BC to ACC - loss of historic and geographic rivalries?

[Cheesesteak]

I really hope that SMU finds a home in a geographically compact athletics conference filled with historical and regional rivals.


BC fans to get short end

Monday, October 6, 2003

By JOHN ROWE
SPORTS COLUMNIST
NORTH JERSEY.COM

Being a Boston College fan these days is a state of confusion. Your school is a Big East Conference member, but it was supposed to be headed to the ACC a short while ago. Now it's rumored to again be the object of the ACC's affections.

What's a BC fan to think? You wonder if the people making the decisions care.

This is all about money. It always is in college sports these days. Membership in the ACC, which could be offered by the end of this month, will bring BC more football revenue because the ACC, by adding a 12th school, will receive NCAA approval to stage a conference championship game. With 12 schools instead of the Big East's 14, BC will be guaranteed more basketball revenue.

It's sad that big-time college sports has come to this: opting for money over tradition. Opting for a bigger paycheck over playing schools your fans have interest in. I can't imagine many BC rooters being eager to visit Clemson, S.C., or Raleigh, N.C., to play Clemson and North Carolina State, when they could be in New York for a basketball game against St. John's or in the Carrier Dome for football or basketball against Syracuse.

Who's going to be the natural ACC rival for BC's powerful hockey program? Most ACC schools think ice is something you put in the bottom of a glass.

Miami and Virginia Tech, the Big East schools already headed for the ACC next year, don't have the Big East history of BC. Boston College was a charter member, and Bill Flynn, its former athletic director, was long one of the shakers and movers in the conference. Eagles' fans grew up dreaming of upsetting Connecticut in basketball and stunning Syracuse in football and basketball, and the rivalry with Providence in basketball is intense.

But let's not fret for the Big East. As much as commissioner Mike Tranghese complains about the ACC raiding his conference, he's ready to reach into Conference USA for Louisville, Cincinnati, and maybe one or two more schools to fill his vacancies.

Conference commissioners are about as warmhearted as corporate CEOs.

The victims in what is about to happen are the loyal BC fans, who liked the rivalries and the comfort level of the Big East. Sadly, nobody has asked them what their school should do.