(12-31-2018 02:21 PM)OrangeDude Wrote: (12-31-2018 01:26 PM)ArQ Wrote: (12-31-2018 12:03 PM)OrangeDude Wrote: (12-30-2018 10:14 PM)ArQ Wrote: The blowout by Clemson must make ND feel vulnerable and insecure. Maybe this is the time to ask ND join ACC football. I will propose:
1. ACC expand to 16. ND joins Coastal. UConn joins Atlantic.
2. Only 7 division games decides division championship. Cross division games count as out-of-conference games. Schools can choose 0, 1 or 2 cross-division games on their own. In ND's case, they will choose play the minimal 7 ACC games and leave them five open OOC game slots.
3. ND can still have its private contract with NBC for their home games. But in return, all revenues on their road games belong to ACC network.
What do you think? Will they bite? They keep what they want the most, NBC money and national exposure. Still quite independent.
No, No, No, a thousand times NO.
Not only does the current arrangement work fine as is, the plan you outline above appears to rely on keeping a divisional set-up which I see as THE major problem the ACC needs to address moving forward.
Cheers,
Neil
Keeping the current division is essential to bait Notre Dame. We only promise Notre Dame that they will not be in the same division with Clemson and Florida State. If Notre Dame thinks they can handle Miami and Virginia Tech then go to conference championship game almost every year and it turns out that they can't, it is Notre Dame's problem.
Was the Coastal division designed partially (a very small part) to potentially entice ND to the table? I will concede that as a minute possibility. Which is why I was convinced when Pitt and SU joined the league Pitt would get the Coastal while SU would get the Atlantic despite it making much better sense in terms of geography to go the other way around.
But, Miami has still not recovered and VT which was the saving grace of the league in the mid-to-late 00s through early 10s (with all of FSU, Miami, and Clemson being down) has had their own problems since 2011. ND prides itself not only on its independence but on the strength of its schedules year in and year out. They don't want to get into the CFP "the easy way". Me, as an Orange fan, will take anyway we can get for us to be there.
So despite the enticing geographical and academic pluses the Coastal has, ND isn't going to give up its cherished independence in order to play more so-so Coastal teams and then get their butts handed to them by Clemson or Florida State in the ACCCG, immediately removing themselves from the CFP as a result of that 13th game. They just aren't. They'd rather roll the dice on their season ending PAC match-up in California.
Now add in the fact that no Coastal team has come close to sniffing either the BCS Championship Game or CFP 4-team playoff since VT in 2007 is proof enough for me.
Cheers,
Neil
The Coastal was designed to make UNC/Duke/UVa happy. They got the weaker of the Florida programs and they got to monopolize recruiting appearances in Pa, Georgia and Virginia and they avoided having to play in the Carrier Dome or in Alumni in Boston. It's one of the things that pissed off Maryland, but not near as much as other things.
Some of it was predicated on how each school filled its football stadium at the time (2002/03). Some of it was predicated on hoping to breath life into the UNC-Ch program. Some of it was predicated on keeping old rivalries intact.
The ideal division for ND does indeed include Miami, GT, and Pitt, but it also includes BC. Past that they probably would prefer WF, UVa, and UNC and in that order.
Ideal ND 8 ACC school division - ND, Miami, Pitt, BC, GT, WF, UVa, UNC and that leaves another division with FSU, Clemson, VT, NCSU, Duke, Louisville, Syracuse and one other. That's grossly unbalanced.
ND wants to appear in as many far flung metros as possible. The above gives them Boston, Atlanta, Miami, and Pittsburgh and sometimes Charlotte.
An ideal Clemson 8 (if you listen to Kaplony) would included FSU, Miami, GT, ND, Pitt, Lousiville, UNC, and NCSU
Clemson wants to maximize the demand for home football tickets so they want folks to travel to them so that means no small privates.
An ideal VT 8 would be UVa, UNC, NCSU, WF, Duke, Pitt, GT, Miami, and ND
VT's big thing was appearances in the State of NC plus Miami and ND.
When you multiply these variables by all the schools, it's tough to satisfy. But in any formula, you have to start with Carolina and them playing Duke, NC State, and UVa on an annual basis. Then go from there.