TerryD
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RE: ACC May Increase Number Of Conference Games for Network Inventory (Teel Article)
(06-09-2016 03:46 PM)Lou_C Wrote: (06-09-2016 02:58 PM)ren.hoek Wrote: agree. if ND ever joins (and it's very, very, very unlikely), we'll go to 4 pods of 4 teams each and drop it back to 8 games.
(06-09-2016 02:52 PM)Lou_C Wrote: (06-09-2016 02:32 PM)TerryD Wrote: (06-09-2016 02:27 PM)Lou_C Wrote: As per Notre Dame, anyone with sense new they weren't joining while independence was still viable. That hasn't changed. When they HAVE to join, they'll join, it's now just going to be that much more painful to them. What are they going to do, join the SEC if they're still at 8 games?
I totally oppose this move, but if the conference feels like they have to do this, kudos for not worrying about how it affects their supposed seduction of ND. I've always thought ND will eventually join, and I've always thought the ACC should make every move on the assumption they wouldn't.
Now, when and if Notre Dame has to join a conference, it will be much worse. Their gamble just had the stakes raised significantly. If they have to join a conference in ten years, they will have now exchanged an eternity of losing an entire game of freedom for ten years of three extra games of freedom. Might be worth it, wagered against NEVER having to join a conference.
Nah, just think of the dozens of conference games avoided the past twenty years or so. ND is way ahead on that call.
Plus, if ND had joined when it were eight games and on that basis, the conference would still be moving to nine games now.
So...what is the difference?
I suspect that ESPN would be willing to forgo 9 games if ND joined all in and made that a condition.
16 broken in pods solves the "we don't see each other enough problem" so there wouldn't be that much desire to go to nine at that point.
I'm not telling you to join the ACC. I know the idea is to ride independence right down to wispy broken threads of rubber, and then along on the rims for as far as that will take you. I know you think that ride never ends. Much respect.
Nothing changes in the ACC/ND dynamic...ND will join when they have to join and no sooner. So what difference does that make to the ACC?
All the pain is on the ND side...if they decide POTENTIAL future pain of giving up more Stanford or Navy is well worth risking, bully for them. It is ND's right, and not the ACC's problem.
Again, I hate the move, but all credit to the ACC behaving as if ND will never join, instead of trying to work around accommodating a move that may never happen.
I highly doubt it will drop back to 8 games for ND, if not Clemson. If ND wants an 8 game conference, they've got several weeks to make that happen. They don't.
Otherwise, if they join in the future it will be because they have no other option, meaning no leverage about number of conference games, who they join with, divisions, annual games, etc.
They would have a ton of leverage right now. It's their right not to use that leverage, and I get it.
But that means the ACC and it's fans can and should stop talking about accommodations. When and if ND asks for admission, they can do it on their hands and knees on the ACC's terms, or they can join the B1G.
You don't tell the girl next door that you're not interested in dating her because you can't be tied down, but that she shouldn't date anyone in the next 15 years in case you decide to marry her later. It doesn't work that way.
The ACC has given them plenty of time to join on their own terms, which they decline. And I'm not anti-ND or anti-ND partial membership. Just being realistic.
Well, to me, this is "fake leverage". The war is over football independence.
If that war is lost, then this "leverage" is merely negotiating the terms of surrender, like Lee getting his officers the right to keep their sidearms at Appomattox.
Big deal at that point. IF ND has to use leverage about the terms of joining a football conference, then it really doesn't matter all that much.
If ND football has to join a conference, who cares about surrender details like divisions or annual games? I certainly won't. The war has been lost.
This would not be like Virginia Tech or Pitt hoping and happy to join the conference and being excited over the possibilities and hoping to negotiate the best deal.
This would be a football program which has been independent for 128 years being forced by outside forces to join a football conference against its will and against its own perceived best interests.
That "leverage" is really choosing whether to prefer the firebombing of Dresden over the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Both destroy the city.
If ND loses that war, you are right. It would be an unconditional surrender but with a surly, rebellious, spiteful conquered people in your midst.
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2016 04:09 PM by TerryD.)
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