Is Virginia Tech's Addition a Plus in the Eyes of Casual ACC Fans?

For the past six years, Virginia Tech has enjoyed an upswing in productivity out of its sports teams since joining the ACC.  Football has stayed at the top of its game, basketball is improving and knocking off the giants, and the Olympic sports continually outdo previous years.

That is all well-and-good for Hokie fans.  However, the addition of Virginia Tech (and that of Boston College and Miami) has not been accepted as great as Hokie fans find it.

Miami, at the time, was a given.  They brought along their buddies from Boston.  The third team in question was Syracuse.  They were supposed to draw in their New York market.  However, the University of Virginia as well as state government "enticed" the ACC to choose Virginia Tech over the Orange.

The move was initially to improve the football side of the conference as well as bring in the "money-making" ACC Championship Game.  The idea in most casual fans' minds were that they would be seeing Miami and Florida State playing in Jacksonville quite often.

With the Seminoles' and Canes' downturns, the Hokies took their opportunity (as they did when joining the Big East) and have won three ACC Championships, along with a runner-up finish.  Florida State and Miami, together, have been to one championship game with Florida State winning in 2005.

If Virginia Tech had as big a name in the casual fan's eye as Florida State or Miami, the fans would not think too much about the move and give it a thumbs up.  However, without a national championship in its hands, and the lack of a huge bowl win in the past few years (sans the last Orange Bowl), the Hokies do not bring the nation into ACC football as USC brings in fans to watch the Pac-10 or Ohio State to the Big Ten.

The ACC casual fans may enjoy football, but the passion in this conference is clearly still basketball.  The big argument, still, is the loss of the round-robin home-and-home regular season scheduling.  The casual fans miss the home-and-home of UNC and Wake Forest and most casual fans look down at the additions due to the fact at the time, the Hokies, Canes, and Eagles were not bringing too much to the table on the basketball court.

With baseball, the ACC received a great addition with the Canes, but not as much as with the Hokies and Eagles.  Since most ACC casual fans enjoy just the big three sports, there is not much use delving into the Olympic sports.

Here are some of the arguments that ACC casual fans can make, and the reality with it:

ACC CF (Casual Fan): ACC football has not improved since increasing to 12.

Reality: Without going to 12, the ACC football would have been more of a joke than the Big East is now. Florida State was on a downturn and there were no other teams there to take its place.  If Tech could climb that fence and grab a national championship in the next few years, VT can bring the ACC to the top with the SEC.

ACC CF: If we stayed with nine teams, Florida State could have at least carried the league by namesake alone.

Reality: That is the worst thing that could happen.  The Pac-10 is having the problem of being looked as a one-team league, though they have some strong contenders in the Oregon school and Cal.  Also, Florida State is not in the same league as USC at this moment and the ACC would still be looked at as a decent FSU school along with the eight dwarfs.  Finally, with FSU having academic problems, the ACC would be standing on shaky ground.

ACC CF: With Virginia Tech winning three championships already, it makes us look like a no-name can come in and dominate the conference.

Reality: Virginia Tech has become a big name in football.  With 16 straight bowl games, the Hokies have twice been given a great opportunity (joining the Big East, joining the ACC).  That took the opportunities and ran with it.  With their recent scheduling of USC and Alabama, as well as their Thursday night affairs, Hokies football has become a household name. Also, jealousy gets you no where.

ACC CF: The ACC Championship Game has been a complete DUD.  We should have stayed with nine.

Reality: The location of the Championship Game has been a big debate.  The fact that the game is in Florida has forced most fans to have to decide if they want to travel to Florida or wait to possibly go to the Orange Bowl.  The initial thought was that FSU and UM would be going a lot so it might as well be in Florida.  If they would move it to Charlotte (eventually), the turnout and excitement would be more intense (and easier to get to for most ACC schools' fans).

ACC CF: This conference is all about basketball anyway.  I miss the home-and-homes during the regular season.

Reality: Sometimes things change.  You still get the big rivalries at least twice a year.  Also, the coaches still debate on increasing the regular season.  At least the ACC is not the Big East in this factor in that they are lucky to even play each team once.

ACC CF: The success that Virginia Tech has started to see diminishes the nation's outlook of this league being the premier college basketball league.

Reality: Not everybody has an elitist outlook on this as you do.  The improvement of Tech will eventually give the ACC another top basketball program.  Also, a lot of the ACC schools have stopped overlooking Tech like most casual fans, so whatever Tech wins in the upcoming seasons, they have definitely earned it.

ACC CF: We would have been as good or better of a conference if Syracuse had joined instead of Virginia Tech.

Reality: Basketball-wise, probably.  Overall, I do not think so.  Virginia Tech has kept football afloat, and having to travel to Blacksburg instead of northern New York has saved the conference schools some travel expense which is important especially in these financial times.  Syracuse football may not have been a big of a joke as it is now if they joined, but they would not be helping the conference on top like Tech has.

The real question to pose to anybody is "What if none of the teams had joined/dropped the ACC/Big East?" 

My personal feeling is that the ACC would be looked at as the Big East is looked at now in football.  Florida State would still be suffering, and some coaching moves may not have been made in the ACC if they were not looked at as a stronger conference (Gainey may still be at GT, Davis may not be at UNC).

The Big East would be quite strong with WVU, Miami, VT, BC, and Pitt. However, I'm not sure if BC and Virginia Tech would have had as much success.  Virginia Tech has gained some recruiting power in North Carolina with the ACC affiliation. VT and Miami would not be as strong as they would be on the basketball side. They would not be the mega-conference they are now in basketball. 

The big loser in all of this is not the Big East or ACC...it is Conference USA.  It lost South Florida, Cincinnati, and Louisville to the Big East on the football side. TCU also left at the same time for greener pastures in the MWC. Conference USA could have been today's MWC with a stacked conference without all of the conference movement.