There are easy parts of this transition. There are extremely difficult parts of it. As Syracuse braces to join the ACC in a few years, the decision to latch onto a stable, profitable conference, instead of constantly bailing water out of the Big East’s boat is a relief. The dark side of the old scenario was Orange Nation waiting for the other shoe to drop – what would finally be the death knell to the conference? Now, we know SU will be fine for the foreseeable future, guaranteed a place mat at the BCS/SuperConference/Playoff dinner table, instead of begging for a seat in the foyer.
The Fizz’s Ongoing Coverage of the ACC Move
The flip side is obviously walking away from the greatest basketball conference in the country and turning a back on some of the most intense rivalries in college sports. Syracuse/UConn has become Big East basketball. The history with Georgetown. The epic clashes with Villanova. The gridiron battles with West Virginia. The border war with Rutgers. The most glorious week in college basketball: MSG in March. How do we move forward happily when we leave what is so much a part of us behind?
In many ways, I hope the ACC adopts Rutgers and UConn as the final teams to flesh out 16 – just so we have some semblance of the good ol’ days in the new, bizarre future. I’ve watched up close in Boston as BC fans still lament the loss of the old regional rivalries, 400 miles away from their next closest conference foe. The Eagles are a rudderless ship in athletics, trying to create animosity towards Clemson and Florida State. During a four-month season, there are exactly two basketball games anyone cares about: Duke and UNC. It’s a lethargic and meandering athletic existence.
But an ACC North division with Syracuse, Pitt, BC, Rutgers, UConn (and for argument’s sake Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech) has some juice. It brings together six old Big East schools and reestablishes those old matchups within a stronger, more stable dynamic. For as much as we all hate Storrs Community College, the clashes with Calhoun-Bot 3000 has helped defined our program.
While the existing Big East is putting on a brave face and the reports of UConn and Rutgers coming into the ACC have been placed on hold, we know either school would jump immediately at a chance to leave. The Big East is far too unstable – a table with three legs. How can you place your undying faith in the country’s sixth most important football conference with the very real possibility of only four making it out alive?
But if the Huskies and Knights do stay put, SU is at a huge advantage in football recruiting in the Northeast. SU may actually take a slight hit on the hoops trail – there will be always be New York City/Philly/DC kids who dream of playing at Madison Square Garden every March and on Big Monday throughout the season. The lure of trips to the Dean Dome or Cameron Indoor hasn’t helped BC beat UConn to any elite New England kids.
But battling UConn and Rutgers for football recruits will open up so many doors. You can guarantee a chance to play in a conference title game. Florida kids can get their shot to go back home and take on the big boys that passed them over, Florida State and Miami. The ACC television contract is far superior in football to the Big East. No more making sure recruit’s parents have ESPN3 via their cable provider. Maybe the next Chad Kelly or Jarron Jones decide playing ACC football closer to home is worth sticking around for.
The dust has yet to settle, and the college football picture gets cloudier by the day. Some of this is still hard to digest. Leaving behind the generations of blood feuds is terrifying. Who can we hate now? But the possibility of an enormous jump start to the football program is as equally exciting.
Posted: D.A.
17 responses to “Leaving UConn & Rutgers Behind Is Huge Football Advantage for Syracuse”
As I recall, we had some fantastic rivalry games with BC and Miami in Big East football before the ACC raid and am looking forward to those games again.
what rival games with miami? they walked all over us most of the time till they were put on probation before. and why would any recruits parents from new jersey or ct, want to drive to GT or north carolina to see the son play? and we allready had a florida team to play every 2 years, south florida. what complete utter nonsense. as well, any urban”kid is not excited about the dean dome vs madison square garden. marinattoo was asleep at th e wheel and let the acc rip off the big east east again, fire the sucker. actually should have fired him long ago. totally incompetant. and dont think for s econd, that u are gonna sucessfully recruit in GT, clemson, unc, nc state, and VT areas. maybe DC and md areas as usual, that is it.typical wanna be su fans.. wanna be little league version of the giants or jets where they grew up.. or wanna be invited to the acc or big 10..
Come on, Misty. Either you’re too young or too old to remember. The Orange was actually good in the 90s. We competed with Miami every year and even smoked them a couple times. It was always scheduled for the end of the season and was even called a rivalry game. Will it continue in the ACC? …well, we’ll probably have to get a bit better to hang with them.
Why not just play a couple of Basketball games a year at MSG? Maybe St. Johns out of conference and possibly move one conference home game to MSG every year.
Who cares about the Johnnies or GT or Villy. We’ll play them some how!! If they were in our situation they would have bolted too! But WV just seems the right team. They just have that ACC feel to them. Their quality in both sports(FB and BB) is good. Not Rutgirls or UConn. Remember its about FB not BB. You forgot its about FB and FB only. Let the BE or what ever it will call themselves deal with their BB. We have our future set for now. Be comfortable with that will ya!!
how idiotic. WVU in in morgantown, its like 6 miles? over the pa state border. they recruit heavily in nj, md, pa. parts of ohio. no way do they represent a mid south ACC feel”. in fact, they fought for the union army in the civil war. its total nonsence when teams like penn state, wvu ,and pitt, all of which are within less then 2 hours driving time of each other, actually now are in 3 different conferences. i will say that probably at this point, wvu is , like south florida and cinci, probably the only big east teams who can probably play acc teams and have a winning record.which is more then su and pitt can claim lately!
Uhhh Irish Mist: SU’s record against the ACC this year is 1 win 0 losses. A winning record.
We’re all tired of the conference grab-the-cash marathon, but…
Imagine the eastern powers conference, if the first departure had not happened in 1990. Most of the Big Ten Coaches didn’t want PSU when it was announced that year. ¬†Just imagine:
Boston College
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Miami
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
South Florida
Syracuse
Virginia Tech
West Virginia 
Wouldn’t have needed the other basketball schools…, but hey, there were welcomed.
…a truly great 12-team football conference. If they had hung in there, the TV money would have rivaled the mid-west conferences. The ACC just could not stand being last among the majors in football.¬†
Tom
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You guys are going to end up like Boston College, nobodies in the ACC. All they care about their is Florida State and Clemson so good luck. Your basketball team is going to take a hit to because all that matters in ACC land is DUKE vs UNC. Schiano has built a gate around New Jersey and you will continue to lose your NYC recruits to Notre Dame and Penn State
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Christopher,a0Thank you for your insightful conemmt. a0I think that is a big issue with multi-year scholarships. a0The intent is for the multi-year scholarships to offer the athlete some insurance and security, but in many cases it will allow them to slack off either on the field or in the class room because they don’t have to worry about renewing their deal the next year. a0This is a major reason why coaches like Mack Brown argue against the multi-year deals,a0Thanks,a0Andrew Bruno
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