ACC's John Swofford: Forerunner for Big Ten Expansion

What's next for the Big Ten's powerful commissioner Jim Delany? He's brought Penn State into the conference, masterminded the Big Ten Network, and is on the verge of another expansion which could establish the first "Super Conference," in college football.

While he and the Big Ten's 11 athletic directors hash out the pluses and minuses of his latest project; it should be mentioned that John Swofford, the athletic director of the Atlantic Coast Conference, has to be given credit. 

If the Big Ten decides to add more teams, Swofford could be considered the "Forerunner of Big Ten Expansion."

In 2003, John Swafford, with some help from the University of Miami's president Donna Shelala, introduced the country to a new phenomenon—"Raiding your neighbors conference."

It could be said that everything the Big Ten is presently talking about, was precipitated by the ACC's raid on the Big East in 2003. Swafford's ACC made it fashionable and has paved the way for the Big Ten to conduct a raid of their own. 

He is truly the pioneer in raiding one's fellow conference.

Back in the 1990's, Arkansas left the Southwest Conference for the SEC. It was an isolated incident and only involved one school.  The Southwest Conference had self-destructed from scandals and a death penalty to SMU—Arkansas had every right to move on.

But is was Swafford, who took us to a whole new level of undercutting, as he made a clear effort to bring the Big East Conference to its knees.

Seven Years Later: Money

Seven years later, one can look at the ACC and see that the big television money Swafford promised, has never materialized. 

The following is a list from ESPN of the leading conferences for television money in 2009: 

Big Ten — $242 Million

SEC — $205 million

Big 12 — $78 million

ACC — $67 million

Pac Ten — $58 million

The Big East — $33 million

When one divides the ACC's $58 million by its 12 teams, it comes out to slightly less than Five Million Dollars.  Big East football schools make at least that much.

Seven Years Later: Football and Basketball

Can we all agree that the Big East has clearly passed the ACC as the nations no. 1 basketball conference?

You may argue that North Carolina and Duke have won the last two NCAA National Championships, and I agree, it's a two deep conference. The Big East goes 10 deep.

What about football? Virginia Teach has dominated the ACC.  Swafford's dream of sending two schools from the ACC to BCS games has never materialized.  And what happened to Miami and Florida State?

Football is where the money is and the ACC just hasn't gotten the job done!

Since the expansion, no ACC team has been in contention for a national championship, and the only reason they've played in BCS games was because they have an automatic berth.

Before the raid on the Big East, Swafford spoke about the benefits of an ACC Championship Game—that hasn't materialized either.

While the SEC Championship game is impossible to get tickets for, the 2007 ACC Championship game drew 27,000 people, and who knows how many tickets they gave away—nobody watched the game!

Boston College's Identification

Has Boston College ever developed an identification with the ACC? Former Boston College grad, and 1987 NFL Rookie of the Year, Troy Stratford says no.  On his WFTL daily radio show last month, Stradford said moving to the ACC was the "wrong move."

Has the city of Boston embraced the ACC or are they still fixed on long-term Northeast rivalries?

When Boston College Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo followed his friend Donna Shelala, like a lamb, right into the ACC, no one thought it would turn out like this.

Boston College fans can't drive to games, their great rivalries are gone, and in case you haven't looked at a map lately, they're located 400 miles north of the next closest ACC team—that would be Maryland.

Today

When Swafford talked-up long term stability as a reason for the 2003 expansion, I guess he didn't expect to reach for his newspaper on Friday, and read that reports were released that Florida State has been in conversations with the SEC.

When Swofford made clear in 2003 that Rutgers was not a good fit for the ACC, I guess he forgot to count the population in the greater New York area like the Big Ten has.

How fitting would it be for the SEC, either pro-actively or re-actively, to make a play Florida Sate and Miami? Maybe they'll add Clemson and Georgia Tech and make it a four-bagger?

And how fitting would it be for the ACC to have to recruit UConn when the dust settles from a possible Big Ten expansion.  UConn, the team who's state filed two law suits against Swofford and the ACC in 2003!