Having been there/done that with the topic, I think if Kentucky wanted to do this type of move they would've done so over a year ago, jumping to the ACC. Same concept really: Powerhouse conference for basketball, more opportunity in football. And while the UK to the BE idea offers the Louisville game as a conference rivalry, the ACC switch would've offered more financial security. My family in Versailles, Kentucky liked the idea a little, but mostly were just happy Louisville wasn't #12. This leads me to believe that most folks at Kentucky won't be actively seeking an alliance with Louisville any time soon. Certainly not for what would likely be less money. Besides, if it's one thing the BE doesn't need it's another power basketball program. At what point is the product oversaturated, as someone must finish last, you know. If Kentucky were to ever move and the ACC isn't taking calls, my guess is the Big 10 would be the most loikely of a whole bunch of unlikely scenarios.
Below are links to pages from another board where we discussed the realignment stuff ad nauseum when it all began. Scroll down the page from the first link and you'll find a post offering a link to an article (since expired) suggested Kentucky as ACC #12. To see varied the discussions go, the second link is from a thread started due to an op-ed piece (also expired) touting PSU should've been #12, and the third is a link to the article touting Florida as #12, with the text just below.
Kentucky to ACC discussion
<a href='http://ncaasports.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=acc&action=display&thread=1057034564&page=2' target='_blank'>http://ncaasports.proboards10.com/index.cg...57034564&page=2</a>
PSU to ACC discussion
<a href='http://ncaasports.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1089236655' target='_blank'>http://ncaasports.proboards10.com/index.cg...read=1089236655</a>
Florida to ACC op-ed
<a href='http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/6230267.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...rts/6230267.htm</a>
Time for Florida to be the 12th member of the ACC
By MIKE BIANCHI
The Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. - Go Gators.
To the ACC, that is.
OK, you orange-and-blue babies, it's time to stop whining about how Florida State and Miami have had it easy all these years and put your team on a level playing field. If you dare.
The University of Florida should split the SouthLeastern Conference right now and do the right thing for its academic reputation and athletic program - join the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Before all you UF fans lose your mind and send one of your football players to permanently disfigure me, I remind you of some memorable words uttered by the man who made you what you are:
"We're the only state where the three big schools are all in different conferences. It's ridiculous. Florida, Florida State and Miami all ought to be in the same conference. That would make everything equal."
Steve Spurrier uttered those wishful words during his final year at UF. Of course, Spurrier was shooting from the lip as he often did in those days. Everybody just sort of rolled their eyes because such a concept seemed impossible back then.
Not anymore. Suddenly, it's possible for all three state schools to be in the same league. Possible - and plausible.
Nobody likes how the back-stabbing, money-grubbing ACC went about adding Miami and Virginia Tech, but what's done is done. The new rules of etiquette have been established - and there are no rules.
Everybody is out for No. 1. The ACC did what it felt it had to do for the betterment of its league. Now the Gators should do what they need to do, too. The ACC still needs another team so it can get to 12 members and play a conference championship game. Florida should be that 12th man.
The landscape has changed and so has the balance of power. There was a time not so long ago when I thought Florida State belonged in the SEC - geographically, philosophically, socially and sentimentally. The Seminoles were a football school hopelessly misplaced in a basketball league.
Now, with Miami and Florida State in the ACC, the Gators are the ones who are misplaced. Florida officials and old-time fans will tell you there is too much history and heritage to ever leave the SEC. That's just pride and pigheadedness.
Most Florida fans compare themselves to FSU and Miami, not Auburn and Georgia. And most Florida fans would rather play Miami every year than Tennessee. And with FSU and UM in the mix, an ACC title suddenly becomes more meaningful to Florida fans than an SEC championship.
Besides, the SEC-rivalry argument is overblown. The Gators don't even play Auburn on an annual basis anymore, and the annual series with Tennessee is barely a decade old. The only rivalry worth preserving is Florida-Georgia, and those teams could still play even if UF did leave the SEC.
The more you think about the Gators in the ACC, the more it makes sense. Florida now fancies itself as a basketball school, and what better place for a basketball school than the ACC?
Florida also likes to think of itself as one of the nation's finest public institutions of higher learning. The ACC has an exemplary academic reputation. You hang around with Duke, Virginia and North Carolina and people talk about your number of graduates. You hang around with Alabama, Mississippi State and Kentucky and people talk about your number of sanctions.
It used to be UF fans lampooned the caliber of football in the ACC (Almost Competitive Conference), but those days are over. In fact, with Miami, FSU, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Maryland and Virginia, the new ACC has six legitimate Top 25 programs this year.
On second thought, maybe the Gators better stay in the SEC for a few more years. They're not quite ready yet to compete with the big boys of the ACC.
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Interesting poist on the Kentucky Rivals board...
