POTENTIAL DEFECTIONS OF FSU AND CLEMSON COULD SHAKE UP THE ACC...
As fall sports are set to begin in the ACC in less than two weeks, maybe just as big a story are the rumors flying around about ACC defections. You'll remember...back in 2014 it was a defection (Maryland) that opened the door for Louisville to join the conference. Now, after a decade in the conference...the Cards and a dozen or so other ACC members are looking at re-alignment possibilities and defection possibilities again.
Clemson and FSU see the dollar signs beckon and there is a lot of chatter out there that they'll chase them. Football seems to be the driving force here, and there is already speculation that if the Noles and Tigers hit the trail...California and Stanford from the dying PAC 12 might be knocking on the door, dressed in their Sunday best, seeing an invite to the ACC. Somehow, two west coast Pacific Athletic Conference schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference seems a bit odd to me...but I guess a decade ago...ACC purists thought that a city on the Ohio River being in the Atlantic Coast conference was weird, too.
Why all this jumping around? It is all about revenue. Repeat and rinse. It's about moolah, greenbacks, benjamins, bank, folding stuff and loot.
Maybe we shouldn't cast too much of a disapproving eye. After all, it was Louisville who went from MVC to Metro to C-USA to Big East to AAC to ACC...and the motivation wasn't centered around neat places to eat and colorful mascots.
It was all about the dollars. As much as I am still confused to this day why West Virginia left the ACC to go to the Big 12,...I snap myself back to the real world and remember why. Money.
Joel Grey had it right in Cabaret when he and Liza Minellli sang about money. Scarface and the BrotherMob nailed it, too, when they rapped about money makes the world go around. Ig... f you listen carefully enough on a calm summer evening, you can hear Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding shouting "Show me the money" in the distance.
Athletics bring in a considerable amount of money to colleges and universities. Clemson and FSU, who have no qualms squawking about the "unfair" ACC dollar split, see more money potential elsewhere and...repeat it with me....money makes the world go around.
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| (Hi, Daddy. Classes are great but the coaches still don't know what conference we are in) |
I was at a lunch recently with some UofL fans and friends of mine and we were talking about the travel snafus California and Stanford would run into...if they joined the ACC and had, for example...a three game conference road-trip to...let's say... Boston College, Miami and then Virginia Tech. Then, think about it for the Field Hockey or Lacrosse programs at these schools...instead of football or men's basketball.
Of course, Hawaii does a bit of flying each athletic season for their 20 SPORTS PROGRAMS. Who knows...maybe they'll come out next week and proudly announce they,are joining the SEC.
Deion Sanders, head football coach at University of Colorado gets it:
"All this is about money, you know that. It's about a bag. Everybody is chasing a bag. Then, you get mad at players when they chase it. How's that? How do the grown-ups get mad at the players when they're chasing it when the colleges are chasing it?"
Greed, it seems, should be a new elective for incoming freshmen in course-scheduling. Maybe Gordon Gekko can guest lecture.
Money is the most important thing on campus. And that's sad. But, it's real. College athletes, on the main stage, is all about greed, for the major programs within a college's athletic department.
I hope to be here, and not breathing dry air, five years from now. I can't even imagine what conference alignments will look like then.
I guess it's time to finally get rid of those old Big East Louisville sweatshirts I have. The ones that Sonja is always nagging me about ( "you never wear this anymore...I'm taking it to Goodwill...you need closet space") and re-gear. I used to get nice polo shirts from a certain source at a certain university. That cowboy has saddled up and rode off into the sunset, though.
I just hope we don't change our logo. Last time I checked, we were the only Cardinals in the ACC. But, saay...is that Stanford coming down the road? Great...the old Cardinal vs Cardinals nickname conspiracy just might be ramping up again several notches...At least they have a crazy looking tree on their sidelines at times. All we got is some screaming intern with a microphone trying to get the crowd to clap their hands.
Stay tuned...this soap opera could get real interesting...
Paulip
Just...WOW.
ReplyDeleteJust one question keeps popping up in my mind, is there THAT much money in football that makes it feasible to have ALL your sports teams traveling THAT many miles to compete?
Must be yes.