League will NOT expand schedules…more

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Despite a lot of talk recently, the leaders of the Atlantic Coast Conference decided yesterday not to consider a proposal to expand the number of conference games played in both football and basketball. The Charlotte Observer provides an update of league meetings in this article.

ACC schedules will not expand to nine conference games in football or 18 in men’s basketball, conference officials said Tuesday.

Some basketball coaches had expressed interest in an 18-game conference schedule, but the issue died this week at the ACC spring meetings when coaches were reminded that a year ago they committed to 16 conference games through 2010-11.

Football coaches rejected nine conference games and will continue to play eight.

“It probably would be better for us to go play teams out of our conference to build up our national standing,” said N.C. State football coach Tom O’Brien.

I would agree with Coach O’Brien. If I had to choose one sport for expansion I would choose basketball over football because of the flexibility that exists in the 10+ more games of the basketball schedule.

Having four games to schedule in football is also a nice number for which to be strategic. Check that. Due to Lee Fowler’s love affair with Terry Holland NC State’s Coach O’Brien only has three games to strategically use. (You can see some of our more recent comments regarding this issue at this entry).

If it weren’t for the Fowler-mandated games with East Carolina, NC State would be in a particularly advantageous and unique situation to create a profitable, ‘tradition-rich’, easy and interesting offering with our four non-conference football games. Personally, I still wonder why ECU gets preferential treatment over Duke University from NC State. Duke is conference bretheren who needs as much help with their football program as possible. Duke represents a program that we have played forever. A trip between Duke and State is one of the least expensive trips in all of college football. Duke fans have never seriously vandalized our stadium THREE TIMES in the past. Duke is not a program that most State fans have a significant opposition against scheduling. As we said in this entry:

We’ve said it a million times and we will say it a million more – there is NOTHING other than a lack of innovation and foresight stopping NC State and Duke from playing NON-CONFERENCE games in the years that we aren’t scheduled to play ACC games. Why in the world is NC State rewarding an institution that routinely takes players that cannot academically qualify to play in the ACC to the detriment of one of our conference bretheren who NEEDS our people to fill up their stands as often as they can get it?

Ultimately, each year we could eventually play one big game (USC, Ohio State, Texas, others); one ‘middle game’ for recruiting exposure (in places like Dallas, Houston, Florida, Northeast, midwest, even west coast); one obvious cupcake (William & Mary, Wofford, Citadel, Western Carolina, etc); and someone else (like a Duke) that is advantageous to us.

Lastly, in case you had forgotten the NCAA has changed some key rules in football that will take effect this year. They include:

• Keeping the clock running after players go out of bounds, except in the final two minutes of either half.

• Using a 40- and 25-second clock like the NFL to standardize the time between plays.

• Getting rid of the 5-yard face-mask penalty.

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14 Responses to League will NOT expand schedules…more

  1. packbackr04 05/14/2008 at 9:47 AM #

    did u hear that ECU is giving out hand jobs under the table to the Big East officials in a desperate attempt to join their conference. Unfortunately for them, Big East is just taking the tugjob and ignoring ECU’s offer.

  2. Dr. BadgerPack 05/14/2008 at 9:51 AM #

    Not to pick a nit, but I wonder why “Florida” would be listed as a recruiting exposure type game? We’re down there a minimum of every other year, have ties, and also go to Miami on occasion. Of course I see your point, but I’d say the only reason to go to Florida would be to play UF, which would certainly constitute a “big game” as Florida has been pretty darn good, with National Titles, since Spurrier (excluding the few years of Zook– although his recruits did manage a National Championship).

    Or maybe I overvalue UF because of something they put in the water down here.

    In the immediate future, the “recruiting” trips should be plentiful, and it may be useful to focus on the northeast and midwest, also known as O-Line country.

  3. Wolf Dog 05/14/2008 at 10:12 AM #

    I am glad they left it at 8 games. I would venture to guess that TOB with his connections up north will having us playing non-conference games with some northern schools to maintain his recruiting presence and connections. Be nice to see us play Navy again and wouldn’t be surprised to see that come about or us scheduling Penn State again. That would really be a nice big non-conference game. TOB said you don’t go to Fl. to find O linemen.

    Duke would have been a nice addition the last four years, a most likely W, and state fans go by the thousands to Wallace Wade. Only drawback is Duke doesn’t get much TV play.

