mjah
May-16th-2006, 04:23 PM
Good article about the rise of ACC football, the incredible year in many sports, the down year in ACC basketball, and the revenue implications of expansion.
Swofford: 1 year in, big ACC a big hit (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/colleges/14588497.htm)
:cheers:
Swofford: 1 year in, big ACC a big hit
Football, finances on rise; some concerned about men's basketball
KEN TYSIAC
ktysiac@charlotteobserver.com
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - ACC Commissioner John Swofford started the league's spring meetings Monday morning by describing the results of expansion as "extraordinary."
"I don't see how we could be any more pleased at this point," Swofford said later Monday, clubs in hand, as he prepared to head to the league's afternoon golf outing.
After one academic year as a 12-member conference, the immediate results of expansion are as predicted when the ACC was debating the merits of expansion three years ago.
The ACC has improved its financial standing and increased its visibility by expanding its geographic footprint. It has upgraded its football, but some wonder if ACC men's basketball paid a price.
ACC basketball has lost its popular home-and-home scheduling format and placed just four teams in the 2006 NCAA tournament.
"That's something that should concern us," said coach Leonard Hamilton, the Gastonia native whose Florida State team went 9-7 in the ACC but failed to make the tournament. " ... I'm sure we'll be discussing it."
Money matters
The 2004-05 academic year was the greatest financial challenge for the ACC because it had added Miami and Virginia Tech to reach 11 members and needed one more school to hold a lucrative conference football championship game.Nonetheless, the revenue the conference paid per school was about the same that year as the previous year, Swofford said. Adding Boston College in 2005-06 allowed for the league's first championship game last season. It exceeded expectations by producing in excess of $10 million in revenue, including broadcast rights.
Despite the increased costs of traveling to Boston and Miami, said Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips, ACC schools are netting at least as much money from the conference as they were before expansion.
Renegotiations of the ACC's television contracts has played a large part in the post-expansion fiscal success.
"It's not a tremendous financial windfall whatsoever," Phillips said, "but in terms of your footprint on the Eastern seaboard and the quality of league that it is, the fact that you haven't gone backward financially I think is tremendously significant."
TV audiences have rewarded the ACC's TV partners. No league had higher college football ratings on ESPN last season.
Football thrives
The NFL draft this month provided a striking glimpse at how strong the ACC has become in football. By the end of last fall, no team in the conference was in the mix for the national title, yet coaches were saying the league's talent and depth was startling.
The draft proved their point. Including N.C. State defensive end Mario Williams, the No. 1 overall pick of the Houston Texans, 12 ACC players were first-round picks. No other conference had more than nine.
Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech have strengthened a league whose previous members went 0-8 against Florida State for three consecutive seasons after the Seminoles entered the league in 1992.
"The team that wins the first conference championship game (Florida State) ends up the season with five losses," said N.C. State coach Chuck Amato. "If a team goes undefeated in this league, they're ready for the Super Bowl."
But 2005-06 also legitimized concerns that ACC basketball would suffer while ACC football thrived. George Mason of the Colonial Athletic Association reached the national semifinals and championed the cause for mid-majors to receive at-large bids.
Meanwhile, no ACC team advanced past the Sweet 16, and the ACC tied its smallest amount of NCAA tournament teams on a percentage basis (.333) since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
"This is a conference that over the course of time has proven that they produce national champions and NCAA tournament teams, and things haven't changed," said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg. "We have to make sure that people understand that this is a special place."
Strong across the board
Bobby Purcell, the executive director of N.C. State's Wolfpack Club athletics boosters, hopes his team's next football trip to Boston College happens in September, when the weather is warmer, rather than November.
Despite the cold, Purcell said fans enjoyed touring a city some had never visited.
"It's going to be a nice destination city for our fans," Purcell said.
Four months later, Maryland, Duke and North Carolina visited Boston to give the ACC three teams in the Final Four in women's basketball for the first time, with Maryland capturing the NCAA title.
The ACC has four teams in the top 12 of Baseball America's rankings, and had three field hockey Final Four teams and eight teams in the NCAA men's soccer tournament.
