New commit Kieran Borcich sounds like the right mix of athlete and scholar.
HD likes how our ACC schedule plays out next season.
Todd McShay is another guy who thinks Castonzo will be a high draft pick next season.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Yet another Big Ten mention and other links
Although I've weighed in on the message boards, I haven't spent much blog space talking about the implications of the Big Ten expansion on BC. Today ESPN Big Ten Blogger Adam Rittenberg slipped in another BC mention when discussing expansion. I don't think BC will ever join the Big Ten, but I feel the coming game of conference musical chairs will hit us in a big way. Hopefully we will come out ahead again, but I have a feeling that some of the former Big East laughing stocks might end up with the last laugh. Rittenberg rightly points out that Big Ten expansion is all about cable households. Not ratings. Not tradition. Certainly not sports. Therefore Rutgers and Syracuse might luck into huge pay days purely because the Big Ten wants households in those states. They are not as concerned with ratings or those programs' successes. Just the right to charge cable subscribers in New York and New Jersey and additional $1.10. If the Big Ten were to reach out to BC on those same grounds, we should listen. I don't think they will though. Aside from envying their pay day, BC might also suffer if the SEC expands and cherry picks a few ACC programs leaving our current home weaker. With all of this going on, I hope the ACC is moving forward with some sort of cable network plan (like the previously rumored ACC-PAC 10 cable network). A cable network like the Big Ten is the only way to secure long term stability. If the ACC doesn't put up some walls around the conference and assure members of future revenue streams, the leftover ACC teams will end up in some ugly conference with the leftover Big East schools. Stay tuned.
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17 comments:
I think BC is in the mix if the B11 wants to go east in a big way. I don't think we blow them anyway in any one area, but there is little downside too - Syracuse's football stinks, Rutgers is middling in its sports, its basketball is a mess, UConn has a smaller stadium, no history in football and reportedly is about to get smacked for illegal bbal recruiting. I don't need to rundown the pros and cons of BC, but we stack up well -and isn;t there some lesson from the Big East's poor experience with Temple to be learned that if you build it around unproven schools, they won't necc. come? And every B11 school has a Boston alumni chapter.
Plus if it is about money and you're the B11 you have to recognize no one school brings the NYC area, so it's then easy to end up thinking four schools (BC, UConn, Syracuse, Rutgers) smother NY/NJ/NE as best you can.
My feeling is ultimately, 16 is too dilutive for the B11 to go at and the B11 adds one at the most, Missouri or Nebraska.
One more point - today is the last day of exclusive negotiations with ESPN and Raycom and the ACC has been hoping to boost its $70 mln a year deal to $180-$200, which would make the national TV payout up to $15 mln a school, matching the SEC. We'll see if they get it, but if they come close, why would, say, FSU, jump ship, pay an exit fee and pay a buy-in to join an expanded SEC?
As long as both the ACC & SEC believe the best option is to have a 12 team conference, we'll be okay. We'd lose one or two to the SEC at most, and we could replace.
Gotta figure Arkansas to Big 12, FSU or Clemson to SEC, new member to ACC (Syr, WVU).
No one has ever been able to convince me how the logistics of a 16 team conference make sense.
If the Big 10 thinks they will automatically get $1.10 from everyone in the NYC region, they are SORELY miscalculating things. Its sad, but true, that no one in NYC cares about college sports unless you went to one of the schools and now live here.
Time Warner was prepared to lose FOX in New Years Day this year over fees. Cablevision actually lost ABC for part of the Oscars over fees. And that was over dimes and quarters. Not over more than $1. There is ZERO chance the major cable companies here will just up and pay the Big10 tens of millions A MONTH. No way. If they are willing to deal with public backlash over the major networks, they will simply tell the Big10 to F-off, and leave them as a pay per user service.
How good will Rutgers fit in then??
I know it is highly speculative, but I just love the idea of a PAC-10/ACC Network. The two conferences share similar characteristics, with a mix of state and private schools and some very good academic schools (though the ACC is a little better there). The time difference means you can space games out on weekends, and both conferences are strong in baseball, soccer, etc.
