The new ACC is all about money. The fifteen team league puts a couple million a year more in the pockets of all the colleges and universities in the new league. The ACC sold their soul to grow large enough to survive just to stay as the ACC. Such leagues as the Big East no longer exist because the leaders of the ACC when everyone thought the ACC was dead the ACC had a ace up their sleeve and today the ACC on the edge of death but is now one of the strongest conferences in the college sports world .
Yes, it is a grand league and Wednesday starts another ACC Tournament. Can anyone name the six teams that are playing Wednesday and when they play? Can anyone tell me that they will even watch half the games this week or even what channel all the games will be on? You know it will take 14 games to get down to one by Sunday.
That is a far cry from Thursday afternoons when the eight team ACC was a reason to stop work run across the street where the bank had a tv screen set up for their customers and watch the games. The opening day of the ACC tournament was spring times version of what the first day of hunting is in the fall is a national holiday. More people got the flu around 11am on the Thursday of the ACC opening round than all of the rest of the year combined.
There was a time when if you were not among the top 1500 people who gave the most money to their university you didn't have any idea what it was like to be there opening day except to wait outside when the losers came ready to sell their ticket to me or a million other craving fans who wanted to be there for Friday's semi finals or for the championship Saturday.
There was a time when the most important thing in your life was winning the ACC tournament because without it you didn't go to the NCAA tournament. If you ever get a chance that you can see that ESPN is showing the ACC tournament Final of 1974 a game between Sate and Maryland you need to look at it. It is the greatest game in the history of college basketball at the time because the loser had to go to the NIT and the ACC considered that an embarrassment to have to play in that.
That year Carolina was rated fourth in the country and only lost to State and Maryland. UCLA was number one, State second, Maryland third. So the second and third teams one of them was going home after losing in Greensboro with no chance to get to the NCAA's. Maryland lost in overtime
and with it the NCAA started the expansion process to finally reach 64 as it is now.
Come Sunday at least five ACC teams will get invited and just possible if an NC State could win it or Maryland maybe six teams will get in. Otherwise there is not much reason to hold a tournament any more other to bring in another two or three million per team. You see by Saturday especially if a Duke or Carolina are still in the Hunt and if State somehow was still alive there will be this affliction that will over come us that this crazy zany feeling will overwhelm us. There is an ACC championship to win and we will pull for our team and if needed pull for your team to keep Syracuse from coming down here and winning our tournament.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
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