I'm rambling. Mostly frustrated because VT finally got out of the doldrums of the old Big East and Metro conferences and now it looks like we will end up right back in that.
The last 10 years has not been a picnic for the expansion schools or really any but a few ACC schools, and perhaps the embarrassment of last week's ACCT (and some similar results at ACC Football CGs) was a stark reminder to the membership that what's currently setup just isnt working; and not only when it comes to payouts.
It's not as bad for Vtech as the 2013 expansion schools who sold their souls for 25-years of top-tier paychecks-- and then only 6 years later you had Dino Babers complaining publicly at media day that there was no way the ACC could compete. And what's happened since Dino pointed that out? Not only has he gotten fired, but the gap has widened even more--- it's become gargantuan. The 2013 batch of schools (which includes mine, Syracuse) are abject failures at being mercenaries. We lost everything they had and ended up gaining very little; "the at-least-we-aint-UConn" mantra is starting to wear very thin in Central New York. But if Syracuse gets a big settlement check from the ACC-as-we-know-it break-up and then can restore its soul with a sufficient paycheck in a re-formed Big East-- decidedly 2nd tier or not---the evil ghosts of Swofford and Darryl Gross could be exorcised. We'll see...
I'd argue we all had it pretty darn good before VT left. Football between SU and VT in the 90s and early 00s was vastly better than it is now or in recent memory. We played on CBS and ESPN nationally regularly in football, had College Gameday at Blacksburg (I was there for the 62-0 drubbing or whatever it was--- that was a long day). and SU had a deal to remain competitive, but walked away based on a presentation to the Board of Trustees from Swofford/Gross-- that if you saw it today would look like Amway marketing materials in the 80's. The ACC has delivered a lot of empty seats, has been a complete drain on the Syracuse brand with countless 9PM starts, and for all that doesnt deliver the uber-competitive paycheck. Of course Syracuse hasnt quite done its part either. You might argue the same for VT. But no doubt the hope and promise of the ACC has gone exactly as the silent majority in the Syracuse community and in the old-guard ACC said it would-- down the tubes.
There's so much wrong with the ACC that it's hard to fit it all in. I had a long post last night and didnt even get to the awful luck the ACC has had with the ACCN.
I am relatively unforgiving for these guys, but will say this much though for Swofford and Phillips and ESPN--
it was not easy to foresee the disaster that is the ACCN. As much as you could say it's their job to be on top of these things, the timing of the RSN-Cable-Subsidization-Collapse was just exquisitely poor for all of them. At least with the B1G and SEC they had more time to recoup what they spent and can more easily slither into other models given their growth. The ACC was simply snake bit when it came to the ACCN.