(Yesterday 08:56 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(Yesterday 07:41 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(Yesterday 03:48 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(Yesterday 07:13 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(05-05-2024 02:50 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I have to speculate that collegiate sports might have taken a radically different path if the ACC had decided to act on Miami’s application in 1990 and brought the Canes into the fold.

At this point I don’t see Big East football taking form or being included in the Bowl Alliance, Bowl Coalition, or the BCS. Instead I see a provision that reserves a spot for the best Independent team, probably from a limited pool of Independent teams—ND, BC, Syracuse, Pitt, and WVU for sure but possibly extending broader to include VT, Rutgers, Temple, Navy, Army, and the Liberty Bowl consortium. They probably come up with some revenue split formula where the highest ranked Indy who represents the Independent Alliance gets the biggest revenue chunk and the others get distributions based on performance.

At the dawn of the BCS, there’s 6 autobids: ACC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10, SEC, and Indy, plus 2 at-larges.

When the ACC goes to 12, I think they amend the arrangement, opening the “Independent” spot to anyone from outside the BCS 5.

My hope is then that the BCS morphs into an 8-team playoff and we skip the silly 4-team charade.

It really wasn’t the ACC “deciding to act”, it was Miami’s decision not to cooperate with their timeline. The fact is the ACC made a surprise expansion to keep up with the Joneses on the grid and the PTB needed time to breath and evaluate. The conference office told Miami they would decide on their application in early 1991 and Miami instead chose to join the Big East in October or early November of ‘90 if memory serves.

Had they waited, we might have seen the Metro/Great Midwest merger sponsor the hybrid conference instead. The ACC would still need two to host a CCG, but the three Big East schools as affiliates would be unbalanced divisions to accommodate. Maybe the Big East adds WVU as a full member and they join the ACC as an affiliate:

BC*
Syracuse*
Pitt*
WVU*
Maryland
UVa
Miami

Wake
Carolina
Duke
State
Clemson
GaTech
FSU

*Football-only

Miami-FSU
UVa-Carolina
Pitt-Duke
BC-Wake
WVU-Clemson
UMd-State
SU-GaTech

This is the first I’ve read that the ACC asked them to wait. Do you have a source? It was my understanding that Miami inquired and was rebuffed or ignored. (i.e. tabled for later and never to be brought up again)

If this was the case and Miami decides to wait, I think everyone else waits along with them.

C-USA didn’t come together until 1994 and even then, only by necessity.

The ACC took the decision very seriously and tabled it to be made at the winter meetings instead of in haste and Miami said that didn’t align with their timeline so they accepted the Big East offer.

Metro and Great Midwest merger talks happened almost immediately and the A10 was involved in merger talks as well. There were a ton of discussion between these three throughout the early 90’s, and if Miami and Big East football are off the table, these talks accelerate quickly.

I think realistically only two things happen: some sort of A10-Metro-GMC hybrid with the Big East schools as football-only affiliates or the Big East invites WVU as a full member and the BE schools become football affiliates in the ACC.

Would Tobacco Road been alright with this arrangement?

2 new members plus 4 affiliates, and we’re still under the old round-robin division rules. Coming up with divisions that would make everyone happy would be a nightmare.

I think you have your C-USA merger timeline off. They split in 1990. Are you saying that that reunification talks began before the Great Midwest even started play?

The ACC considered affiliates from the Big East for a CCG in 1990, so I’m not sure it would have changed much. Divisions have always been a problem, I agree. Anything that would have pushed UMd and UVa to a northern division would have to have been pacified with Miami in their division and State (or Clemson) and Carolina as annual rivals respectively.

What I originally stated was by not having the Big East football conference, all of the sudden BC, Syracuse, and Pitt are available as football affiliates, Rutgers, Temple, and WVU are on the table from the A10 along with Cincinnati and Memphis from the fledgling GMC, plus Louisville, VaTech, USM, and Tulane from the Metro. This isn’t even taking into account the SWC which was looking for scheduling partners. That’s twelve football playing schools; essentially it’s the Metro’s super conference minus a few.

What I meant by merger talks was despite the basketball driven GMC, individual schools were still looking for football homes. The GMC then invited Dayton thinking that would be a nice carrot for Notre Dame. Dayton, ND, DePaul, and Marquette were the “Great Independents” of the 80’s and scheduled a double round robin every season.

Meanwhile, the A10 and Metro were talking merger. Then the Metro was trying to convince the GMC to merge. These never really stopped from 1991 to spring 1994 when C-USA was essentially conceived by Slive as a GMC expansion, but it included Cincy, Memphis, Louisville, USM, Tulane, and Houston—the six football playing schools required to get it off the ground. My point is if the BE football conference never happened, something similar would have.

I mean you could literally pick up a sports page in any of the concerned cities and find realignment talk, impending super conferences, all kinds of stuff was going on then that makes today look tame. I recently remember reading Memphis football coach circa 1991 expected Texas and aTm to leave the SWC and he said Memphis was interested in linking up with Baylor, TCU, Houston, and Rice while bringing S. Miss and Tulane along.