Monday, October 13, 2003

Will ACC Hoops be better or worse with expansion

Interesting commentary by Jay Bilas. So what do you think? The home-away schedule we have played for years DOES ensure that it is very clear who deserves to be ACC champion. This could be comprimised by only playing some of the teams once. However, with a 12 team conference and playing everyone twice, it would be dog-eat-dog. We will just eat each other up and when it is time to see who goes to the dance, teams will be left out that deserve to go. The ACC is only of a couple major conferences left that play each other twice. Of course, now that this will end, we will have an opportunity to schedule some different out-of-conference games. Personally, I am glad we will only play some teams once.

Will we get more teams into the dance now? I think that it really comes down to winning non-conference games. Think about it:

- If we have a year with 2-3 dominant teams in the ACC, then the media will say, "it is Duke, UNC and Maryland...then everyone else". They will say the conference is weak.
- If we have a year with 5-6 teams bunched up at the top of the conference, the media wills say "the whole conference is weak - it is not what it used to be".

What will set the ACC apart? - beating the snot out of the other conferences. It's the only way to have a "strong conference" image. So, we need more of an opportunity to schedule those non-conference games. Playing each other more often is not the answer.