How SMU ends up in the ACC...bear with me

[StallionsModelT]

You just said Houston and academic excellence in the same post.

[ponyinNC]

You just said Houston and academic excellence in the same post.

yeah, it is early. Need coffee. And I didn't mean to put UNC in there (I think they go to Big 10). No way Heels get left out.

[Pony81]

PonyinNC you are right on the mark with your eventual combo ACC/BE conference.

It will happen because nature will take it's course and create a conference of similarly situated schools - goo academics, good bball because it is relatively inexpensive to get good, and mediocre football compared to the power conferences.

I still hold out hope that UNC would stay in the ACC to feed it's academic ego and to keep playing Duke but I'm sure I'm wrong since money will get in the way.

I see from the DMN that RGT is out of town. I hope he is sitting with the ACC commissioner or the president of UNC making his case to join the ACC.

[StallionsModelT]

I could see the Big 10 going after UNC.

[Dukie]

The ACC is looking at 4 schools now in Louisville, UCONN, South Florida, and Cincinnati. SMU is nowhere in the discussion. It would take a lot to get in the discussion.

I can't imagine Duke, UVa, UNC, and Wake would want to align with Louisville, USF, and Cincinnati, but who knows?

UCONN!!! is #63 in US News college rankings, has historic rivalries with the new ACC northeastern schools, and will help the ACC get tv contracts in NYC. I would expect the ACC will add them pretty quickly. Even the fact that many ACC schools hate them is actually a positive, I think, if the conference is looking beyond cable contracts and actually thinking about rivalries (one reason Maryland has given for leaving is the weakening of historic Duke and UNC rivalries; that was also a factor for Nebraska -- not playing OU as regularly so why not get out).

Louisville is #160 in US News college rankings and I think is just too far a stretch academically and geographically given the UCONN!!! option.

Cincinnati is one of the options up for voting on the Duke board and they currently have zero out of 127 votes. I don't expect ACC leaders feel differently.

USF is not in any way in ACC discussions. If the ACC wanted to, like, *push* Florida State out, the ACC would invite USF. Not happening.

Finally, if anyone wants to feel better, at least one Duke board poster suggested SMU as a future ACC member non-sarcastically, and others didn't laugh at it. But Duke fans are going to feel differently than, say, Clemson fans, on that score.

Here's the poll:

http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/for ... Discussion

[ponyboy]

I did a search and didn't find SMU mentioned anywhere in that thread, Dukie.

[Dukie]

I did a search and didn't find SMU mentioned anywhere in that thread, Dukie.

It's not in that thread, sorry.

It's in the 101-page "Conference Realignment Vigil" thread that dates back years, but has about 10-20 new pages since the Maryland-to-BIG thing arose. Here's a link to the exact page, which also includes someone's guess that SMU and Boise end up in the Big XII:

http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/for ... g10/page97

[dcpony]

Best case scenario: The Big 12 adds some combo of SMU, Houston, Cincy, Louiville, VT and FSU, to block out PAC eastern expansion and curb further SEC expansion. (I know PAC wanted to expand to w/UT, Tech, OU and OSU) But there's no way I can see those California schools taking orders from Uncle DeLoss.

[dcpony]

Forgot to throw in G-Tech.

[East Coast Mustang]

Best case scenario: The Big 12 adds some combo of SMU, Houston, Cincy, Louiville, VT and FSU, to block out PAC eastern expansion and curb further SEC expansion. (I know PAC wanted to expand to w/UT, Tech, OU and OSU) But there's no way I can see those California schools taking orders from Uncle DeLoss.

I just don't see us getting a B12 invite, barring a TCU-esque run in the next 5 years. A 5-7 season with 5k in the seats for our last home game won't exactly have conferences tripping over themselves to hand us an invite

[dcpony]

This round of realignment/expansion is not about quality football or bball, if it was, then the BIG would have taken Cincy and Louisville over MD and Rutgers. And Boise St would have been in the Big12 or Pac 12 a long time ago.

It's about how many carriers you can get your network on and which conference's tv market share you can poach. The only thing SMU has going for it is that it's in a huge media market.


Questions we or other folks should be grappling with:

Could the new SEC network take more market share from the Big 12 with the addition of SMU in DFW and or UH in Houston?

Would the PAC12 want to add SMU/UH so its network can get in DFW and Houston?

Would the Big12 want to add SMU and UH just to keep those networks out?

[redpony]

Although this may sound strange but a SMU-Rice combo might be appealing to the PAC12. Especially from an academic point of view. Rice is having a good season and may even make a bowl game whereas we very likely will be sitting at home watching them.

I suspect that the whorens do not want us anywhere near them so b12 is really not an option.

[dcpony]

It'll be somewhat instructive to see who the ACC replaces MD with.

UConn has the edge in academics and media market

Louisville and Cincy have far superior athletic programs.

[dcpony]

Maybe they surprise everybody and add Temple for the Philly market. Nobody's talking about them.

[East Coast Mustang]

It will be UConn. No question, in my opinion.