Every one has given their two cents about the dawning of the 'super-conferences'. One of the outlining factors is that traditional rivalries are dead and tradition period is out the window in the proposed re-shuffled 16 headed monsters that are to come.
And it's all about football, and by extension, money. The other programs are the casualties of this war, specifically, Basketball.
No more are the anticipated games coming from the Big East like The Cuse/Georgetown, The Cuse/UConn, and Notre Dame/Cuse, not to mention St'Johns and The Cuse... In the Garden. And unless the ACC pulls another power move and moves to the Garden for some post-season offerings, no more magical Cuse Moments in MSG.
The ACC thing is quite possible though. They had made overtures about the possibility of testing the waters and perhaps moving the post-season conference tourney to a venue such as the Garden, moving away from it's regional home of Greensboro. In recent years, the ACC has proven that they have indeed grown out of the modest digs in Greensboro, and view themselves as the premier Basketball conference in the land. A move to a venue such as MSG is a logical step. Now, with the amount of ex-Big East teams making their home in the ACC, it seems the time to act is now.
Having ,ughhh, Duke, Doesn't hurt either. Duke is the lone traditional ACC school who does not have a strong southern fan base. Duke finds the most loyal Dookies on the east coast, far removed from Durham, and in what was traditionally, the Big East territory. Duke is a proven draw on the east coast, and it would be a no-brainer to showcase them in MSG. You put that on the table with possibility of a Duke/Carolina or a Duke/Syracuse conference championship in the Garden, and you have something that even the staunchest Duke-hater would have to admit was a very attractive scenario.
But let's put a spin on this, what if logistics, which matter less and less by the minute, had no bearing at all? What if Basketball superiority was fueling this movement? The leagues would look drastically different. Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Indiana, all in one league?
I think it would be an interesting side project to suspend reality for a moment and build the strengths for both sides. A football branch and a separate basketball branch.
In any event, out world is changed forever. It's like moving neighborhoods, you are going to have find some new kid to hate.
And don't put much stock into anything a school says in the coming weeks. Put even less in what the Pac 12 says. Everybody is doing something, and it will all lead to 16- team monsters.
Does this remind anybody of the national expansion of pro wrestling in the 80's besides me?
No?
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