagged , , , ,
05 Mar 2012

ACC Tournament Schedule Set

With the regular season coming to a conclusion, the seeding is set for the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference mens’ basketball tournament.  This year’s tournament will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.  Games will be held on Thursday through Sunday.

Here are the games, courtesy of the official ACC website:

Thursday, March 8 – First Round
Game Matchup Time Coverage
1 #8 Maryland vs. #9 Wake Forest noon ACC Network/ESPNU
2 #5 NC State vs. #12 Boston College 2 p.m. ACC Network/ESPNU
3 #7 Clemson vs. #10 Virginia Tech 7 p.m. ACC Network/ESPNU
4 #6 Miami vs. #11 Georgia Tech 9 p.m. ACC Network/ESPNU
Friday, March 9 – Quarterfinals
Game Matchup Time Coverage
5 #1 North Carolina vs. Game 1 winner noon ACC Network/ESPN2
6 #4 Virginia vs. Game 2 winner 2 p.m. ACC Network/ESPN2
7 #2 Duke vs. Game 3 winner 7 p.m. ACC Network/ESPN2
8 #3 Florida State vs. Game 4 winner 9 p.m. ACC Network/ESPN2
Saturday, March 10 – Semifinals
Game Matchup Time Coverage
9 ACC Semifinal 1 1 p.m. ESPN/ACC Network
10 ACC Semifinal 2 3 p.m. ESPN/ACC Network
Sunday, March 11 – Championship
Game Matchup Time Coverage
11 Championship Game 1 p.m. ESPN/ACC Network
Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Conference News and tagged , , ,

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