You didn’t think the colleges were all settled in their conferences yet, did you? The Big East’s last major football player, the Louisville Cardinals, has bolted and will join the ACC in 2014-2015 just as Maryland is exiting, ESPN is reporting this morning.
The initial reactions of most observers, both within and outside of the swimming community, is a positive one. In recent years, Louisville football has dwarfed that of Maryland, and even Louisville basketball has far outshone the historically-strong Terrapins. Through support of a burgeoning local business community, including fast food brands Yum! and Papa John’s, Louisville has upgraded all of their facilities, and most importantly is filling them: they averaged 6,000 more spectators at each football game in the 2011 season than Maryland did, and returns this year indicate an even more significant margin. That is despite Maryland welcoming in a much more name-recognizable slate of opponents.
In swimming, the advantage is overwhelming. Louisville is the quickest-rising program in the country, bar-none, and Arthur Albiero is turning out All-Americans and NCAA Champions. Maryland, on the other hand, decided to cut their program following last season (though they claim with their move to the Big Ten that they’re going to work on reinstating slashed programs). Louisville brings to the conference the Ralph R. Wright Natatorium, which is every-bit to the level of the pool they lost in Maryland. The city is also in the running to host the 2016 Olympic Trials, which shows their support for the sport.
The ACC already seems to be undergoing a bit of a power shift in swimming. Whereas the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Virginia Cavaliers have been used to dominating the conference , the rise of programs at Virginia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina State, and even Duke is balancing out that power significantly. That includes the Virginia Tech men picking off UNC for 2nd at ACC’s last year, though North Carolina was still the highest-placing squad at nationals. The Cardinals men’s squad would have been the highest-placing ACC team at last year’s NCAA Championship meet (though they still would have been challenged by Virginia’s depth at the conference level), which should further increase parity in the league.
A pair of former Big East opponents, Pitt and Notre Dame, will also come to the ACC next year (as will Syracuse, though they’ve recently cut swimming as well). This leaves the league with a 14-team football conference, and equally as many swimming programs.
Maybe most importantly for the ACC, Louisville runs one of the best Athletics Departments in the country. Last year, despite receiving only $3.2 million from the Big East’s media rights deal (that should increase 5-fold in their new conference), they had a bigger athletics budget than any school in the ACC. They turn out great fan support across the sporting spectrum, and have championship success from lower-profile sports like swimming and men’s soccer all the way up the ladder to baseball, basketball, and football.
That’s a match made-in-heaven for a conference known to extend the passion far beyond the typical television sports. The ACC is only rivaled by the Big Ten in terms of the number of members that support swimming, even after the loss of Clemson.
The Big East exit plan is $10 million plus 27 months wait, but most anticipate that negotiations will see a higher buyout and a shorter wait. That is a bargain relative to what we saw Maryland pay to leave the ACC. Connecticut now is the top-dog in the remnants of the Big East, (which has now lost 6 teams), though many expect them to seek alternate accommodations as well. The ACC seems content with 14 football teams, though, so there will still question about where a home for UConn would be, unless someone else leaves the conference.
Below is what the ACC will look like in the 2014-2015 season, with the number in parenthesis indicating last year’s NCAA finish.
Men
Louisville (#9)
North Carolina (#14)
Virginia (#15)
Florida State (#16)
Virginia Tech (#18)
Notre Dame (#28)
Duke (#29)
NC State
Georgia Tech
Miami
Boston College
Pittsburgh
Miami (diving only)
Women
Virginia (#17)
Virginia Tech (#18)
UNC (#19)
Notre Dame (#22)
Louisville (#24)
Miami (#26)
Florida State #30)
North Carolina State (#34)
Georgia Tech
Pitt
Duke
Boston College
The official standings from the 2011-2012 ACC Championships are below.
