WELCOME BOSTON COLLEGE!!!!

            

Welcome Boston College.

Today is the first day of the 12-team ACC. That means an ACC Championship Football Game this December in Jacksonville and zillions of dollars for everyone in the conference.

That is why Boston College is here.

If the ACC could have had it their way....they would have been fine with an 11-team conference. But no 12 teams.....no title tilt. So along comes BC.

Don’t get me wrong: I think BC is a great addition to the conference. I mean, heck, they reside on the Atlantic Coast. The ACC is known as having some of the finest universities in the south [Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia Tech]...but they are those suuuuthuuuun schools. BC brings Jesus, golden helmets and a pipeline to the Northeast. They bring class. Oh, and some football too.

Future generations will think Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary to beat Miami was an ACC tilt.

                                       

The ACC likes BC. It is the first groundbreaking since they invited Florida State [or, mainly...the State of Florida] into their arms nearly 15 years ago. Sure, the league took it’s lumps....but it was worth it to get exposure and Florida’s talent [only once since FSU joined has a pre-1990 ACC school won the ACC crown]. No more is that show than the fact that the ACC is looking at having it’s baseball tournament held in Boston’s Fenway Park. Boston College also brings in Notre Dame to the conference...as part of their long standing rivalry. Mark my words....within the next 10 years, Beantown will have an ACC hoops tournament held there.

They have a new commercial playing with the 11 mascots dancing around....when along comes the BC Eagle entering the mix.

Hey....the ACC even has a hockey team now!

The one problem is that Boston College is 400 miles away from the nearest ACC school. When Miami and Virginia Tech joined....the ACC was already a force in their states. In New England....the ACC isn’t as much of a burned in property. To ACC fans....West Virginia, Pittsburgh and even Syracuse were ones the ACC figured to woo in.

For nearly two years....BC was the traitor school. Miami and V-Tech were add-ons to the Big East universe. Boston College was an OG. Been around since the start. They were one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the ACC. Well, that was until the ACC sent an invitation up to Chestnut Hill. Because of that...BC may be the most hated defectors. It was like a couple in a separation....but they were still living together until the Eagles’ new place was ready.

The ACC will look like a mansion. They will get back their rivalries with Miami and V-Tech...and form some new ones. They’ll get to play in one of those Super Conferences. A nice spanking new TV deal. They will enter one of the best college hoops conferences. They will have Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and G-Tech coming in to play a little ball.

So...like the dancing mascots welcomed in the Eagles in the commercial....we ACC fans welcome you in as well. There are some of the fiercest rivalries in the ACC...but we tend to stick together.

        

July 1, 2005 was moving day for a bunch of NCAA programs.  Leases ended [as did some rivalries] and new bonds were formed as the conferences officially welcomed their new members that they courted two years ago. 

I already extended a laurel and hardy handshake to the ACC's newest member, Boston College.  The ACC started knocking down the dominoes a few years back by adding Miami-FL and Virginia Tech before inviting BC a few months later.  Now the ACC can hold a football title game and has instantly made itself into a top-tier football league.

To do so, they raided the Big East.  So the Big East hit back in the only way they knew how....basketball.  The Big East is now the largest Division I conference with 16 members.  Today, they welcomed Cincinnati, Louisville, South Florida, DePaul and Marquette.

                             

Of course, the problem the Big East now faces is pleasing the schools.  Some of the smaller non-football programs aren't too happy with the Big East's football aspirations.  Remember, forming the football league in 1991 led to Miami, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Rutgers and Notre Dame joining the league.  The league now stretches from New York to Milwaukee.....and from Providence to Tampa.  Some feel the football schools [Cincinnati, Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, UConn and West Virginia] may eventually peel off to form their own league....leaving the Big East as a non-football league [DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Providence, Seton Hall, St John's and Villanova].  The WAC had 16 schools in the mid-1990s before 8 split off to form the Mountain West Conference.

Speaking of the MWC, the officially welcomed Texas Christian into the fold.  This marks the first expansion for the conference...and TCU brings into the conference the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas.  TCU has been around the block in the last decade.  Once the Southwest Conference folded....TCU played in the WAC, Conference USA and now the MWC. 

                                      

In a basketball only move....the Atlantic 10 welcomed in Charlotte and St Louis. 

Of course, Charlotte, St Louis, TCU, Cincinnati, Louisville, DePaul, South Florida and Marquette all left Conference USA.  Count 'em.  EIGHT schools left for greener pastures.  So the C-USA brought in 6 new members: Marshall, Central Florida, SMU, Rice, UTEP and Tulsa.  They join East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB and Tulane to form a primarily Mid South conference.  They, too, will get a precious football title tilt. 

The WAC lost 4 members to the new Conference USA....so Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State came to replace them.