All Hokie, All the Time. Period. Presented by

Conference Realignment Board

Roanokie

Joined: 10/07/1999 Posts: 3649
Likes: 914


First nine years of my life were in Winston-Salem


Spent many a night at the old coliseum watching Frank Johnson and the Carl Tacy teams. Sill think Wake has the absolute best fight song in college sports.

One key component to keep in mind is our two schools' perspective on conference membership. Clemson has never, ever had to think or worry about conference membership. Or more accurately, they've never had to worry about NOT being a full member of an upper-tier conference.

Virginia Tech had no such luxury until 2004, or likely even later when full conference payouts were realized. For the previous 50 years or so, VT was an outsider to all the major conferences, including all of those right in it's back yard. As such, VT always had to position itself in the absolute best light in case the call came in one day. It's hard to explain what this struggle truly did to VT. Think of this process like the NCAA Selection Committee decides the tournament bracket. Some years the RPI rank is important, while other years conference record is important or wins against the top-50, or whatever.

For many, many years, VT was told it wasn't high on the conference invitation list because of various factors, but mostly due to market size. It didn't bring in any new markets other than perhaps tiny Roanoke. See GT and Atlanta in '78. Therefore VT didn't bring a financial windfall with membership. So for Wake, the fact they are a small private school in a similarly small community means nothing today, when it meant everything to VT for years. They were in the club when those factors weren't even known to be important. If the roles were reversed in 2004, what would Wake Forest have brought to a conference compared to VT? Very little. It would be like the SEC adding Southern Miss.

Wake got a free pass back in '53 or whenever, and it wouldn't hold up under today's criteria.
[Post edited by Roanokie at 05/04/2016 7:23PM]

(In response to this post by Burnss)

Posted: 05/04/2016 at 7:23PM



+4

Insert a Link

Enter the title of the link here:


Enter the full web address of the link here -- include the "http://" part:


Current Thread:
 
  
Clemson alum - serious question about Wake -- Burnss 05/04/2016 5:45PM
  Honestly Wake adds nothing to the equation -- BigCrumpy 05/05/2016 12:10PM
  Agree. Many undervalue them -- ahokie4u 05/04/2016 9:01PM
  Ron Wellman -- HokieObsession 05/04/2016 8:07PM
  I don't know what you mean -- WestyHokie 05/04/2016 6:39PM
  First nine years of my life were in Winston-Salem -- Roanokie 05/04/2016 7:23PM
  Wake Forest is part of the Tobacco Road Clique -- HOO86 05/04/2016 6:49PM
  Conference Wars Link -- Roanokie 05/04/2016 7:01PM
  Wake won an ACC football championship since expansion... -- VictoryTurkey 05/04/2016 7:44PM
  Yes, they did. and then they disappeared ** -- daveinop 05/04/2016 8:07PM
  I have nothing personal against Wake Forest... -- Old Line Hokie 05/04/2016 6:09PM
  UVA - "The other white meat." - Frank Howard ** -- Burnss 05/04/2016 6:27PM

Tech Sideline is Presented By:

Our Sponsors

vm307