There was concern last decade that the ACC basketball was evolving into the UNC vs Duke show. The Big East was stealing the stage at the NCAA tournament. A secondary but still important objective of the ACC was to protect the basketball brand while doing all of this.

All of these expansion moves have been to primarily improve football and to improve geographic footprint. Should UConn come in with Notre Dame, the ACC gets football with one of college football's bigger brands. That opens up opportunity to enhance basketball at the same time and add the footprint in the state of Connecticut. There is state pride in Connecticut that can rival support for teams in Boston and New York in Connecticut.

I watched a UConn vs Syracuse basketball game earlier this month in Madison Square Garden with over 15,300 in attendance for unranked teams. The ACC needs that in a town that cares at least as much for college basketball than college football.

We could accomplish some of the same things with West Virginia since WVU has strong football and basketball. I could go for that. The ACC needs to prioritize its objectives. I thought New York City was one of them at one time.

I also have a secondary interest in some sort of partnership with Hockey East to show ice hockey on the ACC Network. We have BC already, and UConn also has hockey. ESPN and the ACC could cut some side deal with Hockey East to highlight hockey games by those teams on our network playing the other members of Hockey East. That could help sell the network more in Massachusetts and in Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Also I think that the ACC should consider associate members, and it has been discussed here. I'm thrilled that Boston College had a vibe going for baseball last season. They are building a new stadium, and I hope that they can improve to compete in the ACC, which is a very good baseball conference. I think that men's lacrosse will be a growing television hit over time, and UMass would be a good associate to enhance interest in that state for ACC spring sports. ACC men's lacrosse can be helped with larger geography and more games. Watching the Big Ten do this with ND hockey and Johns Hopkins lacrosse has given me ideas for our situation.

[Post edited by HOO86 at 12/19/2016 6:48PM]