The network would have great content to work with, and I could see a PAC-10/ACC Challenge for hoops and intraconference football scheduling.
All this Big10 expansion talk does have a plus side for BC: it creates uncertainty about the future of BE football. The more uncertainty injected into BE football, the better for BC.
UConn's football coach, Randy Edsall, is certainly not projecting confidence about the future of the BE:
Q: How concerned are you about the shape of the Big East right now?
A: There’s concern, but I can’t consume myself with that because I have no control over it. ... There’s very legitimate concern and however it unfolds is completely out of my hands as a coach.
He added that, if as speculated, two teams leave for the Big Ten, “the Big East is all done.”
If a head football coach from the BE legitimately fears his entire leagure my be "all done" soon, what will recruits think? (maybe this: I don't want to put my future into an uncertain program/league)
Yea it would definitely be good for us to play up the uncertainty fear on the recruiting trail. But if Rutgers/ Syracuse leave for Big 10 money that could be problematic for us down the road. Although it would, as noted, leave Uconn completely shafted which is always fun to watch.
UConn could then join a football league with UMass, URI, U of Maine, UNH, UVM....the New England State School conference!
Poor Little UConn. Ha!
Well, I would disagree with the author of that expansion article. From everything I've read, B11 expansion is about advertising, since the additional live programming will jack up ad rates. They're looking for additional programming and they eventually want to get onto basic cable. I've seen multiple sources indicate it's a 60/40 ad/sub revenue ratio.
Here's a long post that I found on the topic from another blog:
http://frankthetank.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/the-value-of-expansion-candidates-to-the-big-ten-network/
Thought it was well done, but that could just be me. Some in the Chicago press seem to think it'll likely be among Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt, Mizzou. Syracuse isn't an AAU or research school, and you hear nothing but "we need a research school" coming from the Big 11. Nebraska might be a good choice. Since the Big 11 is so conservative, I agree with Blist: Mizzou or Nebraska.
If the additional revenue from the SEC's new ESPN and CBS contracts more than makes up for the alleged FSU buyout and pay-in, why not leave? Per school TV take is now up to $20 million in the SEC. That'll dwarf whatever the ACC comes out of their latest negotiation with...plus, travel costs would shrink.
I've read that the Big 11 is being advised by the firm they hired to look into expansion to go all the way to 16.
Mo' money, mo' problems.
What's with all the AAU talk by the B10? I don't get the point with AAU.
What difference does it make if a school in a sports league is AAU or not?
If a non AAU school joins the B10, how does that diminsh the other schools' $$ or presitge? Is reseach funded by conference, rather than by school? I would not think so.
Are Maryland and Rutgers (both AAU schools) really academically preferable to ND and BC (non AAU schools)? Not.
There are also many really mediocre AAU schools (many big undistinguished state schools, see,e.g. above)), as well as great AAU schools (e,g., Harvard, Yale, Stanford). It's a broad range of prestige levels. The media acts like AAU is synonomous with being in the Ivy League.
Any insights on the AAU angle would be appreciated
does anyone else get nauseous when they think about how gross the landscape of college football could be for BC in just a couple of years? jerrymandered conferences, no geographic continuity, lack of serious rivalries....
Since it hasn't been beat to death on the boards, post your ideal conference for BC here. Mine:
BC
ND
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Penn State
Pitt
Cuse
Maryland
WVU
VT
UVA
Nice geography, preserves natural rivalries, and has strong mix of basketball and football powerhouses.
the ACC plus ND & Syracuse. UConn forced to play round robins with Buffalo, Temple and Weber State
"On the college recruiting front, 6'9 SF Papa Samba Ndao asks for release from Boston College. Considering St. Josephs, Charlotte and SMU." from twitter
Sounds like Donahue is pushing one more guy out.
What is the plan now??? Australians a plenty???
Brust seems to be a no go....Big Ten is waiving rule and allowing him to go to another B10 school.
Brust still in play for BC
"Brust's AAU coach, Joy of the Game's Mike Weinstein, said Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa, Boston College, Southern California and Oregon are the six finalists."
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