Notre Dame to the ACC

just weird.

Hockey is beginning to take off in the triangle - Go 'Canes!

Another tough blow for the Big East.

I still think we're headed to something even far different than what they have right now. Football-wise, perhaps something akin to the professional leagues in terms of structure.

I hope not, but I think it will be there within 10 years, maybe 5.

I'm glad the Big Ten gave them the cold shoulder. "We do not consider partial members."

quote:

Originally posted by infielddad:
Formal announcement is to come very soon but Notre Dame will be a full ACC member in all sports but football and hockey. Don't think they do hockey in the ACC, do they?
This sounds like a big challenge and big opportunity for Coach Aoki, his staff and players.
Bigger than the challenge and opportunity will be the television exposure and revenue coming back to ND.

The ACC benefits financially from Notre Dame. The five ND-ACC football games will have national exposure. Basketball wise the Big East has had equal or better exposure than the ACC in the past ten years. But the Big East is crumbling and programs are jumping ship over football.

In the big picture the conference formations are about football. I believe eventually there will be four conferences of sixteen teams. There's your 64 team tournament. The first real round of the playoffs will be the conference championships. The four winners move on to the BCS playoffs. Any team not in the four major conferences for football is going to get left out in the cold.

The side effect is these programs will get strong or stronger in basketball. It's what happened when the BCS was formed. Colleges that were not powers became powers with all the BCS bowl money coming back to the athletic departments.

quote:

Originally posted by 55mom:
just weird.

Hockey is beginning to take off in the triangle - Go 'Canes!

I hope there are more D-I hockey programs in the future, if only because it's my favorite collegiate sport...

This is a situation where money begets money. Notre Dame is not a powerhouse in any sport but has rabid support from it's alumnae who think they are relevent in football. The ACC is a powerhouse in basketball and baseball. I'm not seeing the athletic fit. Square peg, round hole.

However, the academic profiles (small private selective) of some of the schools match up very, very well with BC, Wake Forest, Miami, and Duke.

It will be interesting to see how they make this work over the years.

quote:

Originally posted by fenwaysouth:

However, the academic profiles (small private selective) of some of the schools match up very, very well with BC, Wake Forest, Miami, and Duke.

Really?

55mom and Matt13,

ND plays in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. That doesn’t change. Not too many DI hockey schools below the Mason-Dixon. (I’d love to see Alabama-Huntsville’s travel budget.)

I think if ND fits anywhere they fit in the ACC. As Fenway noted, the ACC has a number of smaller, high academic private schools that fit ND's profile.

Down the road you could see ND moving football too. The ACC provides quite of bit of geographic diversity that allows ND to play in front on its fan base and the competition is solid. Putting the $$ issue aside (which never happens) after you lose a couple of games as an independent and are out of the national title picture, a conference championship is something good to aim for, even for the Irish.

You can imagine a two division set up with the old tobacco road schools (Duke, WF, NC, NC State, Virginia, Clemson, GT) in one and the other made up of some of the old Big East competitors (ND, Miami, BC,Syracuse, Pitt, FSU, Maryland, Virginia Tech).

Mik Aoki will have his hands full in baseball. He knows the ACC having come from BC but despite ND's name, a northern school playing baseball in a southern conference will be interesting. If your school is not 100% behind the program you will find yourself getting devowed each week. (Note Aoki at BC, McNally at Duke and Bakich at Maryland.) But the ACC affiliation should help him recruit higher tiered talent and keep some of the midwest talent home.

quote:

...after you lose a couple of games as an independent and are out of the national title picture, a conference championship is something good to aim for, even for the Irish.

I completely agree with this comment. However, I don't think many ND fans or administrators do.

quote:

Originally posted by justbaseball:

quote:

...after you lose a couple of games as an independent and are out of the national title picture, a conference championship is something good to aim for, even for the Irish.

I completely agree with this comment. However, I don't think many ND fans or administrators do.

Most of the administration and fans of ND still think they are relevant in football. Majority of us know better. Somehow they still get big money to remain an independent. Someday soon that will dry up.

quote:

Originally posted by fenwaysouth:
This is a situation where money begets money. Notre Dame is not a powerhouse in any sport but has rabid support from it's alumnae who think they are relevent in football. The ACC is a powerhouse in basketball and baseball. I'm not seeing the athletic fit. Square peg, round hole.

However, the academic profiles (small private selective) of some of the schools match up very, very well with BC, Wake Forest, Miami, and Duke.

