Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
During my freshman year, living in Schurz Hall, one of the more popular games on my floor (1st) was "RISK." I lived with the Engineering FIG (don't ask how) and this was a game that they played. A lot. I never actually played, I just watched. I didn't quite get it.
It feels, with EXPANSIONAPALOOZA, that all of these presidents and conference commissionners are just playing a huge game of RISK.
Well, the ACC apparently grabbed the three red dice and decided to attack the Big East, a maneuver that they successfully pulled off in 2004 by grabbing Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech. Granted the on-field outcome has not been as successful as the coup was.
ACC presidents officially accepted Syracuse and Pitt into the conference, with an announcement to come later today, according to USA Today. Also in that USA Today article, it mentions that the ACC wants to go to 16, and that the teams on the radar are...UConn...and Rutgers?
Oh, and Texas also made a pitch to the ACC. Can't forget about that.
Again, I refer to the Vince Lombardi clip above: What the hell is going on here?
My major bone of contention with all of this is that it is taking place during the season. Even on a weekend where there were lots of lackluster games, I'm frustrated that I had to spend as much time looking down at the crawl as I did looking up at the action on the field.
That's inexcuseable. It's appalling to me that the egos involved in the leadership of these leagues, some of the people claiming that they try to do things "for the kids" are now allowing their dick swinging to block out the achievements of those same "kids."
Make no mistake about it: all this is rich old men puffing out their chests and trying to one up each other. There is absolutely no reason for the ACC to go after Syracuse and Pitt and UConn and Rutgers. Not if the aim is to improve the league on the field. If it was about the on field product, why wouldn't you invite West Virginia and South Florida-probably the two best programs in the Big East right now?
But this whole expansion thing has never been about this, has it? It's only about the money from football, and bringing in Pittsburgh's market and the NYC Metro area (with Syracuse, and UConn and Rutgers if that is the case).
I'll admit I don't even know what the end game is right now; Monday, Oklahoma and Texas's boards of regents are supposed to meet to discuss conference affiliation.
Let's just say that if panic time wasn't already here, it's here now.