Quote:
Originally Posted by digamma
Good point.
Maybe GT and FSU also see it as a chance, with expansion, to finally pull some of the power away from Tobacco Road (and more specifically Chapel Hill). On the one hand you have the push for the grant of rights, but on the other hand you have continued frustration with the favors UNC gets in various ACC matters (small one, but this will be the 4th of 6 years that UNC has a bye week before the GT football game).
|
Indeed a very good point. While there is always frustration with the conference being North Carolina-centric (state and sometimes the school), it's difficult for those who are in North Carolina to actually see that all the other schools see the North Carolina schools as a bloc that gets favorable treatment, no matter how many of us in-state try to protest that we hate the Duke-UNC axis as much if not moreso. At this point, with so many members brought in from expansion, I'm sure that FSU and Clemson and GT, as the senior conference members from outside the NC schools-UVa axis and with Maryland out, probably did some calculus and thought they had better power where they were rather than putting themselves at the mercy of Texas or (if they got lucky somehow) all the SEC schools. Instead of the old guard ACC members having five or six of eight or nine votes, it's now five votes out of fifteen. It's still a potent block and enough to derail anything that requires 75% voting such as expansion, but it can no longer win simple majority votes. FSU, Clemson, Miami, GT, and probably Louisville can form an effective counter-block. It may be less money for the athletics departments, but it's probably the best university-wide move they could make. Unfortunately, sports fans really don't care much about that.