While the film Matrix: Reloaded seems destined for both critical and commercial success this week, the ACC: Reloaded will inevitably have a more perilous future.
The league will attempt to lure the University of Miami (Fl.), Syracuse and either Boston College or Virginia Tech from the Big East Conference as early as 2004. Many things will inevitably change about the plan, but several pros and cons are already becoming apparent.
One positive for the conference is that its already improving football reputation will get a giant adrenaline shot if the Big East schools enter the league, as the talent level across the conference will rise immediately.
In addition to the bragging rights and BCS points that are on the line, an ACC Florida State and Miami match-up will also play a big part in determining a conference title. Under the current conference make-up, if FSU loses to Miami in their regular season match-up, but then salvages the ACC crown most would say FSU still had a pretty good season. But if the expansion occurs, a loss to Miami would significantly hurt the Seminoles chance at grabbing the ACC crown. Now the loss means loss of bragging rights, loss of BCS points and the loss of the ACC crown, something the Seminoles consider their birth right.
The Miami-FSU game would then drastically determine the fates of both of their seasons, making it the most exciting regular season college football game in the country. Adding to the basketball rivalries the North Carolina-Duke-Maryland match-ups create on the hardwood, the ACC would have hands down the best combination of pigskin and basketball rivalries.
A decided con of the expansion would be the impact it would have on the student athletes. Everyone is talking about is how the expansion will affect ACC fans and finances, but everyone is forgetting how it will affect the most important aspect of ACC athletics: its athletes.
Adding Miami, Syracuse and probably Boston College to the ACC mix greatly expands the geographic grasp of the conference. Right now the most northern school in the conference is Maryland, and the most southern is Florida State, which is located in the northwest region of the Sunshine State. After the expansion, the league would stretch from the southernmost tip of Florida to Boston, thus increasing travel time-and time out of class.
There are other important factors in determining how well the expansion will go, such as how the termination of the home and away round robin regular season affects ACC basketball and how the dismantling of the Big East's biggest money makers will affect college athletics as a whole, but many of these factors could become moot as things are just getting started. While the ACC has voted in favor of expansion, the Big East will certainly not give up three of its most successful schools without a giant bidding war. A possible expansion is going to create some good things and some bad things, but before anyone gets to excited and/or upset over the changes, just remember that things are far from final.
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