  4. choppack1 05/14/2008 at 10:13 AM #

    Disappointed we’re not doing that in basketball. Then again, if it’s not an obvious slam dunk and it has one ounce of risk to it, don’t expect our leaders to act. (Don’t be surprised if they elect next year to go the 18 game schedule though.)

    Regarding football – glad we’re not doing it.

  5. TopTenPack 05/14/2008 at 10:56 AM #

    I hate to see us play ECU in anything. Call it pecking order or what you will, I just don’t think it helps us in athletics.

    BUT…(devils advocate here)…Each UNC system university has its lobby in politics. In my eyes, UNC has the biggest lobby followed by NC State. ECU comes in third (UNC-C is in there somewhere). ECU is hailed as the “Flagship of Eastern NC.” So by playing nice with ECU is sports, the university gains political support when it come policy and budget time in other areas. As is often argued here, athletics supports NC State academic mission.

    Am I smoking crack?

  6. Wolf Dog 05/14/2008 at 11:10 AM #

    You not on crack TopTenPack. with NCSU not having a true journalism school and no law school it just hard for us to get a fair shake in the media or in the political arena. UNC-Charlotte really gets the shaft by the UNC System and the legislature given that The Eastern half of North Carolina has dominated State politics. Hard to imagine that Charlotte the largest city in NC and largest city in a five state area has not had a law school or a medical school, the UNC System Board should be ashamed.

  7. ruffles31 05/14/2008 at 11:11 AM #

    I agree with playing Duke in years they are not on our ACC schedule.

    My only thought on why we didn’t schedule them was that someone in the ACC office told the schools to not schedule games against conference teams not in that year’s official ACC schedule.

  8. packbackr04 05/14/2008 at 11:35 AM #

    THOUGHT THIS WAS INTERESTING. THREADJACK:
    Georgetown point guard Jeremiah Rivers announced Wednesday he’s transferring. With N.C. State’s needs at the position and the possibility it may not land John Wall, it would make sense for Sidney Lowe to seriously consider landing Rivers.

    Although he’s not much of an offensive force, he’s a smart player who comes from excellent bloodlines. His father is Doc Rivers, and his son clearly knows the game.

    State would get just one year from Rivers, but the program needs some insurance at the position, and perhaps even a starter, even if it’s just for a single season.

    this is from andrew jones in wilmington…. are there any legs to this story?

  9. CaptainCraptacular 05/14/2008 at 12:01 PM #

    No 5 yard face mask penalty? Does that mean that even an incidental brush will result in a 15 yarder or will they only just call the serious variety? This is a pretty significant rule change if everything becomes 15 yards. There’s no way an accidental touch of the face mask is deserving of a major penalty.

  10. choppack1 05/14/2008 at 12:35 PM #

    “UNC-Charlotte really gets the shaft by the UNC System and the legislature given that The Eastern half of North Carolina has dominated State politics. Hard to imagine that Charlotte the largest city in NC and largest city in a five state area has not had a law school or a medical school, the UNC System Board should be ashamed.

    Just as it hard to imagine that the largest school in the state wouldn’t have a medical school or law school. This is the problem w/ accepting public money – you have to submit to the politicians will. I do think a large part of our leaders problems – when it comes to things like spring football, football season tickets, tooting their own horn, pushing for law/medical schools – is that they will awaken UNC powers, only to be crushed by all of the heat it can bring.

  11. El Scrotcho 05/14/2008 at 1:33 PM #

    They just eliminated the 5 yard variety. What would have been a 5 yard penalty in the past will not be a foul going forward. The 15 yarder still exists under the exact same criteria.

  12. 79statefan 05/14/2008 at 10:06 PM #

    I agree with football, but there was a chance that basketball could have improved. Who better to play than the ACC in basketball!

  13. Noah 05/15/2008 at 9:04 AM #

    Interesting rule changes. It’s all about making sure those games start and end on time.

  14. GoldenChain 05/15/2008 at 1:53 PM #

    “Some basketball coaches had expressed interest in an 18-game conference schedule, but the issue died this week at the ACC spring meetings when coaches were reminded that a year ago they committed to 16 conference games through 2010-11.”

    I’ll break this down for you:
    “Oh I’m sorry we’re idiots and forgot that we committed to a 16 game schedule for the next two seasons at this very same meeting last year.”

    And you wonder why the ACC is turning into an also-ran joke of a league……

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