Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302210205
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
ACC, BIG EAST NEVER REALLY TALKED MERGER
Last month the whispers surfaced. During the NCAA convention in Dallas, the story broke out of Boston that the ACC and Big East were considering a merger.There were the usual denials, but there was no denying expansion is on the minds of a few of the more powerful conferences - Big Ten, Pacific 10 and Southeastern. And the Southwest was fighting for survival, trying to keep bell cows Texas and Texas A&M in the fold.
So when commissioners Gene Corrigan (ACC) and Mike Tranghese (Big East) huddled behind closed doors, the rumors grew.
The word now is forget it. No merger. Won't happen.
Get the message?
Not that the Big East football conference wouldn't like to see something happen. That recently created league is struggling with its television package.
The talks took place because the ACC, in particular, always has been at the front in the marketplace. The financial success of the SEC's football championship game - at the expense of adding non-TV market schools Arkansas and South Carolina - caused everybody to make a quick study.
But the ACC and Big East won't merge in football, and that's the only way there could be a playoff game.
What the ACC found in exploring the situation was that the Big East barely was breaking even in its football syndication.
The Big East games were cleared for a fall schedule only in Boston and Pittsburgh. In New York, the primary Big East station was owned and operated by ABC and the network's games.
The Big East could get on independent stations or Home Team Sports, but discovered that in Florida, TV was interested only in Miami. Virginia Tech couldn't clear a slate of stations in Virginia to carry all the Big East games.
So, in effect, the Big East brought nothing to the table. And, with its diminishing basketball prominence, it was not a factor there, either.
The ACC discovered how good things really were for it. Jefferson Pilot and Raycom, both in Charlotte, produced an unbelievable package for the league. The ACC generated more TV money than anybody but the SEC, and, combined with the always-lucrative basketball package, no other conference could match the total revenue.
In basketball, the ACC already has a five-year contract with ESPN for more exposure than ever, at a time when the total number of TV games is expected to be drastically reduced.
The league proved to be as recession-proof as possible where TV was concerned. At a time others were hurting, the ACC continued to rake in the big bucks and relatively wide exposure.
The decision to take in Florida State has proved wise and lucrative. Nobody would say never as far as further expansion is concerned, but it does not seem likely unless the national picture changes dramatically.
What other league has been helped by expansion? Certainly not the Big Ten with Penn State, left dangling for four years. And, despite the money produced by the SEC football championship, nobody believes the league helped itself with its choice of new members.
To create Big East football, that conference had to sell its soul to get Miami, which, in the long run, figures to have more trouble sustaining its position than Florida State or Florida.
Essentially, what the ACC did in talks with the Big East was to see if some sort of alliance was possible, a scheduling merger perhaps, that would be beneficial. It has decided it won't be.