Earlier this week it was announced that two grand names in the sport of college tackle football, Florida State University and the University of Pittsburgh, would officially open the 2013 season in a nationally televised Labor Day game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, home also to the NFL’s “Steelers.” It was an inspired decision by the television networks and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). “Conference realignment” had produced sorrow for college sports followers as ancient rivalries ended, but it had also created joy in new, exciting matchups like FSU-Pitt.
Will the ACC be around much longer after this game?
The midwestern-based Big 10 conference had already snatched Pennsylvania State University from eastern football, ending its rivalries with Pitt and West Virginia; Rutgers University, also from the East; and shockingly the University of Maryland from the ACC, where it had been playing for over half a century. Now one reporter, just one, but the same one who broke the Maryland-to Big Ten story, has asserted that the Big 10 has formally offered membership to the University of North Carolina and wishes to add the University of Virginia and Georgia Tech University too. All three are long-time members of the ACC. In 2012 there was evidence that Florida State itself was eager to leave the ACC. The ACC was destabilized by Maryland’s defection; it would cease to exist as sports followers know it if even one of the other schools left; it would cease to exist, joining the Big East Conference, if all did.
In combined academic-athletic reputation it just doesn’t get any better than the Atlantic Coast Conference. Why then did Maryland leave? Why would the others consider it? (Cynical chuckling from Americans and those who know America.) For those who aren’t and those who don’t the answer is money. The “pursuit of happiness” is the soul of America; the P.o.H. was a last-minute substitute for “property” and you can’t get none of that without dollars. “Making money” is near-synonymous, close-enough substitute as the soul of America and the Big Ten got more soul. It’s the Apple of college conferences.
Will the ACC be around much longer after this game?
The midwestern-based Big 10 conference had already snatched Pennsylvania State University from eastern football, ending its rivalries with Pitt and West Virginia; Rutgers University, also from the East; and shockingly the University of Maryland from the ACC, where it had been playing for over half a century. Now one reporter, just one, but the same one who broke the Maryland-to Big Ten story, has asserted that the Big 10 has formally offered membership to the University of North Carolina and wishes to add the University of Virginia and Georgia Tech University too. All three are long-time members of the ACC. In 2012 there was evidence that Florida State itself was eager to leave the ACC. The ACC was destabilized by Maryland’s defection; it would cease to exist as sports followers know it if even one of the other schools left; it would cease to exist, joining the Big East Conference, if all did.
In combined academic-athletic reputation it just doesn’t get any better than the Atlantic Coast Conference. Why then did Maryland leave? Why would the others consider it? (Cynical chuckling from Americans and those who know America.) For those who aren’t and those who don’t the answer is money. The “pursuit of happiness” is the soul of America; the P.o.H. was a last-minute substitute for “property” and you can’t get none of that without dollars. “Making money” is near-synonymous, close-enough substitute as the soul of America and the Big Ten got more soul. It’s the Apple of college conferences.
