Why FSU is biggest realignment winner 25 years after joining ACC
Last week I wrote a column taking a trip down realignment memory lane, and I only wish I'd taken it a few steps further. Given the amount of interest it generated, and given my readers' never-ending interest in the topic in general, I probably should have turned the winners and losers piece into a five-part series.
Thanks to the Mailbag, though, we can at least extend this nascent round of realignment nostalgia by another week.
Stewart: You recently evaluated the winners and losers from the 2010 conference realignment frenzy. What about over the last 25 years? I use that number since this month marks 25 years since Penn State joined the Big Ten. Jim Delany recently said, "With all the other expansions around the country, I'm not sure there was one that benefitted both institution and conference as much as this did." Do you agree? Foster. Wilmington, NC
Really, the entirety of modern realignment can be traced to when Penn State joined the Big Ten. As natural a fit as the two seem now, the move seemed outrageous at the time. After all, Pennsylvania's not in the Midwest, and the Big Ten was supposed to have ... um, 10 teams. Penn State's addition, coming at a time when Joe Paterno's program was an unquestioned power, bolstered the conference's brand and made it college sports' most desired TV property. And Penn State no longer had to subsist largely in the football wasteland of the Northeast. Wisconsin may be far away, but Penn State has more in common with Wisconsin than Temple.
The only reason I'd question whether this has indeed been the most mutually beneficial conference-university marriage is because Penn State football peaked shortly upon joining. Its undefeated 1994 campaign came in its second season in the league. Save for a couple high points since then (the 2005 Orange and 2008 Rose Bowl teams) the Nittany Lions have not significantly bolstered the actual on-field product. They've won the same number of Big Ten championships (three) as Northwestern during the same span. And of course the Jerry Sandusky scandal and ensuing sanctions hurt the entire league.
Instead, I would take Delany's quote and apply it to Florida State and the ACC, a move announced 25 years ago this September as part of the TV consolidation wave ushered in by the Big Ten/Penn State union. The ACC to that point had almost no football visibility. FSU was quickly emerging as a behemoth. This quote at the time from then-ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan is telling: "Their football team had more national television exposure last year than all our teams had together."
Bobby Bowden has said many times that he steered the 'Noles to the ACC instead of the SEC because he felt he'd have a better chance of winning a national championship. And he was right. His teams won crowns in 1993 and '99, all the while running roughshod over the rest of the conference. Eventually the 'Noles' dominance motivated other programs like Clemson to raise their game. It also paved the way for the ACC's second expansion a decade later.
Both schools' moves were the beginning of the end for independents. In 1990 there were 26. Today there are three. Here's a random nugget: Of those 26, 15 subsequently joined two or more conferences. Louisville alone has competed in four (Conference USA, the Big East, the American and the ACC).
God bless realignment -- but solely for Mailbag purposes.
Last week I wrote a column taking a trip down realignment memory lane, and I only wish I'd taken it a few steps further. Given the amount of interest it generated, and given my readers' never-ending interest in the topic in general, I probably should have turned the winners and losers piece into a five-part series.
Thanks to the Mailbag, though, we can at least extend this nascent round of realignment nostalgia by another week.
Stewart: You recently evaluated the winners and losers from the 2010 conference realignment frenzy. What about over the last 25 years? I use that number since this month marks 25 years since Penn State joined the Big Ten. Jim Delany recently said, "With all the other expansions around the country, I'm not sure there was one that benefitted both institution and conference as much as this did." Do you agree? Foster. Wilmington, NC
Really, the entirety of modern realignment can be traced to when Penn State joined the Big Ten. As natural a fit as the two seem now, the move seemed outrageous at the time. After all, Pennsylvania's not in the Midwest, and the Big Ten was supposed to have ... um, 10 teams. Penn State's addition, coming at a time when Joe Paterno's program was an unquestioned power, bolstered the conference's brand and made it college sports' most desired TV property. And Penn State no longer had to subsist largely in the football wasteland of the Northeast. Wisconsin may be far away, but Penn State has more in common with Wisconsin than Temple.
The only reason I'd question whether this has indeed been the most mutually beneficial conference-university marriage is because Penn State football peaked shortly upon joining. Its undefeated 1994 campaign came in its second season in the league. Save for a couple high points since then (the 2005 Orange and 2008 Rose Bowl teams) the Nittany Lions have not significantly bolstered the actual on-field product. They've won the same number of Big Ten championships (three) as Northwestern during the same span. And of course the Jerry Sandusky scandal and ensuing sanctions hurt the entire league.
Instead, I would take Delany's quote and apply it to Florida State and the ACC, a move announced 25 years ago this September as part of the TV consolidation wave ushered in by the Big Ten/Penn State union. The ACC to that point had almost no football visibility. FSU was quickly emerging as a behemoth. This quote at the time from then-ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan is telling: "Their football team had more national television exposure last year than all our teams had together."
Bobby Bowden has said many times that he steered the 'Noles to the ACC instead of the SEC because he felt he'd have a better chance of winning a national championship. And he was right. His teams won crowns in 1993 and '99, all the while running roughshod over the rest of the conference. Eventually the 'Noles' dominance motivated other programs like Clemson to raise their game. It also paved the way for the ACC's second expansion a decade later.
Both schools' moves were the beginning of the end for independents. In 1990 there were 26. Today there are three. Here's a random nugget: Of those 26, 15 subsequently joined two or more conferences. Louisville alone has competed in four (Conference USA, the Big East, the American and the ACC).
God bless realignment -- but solely for Mailbag purposes.
