It’s the beginning of December. The college football regular season is over, and the conference championship games are underway.
In the Southeastern Conference championship game, Auburn and Tennessee are battling it out for Southern supremacy, and Nebraska and Oklahoma duke it out for the Big 12 crown in the Alamo Dome.
And on the East coast, Miami represents the Atlantic Coast Conference South while Maryland represents the North Division.
That’s right, Miami may soon join the ACC and leave the Big East behind.
For the past two years, the ACC has attempted to lure the Hurricanes, and why not? With Florida State retreating in the world of college football, the ACC is headed down with them. The Hurricanes would raise the prestige of the conference and just in time. The ACC’s television contract expires in 2005, and adding the likes of Miami would have the different stations drooling.
But wait, there’s more.
If Miami does decide to join the ACC, Boston College and Syracuse are soon to follow. This would give the revamped ACC the needed 12 teams to hold a conference championship in football, adding roughly $10 million to the budget.
In football terms, this is wonderful for the ACC and horrible for the Big East. The Big East would be left with Virginia Tech, Rutgers, Temple, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and UConn. Ouch! Try persuading ESPN to air football games with that schedule.
But how would the ACC divide the divisions? Certainly they would not want to place Miami and Florida State in the same division, so they could possibly meet in the ACC Championship game. That would create high ratings.
But how would you separate the only ACC schools from Florida? I don’t think you can. And they certainly would not want to divide up the Carolina schools.
In basketball terms, it’s not as good a move for the ACC. Yes, they would add the defending national champions to the already exciting conference. But with 12 teams, the conference will not be able to play home-and-home with every team, much to the dismay of Coach K.
The Dukies’ coach also is upset about how this addition will alter the allotment of tickets for the ACC basketball tournament. Each school would lose tickets that their fans have grown accustomed to. And some of the coaches are afraid it may ruin the tradition of the basketball conference.
But think about how awesome it would be to have Mike Krzyzewski, Gary Williams, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim all coaching in one conference.
Frankly, I don’t care if the Big East falls by the wayside. Without Miami and Syracuse, it’s worth nothing anyway.
Break up the Big East –please! And break up the 14-team Conference USA while you’re at it.
Make a new conference after this with Virginia Tech, Pitt and West Virginia from the Big East and Louisville, Southern Miss, Memphis, Cincinnati and Tulane from C-USA. That would make for a good football and basketball conference, and it would still leave nine teams in C-USA.
The rest of the schools in the Big East basketball conference — St. John’s, Seton Hall, Notre Dame, Providence, Villanova and Georgetown — can merge with Temple and Rutgers to make a strong basketball conference.
Notre Dame is the only one of those schools that plays football, and it is an independent. And if you want, nix the Notre Dame football team as well. I hate the Irish.
So you see, Miami has a decision to make. That decision could totally transform the world of college sports as we know it.
The ACC needs seven of its nine schools to vote “yes” before it can officially offer Miami and the others the invitation.
Right now, six schools are saying “yes” while Duke and North Carolina are saying “nay.”
C’mon Coach K, change your mind. The Blue Devils will lose at football no matter who they play, and you’re still going to rule the roost in basketball no matter what. Cameron Indoor will be rocking with conference games of UNC, Maryland, Wake Forest and Syracuse all in the same year.
Besides, how long will Miami have to demolish Temple and Rutgers before somebody says “mercy.”