Greed. It has long been the cause of many downfalls in the professional sports world, but collegiate athletics, despite some problems, had managed as a whole to turn its nose away from the scent of money.
That is, until ACC commissioner John Swofford succumbed to the monster, bringing the most storied conference in the nation down in the name of money.
50 years of tradition have been exchanged for money, as it seems certain that Miami, Boston College, and Syracuse will join the ACC in either 2004 or 2005, allowing the conference to move to two divisions.
ACC schools currently pull in $10 million annually in revenue sharing, meaning that the three new schools need to generate an extra $30 million in revenue. Twelve teams would allow the ACC to have a conference title game in football, garnering an estimated $6-$12 million (the amounts brought in by the SEC and Big 12). Should the ACC be able to get a second team in the BCS, which it would likely be able to do, an extra $4.5 million goes to the conference. The big key is television rights, and ESPN estimates that Miami is worth approximately $25 million in a new TV contract. By that measure, the new schools are worth it financially.
The only chance the ACC has to gain money anywhere else is if a school wins the national championship in basketball, for a cool million for the conference. Adding the defending national champion helps, and could enhance a TV deal, but it won't help come the conference tournament because tickets are given to each school.
But money isn't everything, and these calculations don't include the additional costs incurred.
Teams would likely have to travel up to Syracuse and Boston and down to Miami. Currently, the conference stretches 887 miles, from Tallahassee to College Park, with Virginia no more than four hours driving from five other schools. The new ACC will go from Miami to Boston, stretching over 1500 miles down the entire I-95 corridor. Unlike basketball and football, not every team gets to fly, and a bus ride up to Syracuse for a North Carolina school would hardly be enjoyable. Syracuse is the closest new school at over 500 miles from Charlottesville, making the expansion a logistical disaster.
The most upsetting thing about expansion involves the quick break with basketball tradition. The ACC will always be a basketball conference, regardless of Swofford's piggish penchant for dough. In a 12-team conference, there will be two divisions, where a team will play home-and-homes in their division but play the other division's teams just once.
The most common realignment plan has the four North Carolina schools paired with Virginia and Maryland in one division. While this keeps many of the traditional rivalries in tact, it essentially drains the other division of basketball talent.
Teams like Florida State and Clemson struggle to fill their arenas unless Duke or Maryland or UNC is coming to town. Now this won't even be an annual occurrence. The Tradition Division teams will beat each other up in the home and homes, and an untested Syracuse team will coast every year to the "Greed" Division title in hoops.
Transforming such a storied conference into a shiny new 12-team "superconference" is clearly to the detriment of competitive balance throughout the league. There is simply not an acceptable division alignment. Expansion and subsequent division could result in the ACC turning its back to 50 years of some of the best basketball ever played. Apparently, a price Swofford is willing to pay.
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