It will be interesting to see how they make this work over the years.

There are two new traditions in college football: 1) Notre Dame being ranked in preseason polls for some inexplicable reason and 2) Notre Dame falling out of the rankings.

quote:

Originally posted by MidAtlanticDad:
55mom and Matt13,

ND plays in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. That doesn’t change. Not too many DI hockey schools below the Mason-Dixon. (I’d love to see Alabama-Huntsville’s travel budget.)

Yep, I know.

However, with Penn State starting a program and going immediately to D1 (which is how the BTHC is starting, making the WCHA and CCHA financially unstable,) plus rumors of Northwestern probing a similar approach to a program with a particular donor, combined with the explosion of hockey in California, it would not surprise me if there were several new hockey schools in non-traditional markets within the next 6 years--in fact, given the financial imbalance that the BTHC has created, I think there is a huge vacuum that some larger schools may be able to fill with incentives from existing programs.

One sport that I did not initially consider (but absolutley love to watch) in this ACC/Notre Dame money merger.....is lacrosse. Notre Dame has a top 5 program the last few years. Between Notre Dame, Syracuse, Maryland, UNC, Duke, Virginia it will be exciting times on the lacrosse field.

Lacrosse is a very fast growing sport. My friends in TX and CA are telling me that leagues and clubs are popping up everywhere. I wish I had some numbers, but I know it has gotten even more popular where I live (in lacrosse country) despite a declining youth population.

Baseball players at ND will face a pretty grueling travel schedule, I imagine. As a northern school, a lot of their early season games will be in warmer places, and now they will face league opponents all pretty far away.

Blue10,
Notre Dame baseball has played a travel heavy early OOC for a number of years. Included in their early season Southern weekly trips in past years was an annual tournament they sponsored each year in San Antonio, Tx. which was played in the minor league park, Wolf Field.
I am not sure their travel will be too much more rigorous, but most of the conference competition will be.

I wonder if there will be a realignment?

TPM, What I have heard may happen is that ND will slide into the Atlantic Division. With Syracuse not fielding a baseball team, that would give you two seven team divisions in baseball.

I'm shocked the ACC hasn't already forced Syracuse to field a basebal team by a certain date. I know it was a basketball move but an ACC team should be required to have a baseball team.

quote:

Originally posted by BK_Razorback:
I'm shocked the ACC hasn't already forced Syracuse to field a basebal team by a certain date. I know it was a basketball move but an ACC team should be required to have a baseball team.

It wasn't a basketball move. The Big East is stronger than the ACC. It was a business move based on football issues will ultimately cause the Big East to crumble.

Why should Syracuse be forced to have a baseball program? How are they going to draw ACC level talent to play in their weather?

quote:

Why should Syracuse be forced to have a baseball program? How are they going to draw ACC level talent to play in their weather?

I'm not sure how any conference could force a school to add a sport.. unless the conference is going to help pay for it.. I would guess that Syracuse adding baseball would be an expensive process..

quote:

I'm shocked the ACC hasn't already forced Syracuse to field a basebal team by a certain date. I know it was a basketball move but an ACC team should be required to have a baseball team.

I agree with Bulldog19 that it would be difficult to force a school to add a sport as there are cost issues as well as possible Title IX issues. Syracuse has a softball team.

There are other D1 baseball schools in upstate NY including Albany, Binghampton, Buffalo, and Cornell. Granted it is the ACC we're talking about, but it is doable (Carrier Dome?) or they may spend the first 4-6 weeks on the road like most northern teams. This is no different than other D1 northern schools, but the question is do they want to add it, and can they afford to add it AND another womens sport?

Syracuse is different from other northern D1 teams given the level of competition they would be expected to compete. The weather is a lot worse in Syracuse than it is in Boston (BC). BC struggles to contend year to year in the ACC. The Carrier Dome isn't built for baseball without ripping out a lot of seats to have a reasonable distance to the outfield fence.

One of the first sports to go in the cold weather northeast is baseball. Providence cut baseball after winning the Big East. There used to be a Yankee Conference ... UMaine, UNH, UVM, UMass, BU, Northeastern, URI and UConn. Four of these schools don't have baseball anymore. A fifth almost lost their program a couple of years ago.

I would have thought it would have been a part of the deal to move to the ACC. Alliance stadium (Nationals AAA) would probably be the solution. Carrier Dome is not viable. IMO...an ACC school should have baseball, since it is one of the better baseball conferences. But...again, my opinion only.