"We're extremely strong across the board in every sport," Phillips said, "and I think for the long-term good of the conference, it's good that it's become known as a comprehensive league."
Swofford: 1 year in, big ACC a big hit (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/colleges/14588497.htm)
:cheers:
Swofford: 1 year in, big ACC a big hit
Football, finances on rise; some concerned about men's basketball
KEN TYSIAC
ktysiac@charlotteobserver.com
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - ACC Commissioner John Swofford started the league's spring meetings Monday morning by describing the results of expansion as "extraordinary."
"I don't see how we could be any more pleased at this point," Swofford said later Monday, clubs in hand, as he prepared to head to the league's afternoon golf outing.
After one academic year as a 12-member conference, the immediate results of expansion are as predicted when the ACC was debating the merits of expansion three years ago.
The ACC has improved its financial standing and increased its visibility by expanding its geographic footprint. It has upgraded its football, but some wonder if ACC men's basketball paid a price.
ACC basketball has lost its popular home-and-home scheduling format and placed just four teams in the 2006 NCAA tournament.
"That's something that should concern us," said coach Leonard Hamilton, the Gastonia native whose Florida State team went 9-7 in the ACC but failed to make the tournament. " ... I'm sure we'll be discussing it."
Money matters
The 2004-05 academic year was the greatest financial challenge for the ACC because it had added Miami and Virginia Tech to reach 11 members and needed one more school to hold a lucrative conference football championship game.Nonetheless, the revenue the conference paid per school was about the same that year as the previous year, Swofford said. Adding Boston College in 2005-06 allowed for the league's first championship game last season. It exceeded expectations by producing in excess of $10 million in revenue, including broadcast rights.
Despite the increased costs of traveling to Boston and Miami, said Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips, ACC schools are netting at least as much money from the conference as they were before expansion.
Renegotiations of the ACC's television contracts has played a large part in the post-expansion fiscal success.
"It's not a tremendous financial windfall whatsoever," Phillips said, "but in terms of your footprint on the Eastern seaboard and the quality of league that it is, the fact that you haven't gone backward financially I think is tremendously significant."
TV audiences have rewarded the ACC's TV partners. No league had higher college football ratings on ESPN last season.
Football thrives
The NFL draft this month provided a striking glimpse at how strong the ACC has become in football. By the end of last fall, no team in the conference was in the mix for the national title, yet coaches were saying the league's talent and depth was startling.
The draft proved their point. Including N.C. State defensive end Mario Williams, the No. 1 overall pick of the Houston Texans, 12 ACC players were first-round picks. No other conference had more than nine.
Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech have strengthened a league whose previous members went 0-8 against Florida State for three consecutive seasons after the Seminoles entered the league in 1992.
"The team that wins the first conference championship game (Florida State) ends up the season with five losses," said N.C. State coach Chuck Amato. "If a team goes undefeated in this league, they're ready for the Super Bowl."
But 2005-06 also legitimized concerns that ACC basketball would suffer while ACC football thrived. George Mason of the Colonial Athletic Association reached the national semifinals and championed the cause for mid-majors to receive at-large bids.
Meanwhile, no ACC team advanced past the Sweet 16, and the ACC tied its smallest amount of NCAA tournament teams on a percentage basis (.333) since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
"This is a conference that over the course of time has proven that they produce national champions and NCAA tournament teams, and things haven't changed," said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg. "We have to make sure that people understand that this is a special place."
Strong across the board
Bobby Purcell, the executive director of N.C. State's Wolfpack Club athletics boosters, hopes his team's next football trip to Boston College happens in September, when the weather is warmer, rather than November.
Despite the cold, Purcell said fans enjoyed touring a city some had never visited.
"It's going to be a nice destination city for our fans," Purcell said.
Four months later, Maryland, Duke and North Carolina visited Boston to give the ACC three teams in the Final Four in women's basketball for the first time, with Maryland capturing the NCAA title.
The ACC has four teams in the top 12 of Baseball America's rankings, and had three field hockey Final Four teams and eight teams in the NCAA men's soccer tournament.
"We're extremely strong across the board in every sport," Phillips said, "and I think for the long-term good of the conference, it's good that it's become known as a comprehensive league."