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Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

wakegrrl said:
The N&O writes a long piece today on Wake and its future in collegiate athletics. Better than I would have expected from them. If you hit the paywall, you know what to do.

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A couple of takeaways:
-The relationship within the ACC membership is broken; clear division between the "Magnificent 7" and the others, and "the others" ain't happy this stuff was done behind their backs (and p.s. "outsiders" like Wake would gladly make it an "outstanding 8" if we were asked to join the party).
-Wake is surviving and actually thriving off of facility upgrades, but other larger schools can easily match or exceed us if they choose to do so. For example, Alabama can fund a pitching lab tomorrow of Wake's caliber if the want to throw a bone of football $$ to the baseball program. Bottom line: you can't spend yourself forever into athletic prosperity w/o the t.v. and NIL $$ that the major properties can bring over time.
-While the article and Curry talk about Wake being a "small private" and the challenges that it brings, there is to my recollection no mention of the opportunity...or challenge.. that being an elite academic university brings to the whole landscape for Wake Forest. The whole tone of the article for me is that the athletic component is so far removed from the academic mission that it is primarily a professional endeavor increasingly apart from the university itself. And a lot of folks are o.k. with that; as alumni and supporters, where you fall with that and how that impacts your interest in college sports the coming years will be telling as to whether or not the current model survives.
 
DownEastDeac said:
The whole tone of the article for me is that the athletic component is so far removed from the academic mission that it is primarily a professional endeavor increasingly apart from the university itself. And a lot of folks are o.k. with that; as alumni and supporters, where you fall with that and how that impacts your interest in college sports the coming years will be telling as to whether or not the current model survives.
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I wish college sports were still college sports, and I hate that it's moving towards a professional model where all that matters is money (I watch only professional baseball and occasionally soccer; I wouldn't watch an NBA or NFL game if they played it in my backyard). But college sports as we grew up on it is dead. It's something different now, whether we like it or not. Given this, I want WFU to take advantage of every opportunity to excel. Every. One.

It's also refreshing to see WFU doing all this stuff, as opposed to the old way of pretending to be above it. That absurd attempt at lowering expectations pissed me off for so long.
 
Kent said:
I wish college sports were still college sports, and I hate that it's moving towards a professional model where all that matters is money (I watch only professional baseball and occasionally soccer; I wouldn't watch an NBA or NFL game if they played it in my backyard). But college sports as we grew up on it is dead. It's something different now, whether we like it or not. Given this, I want WFU to take advantage of every opportunity to excel. Every. One.

It's also refreshing to see WFU doing all this stuff, as opposed to the old way of pretending to be above it. That absurd attempt at lowering expectations pissed me off for so long.
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I’m with you. Do whatever it takes. It helps the school for us to have strong athletics in a conference that matters.
 
Other than it being fucking Iowa, why exactly shouldn't Iowa be safe? Wondering exactly which metric we're using to come to this conclusion other than Iowa being boring as fuck.
 
w84it said:
Other than it being fucking Iowa, why exactly shouldn't Iowa be safe? Wondering exactly which metric we're using to come to this conclusion other than Iowa being boring as fuck.
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Yeah, if we’re only concerned with on field/court/etc. performance then Iowa should definitely be safe.
 
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DownEastDeac said:
A couple of takeaways:
-The relationship within the ACC membership is broken; clear division between the "Magnificent 7" and the others, and "the others" ain't happy this stuff was done behind their backs (and p.s. "outsiders" like Wake would gladly make it an "outstanding 8" if we were asked to join the party).
-Wake is surviving and actually thriving off of facility upgrades, but other larger schools can easily match or exceed us if they choose to do so. For example, Alabama can fund a pitching lab tomorrow of Wake's caliber if the want to throw a bone of football $$ to the baseball program. Bottom line: you can't spend yourself forever into athletic prosperity w/o the t.v. and NIL $$ that the major properties can bring over time.
-While the article and Curry talk about Wake being a "small private" and the challenges that it brings, there is to my recollection no mention of the opportunity...or challenge.. that being an elite academic university brings to the whole landscape for Wake Forest. The whole tone of the article for me is that the athletic component is so far removed from the academic mission that it is primarily a professional endeavor increasingly apart from the university itself. And a lot of folks are o.k. with that; as alumni and supporters, where you fall with that and how that impacts your interest in college sports the coming years will be telling as to whether or not the current model survives.
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I disagree with this. It has been stated previously but it's worth repeating - the pitching lab is nothing without the scientists/engineers analyzing and interpreting the data. There is not a research-oriented medical school in Tuscaloosa, so they will struggle to create a similar pitching lab, even if they had the resources.
 
Rafi said:
I disagree with this. It has been stated previously but it's worth repeating - the pitching lab is nothing without the scientists/engineers analyzing and interpreting the data. There is not a research-oriented medical school in Tuscaloosa, so they will struggle to create a similar pitching lab, even if they had the resources.
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To be fair, point 1 is also entirely made up from Kent’s own thoughts. No where does the article even imply a broken relationship.

I also agree with you entirely about the lab btw. The interview on Saturday was clear that we do things differently than other schools, even if they have similar facilities.
 
Rafi said:
I disagree with this. It has been stated previously but it's worth repeating - the pitching lab is nothing without the scientists/engineers analyzing and interpreting the data. There is not a research-oriented medical school in Tuscaloosa, so they will struggle to create a similar pitching lab, even if they had the resources.
Click to expand...

I don’t know the specifics but I assume they have plenty of other programs to draw from and they can hire talent to make up for a lack of undergrads and grad assistants.
 
PhDeac said:
I don’t know the specifics but I assume they have plenty of other programs to draw from and they can hire talent to make up for a lack of undergrads and grad assistants.
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yeah it sounded like our biomechanist has a day job too. I'm pretty sure Alabama could make a dayjob a non-issue for someone if they chose
 
WindyCityDeac said:
yeah it sounded like our biomechanist has a day job too. I'm pretty sure Alabama could make a dayjob a non-issue for someone if they chose
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Their day jobs are things like "academic orthopedic surgeon" and " PhD in orthopedic research," so I suppose Alabama could start a research medical school in Tuscaloosa to make the day job part possible, but that seems like a stretch.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
yeah it sounded like our biomechanist has a day job too. I'm pretty sure Alabama could make a dayjob a non-issue for someone if they chose
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You’re assuming that these big programs spend money on sports other than football and basketball. Obviously the sec spends in baseball, but generally speaking trickle down athletics funding is horseshit.
 
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