Marty Could Have Seen This Coming

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be a thing of beauty.”, Dr. Frankenstein and given recent criticism perhaps John Swofford. The ACC’s jump to the realm of Super Conferences has not exactly gone as planned. Based on recently commentary the pundits and the fans are not completely happy with the outcome.

--Since 2004, ACC teams have lost 21 of 28 games against non-conference opponents ranked in the Top 25. Since 2000, ACC teams have dropped 31 of 34 games against non-conference opponents ranked in the Top 10. By comparison, the SEC is 10-18 against Top 10 non-conference teams over the same stretch. http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/jul/22/acc_struggling_catch_up_power_conference11185/


--Four years later, however, some still feel ACC expansion has not measured up. The 12 team ACC has not increased the number of nationally ranked teams, nor has it brought the league any closer to another national championship (last title-Florida State2001). Expansion has brought in new revenue, but has also increased the pay out from nine schools to 12. At this point, each school takes in about $10. 9 million, same as in the nine team ACC.
http://www.wral.com/sports/blogpost/1617850/

“You don't know, but 10 percent? Five percent?” he (Mike Krzyzewski) suggested. “That can't be when you are running a big business. ... The main reason we are the conference that we are is basketball. You can never lose track of your primary product when you are trying to improve. Nobody is against the improvement of football - and we have (done that) and we want that. But not at the expense of basketball.”http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/COLUMNIST10/707210341/1002/SPORTS

Are the towns people aren’t gathering the pitch forks and torches…yet? One of life’s lessons that we relearned over and over is that the future rarely turns out the way we predict. The ACC tried to convert itself from a basketball conference to the more lucrative football conference. This looked as good on paper as the Mercedes and Chrysler merger that never paid off and has resulted in the two companies parting ways.