| Final Women’s Results | ||
| 1 | Virginia | 848 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 615 |
| 3 | Florida State | 460 |
| 4 | Virginia Tech | 401 |
| 5 | Maryland | 399 |
| 6 | Miami | 313 |
| 7 | NC State | 247.5 |
| 8 | Georgia Tech | 195.5 |
| 9 | Duke | 193 |
| 10 | Clemson | 137 |
| 11 | Boston College | 60 |
| Final Men’s Results | ||
| 1 | Virginia | 626.5 |
| 2 | Virginia Tech | 594.5 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 564 |
| 4 | Florida State | 542 |
| 5 | NC State | 334.5 |
| 6 | Georgia Tech | 289 |
| 7 | Duke | 271.5 |
| 8 | Clemson | 33.50 |
| 9 | Maryland | 207.5 |
| 10 | Boston College | 78 |
| 11 | Miami | 27 |
I Want To Join The Louisville Cardnials Basketball Team I Am Very Very good?
Cardinals have great local support… many facilities are community own
Never have seen the Louisville pool they are a great addition to the conference with their progress and results. But have you seen the Maryland pool complex and can the Louisville pool compare. It was ridiculous to drop the program. Ralph Wriight was a fine coach in his Plantation SC days with the indoor pool building that rolled back and a fine long course setup.
The only thing the Maryland pool has that the Louisville pool doesn’t, at least indoors, is the extra 25×25 “therapy pool,” but for conference/dual/college invitational short course meets there’s more than adequate space at Louisville. Louisville also has a full compliment of platforms for diving, which Maryland doesn’t. Here’s a picture of the Louisville pool:
http://www.bigeast.org/DesktopModules/DigArticle/MediaHandler.ashx?portalid=5&moduleid=2430&mediaid=25595&width=587&height=331
Conference carousel is probably not done spinning. Guesses would be FSU and VT to SEC as well as 2 of the following 3 to the Big Ten- Georgia Tech, UNC or UVA.
Really, UNC and UVA to the Big Tenplusfour? For the money? I don’t think much more happens this season with the ACC other than the announcements of adding those teams.
I guess it all comes down to football scheduling. Can the SEC make a 16 team, two league conference work? Will the conference still be able to schedule all those out of conference cream puffs when they have 7 other games within their league AND games from the other league’s teams AND traditional rivalry games in the same 11 game schedule?
Alabama:
1 x minor league team
1 x tough out of conference match-up or minor league team #2
7 x league games
2 x SEC… Read more »
I don’t think there was any doubt after FSU along with Maryland voted against the ACC exit fee going to $50mm in September that FSU would like to be an SEC school for football reasons only…which in Florida is the only sport that matters.
I plainly do not believe that the ACC is due for further discord. UVa and UNC are not going anywhere, and if VaTech makes a leap to the SEC for football they’d better then figure out how to move their campus west 30 miles into a different state after the Virginia State Legislature and UVa both frat rushed the ACC to get VaTech in.
The sole outlier is GaTech. To be candid Atlanta is SEC… Read more »
Is the SEC a better basketball conference than the Big Ten?? Maybe a year here-or-there, but I think on the whole, the Big Ten takes that honor…especially this season.
Two years from now, annual ACC/Big 10 Basketball Challenge on ESPN. UNC vs. Maryland in Chapel Hill. Book it!
With this announcement, pretty sure everyone left in the conference now says, “Maryland, who?” Looking forward to seeing this happen, ACC will be a really exciting meet now.
This is a very good move for both Louisville and the ACC in general and specifically for swimming. It should only enhance Louisville’s ability to recruit and will, as you point out, improve the overall quality of swimming in the ACC (and more generally other sports). The “loss” of Maryland, which was really addition by subtraction in my view, is more than compensate for the addition of Louisville.
ACC’s will be on heck of a big time meet.
This is FANTASTIC news for ACC Swimming and Diving! We lost two consistent middle of the pack programs in MD and Clemson (though those last few years of Clemson’s existence they really poured it on and could have become a top-5 team). We have replaced our lost programs with Pitt (nice facility), ND (perennial contender at the top of the Big East) and now Louisville!!
I respect UVA’s dominance in the ACC the last decade, but I am looking forward to those conference championships now more than ever!