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Tough schedule. BJD, astute as ever, offers great point about crap scheduling of our bye. ECU will definitely be winnable bellweather – tough away game crowd, but they are breaking in new staff. Wake, BC and ‘Cuse are must-wins in conference. I agree with those that say we could be improved, but the record will not reflect it.
Again, the UNC-State game is stuck at the end of the schedule, on a Friday no less, when the students are away on Thanksgiving break.
As a counterpoint to 13OT, the last weekend of the college football season has traditionally been “Rivalry Week.” Think Michigan-tOSU, Alabama-Auburn, FSU-Florida, GT-Georgia, Clemson-SCar, etc. For many years, the Cheats “Rivalry Week” opponent was Duke for that stupid bell. This caused State fans to howl in protest that the Cheats true football rival was State, yet the State-Cheats rivalry was punished at the expense of the Duke-Cheats rivalry. Not only did the State-Cheats rivalry not get “Rivalry Week” scheduling, the game’s scheduling has been inconsistent from season to season. State couldn’t even get the ACC to acknowledge the rivalry with a regular date, i.e. Alabama-Tennessee’s Third Saturday in October or the Red River Rivalry during the Texas State Fair. That changed during TOB’s tenure (recall TOB’s non-support because he was opposed to playing a cross-division game immediately before the ACC Championship). IIRC, this change was due to Yow’s efforts in lobbying the ACC to move the game to promote the State-Cheats rivalry. The ACC did this, amazingly in opposition to the Cheats’ stated preference to play Duke during Rivalry Week.
I would agree that Friday scheduling is never ideal, but note that other rivalry games make this work. Last year, two long-running rivalries, the Apple Cup (UW-Washington State) and the Civil War (Oregon-Oregon State), were both on Black Friday. TCU-Baylor, a former SWC rivalry re-developing in the new Big XII, was also on Black Friday. In the past, the Egg Bowl (Ole Miss – Miss. State) has been held on Black Friday. Before conference realignment killed it, Texas-Texas A&M was traditionally played on Black Friday.
My preference would be to have the State-Cheats game get a designated week during the season, promoted like OU-Texas or Alabama-Tennessee. However, given the flexibility requirements of the expanded ACC and the almighty TV schedule, I seriously doubt the ACC would work with us on that. To boost the rivalry, the next best option is to have it during Rivalry Week – which the ACC has done. If the price of that is to hold the game on Black Friday sometimes, I guess I can accept that. It’s better than what we had prior – random scheduling that did nothing to promote the rivalry.
Great win by the Pack! I thought this was the least likely game we would win during this tough 3 game stretch.
Minor irritation: tuned in to local sports radio station just now to catch their Sportscenter update for news on game. The idiots in Bristol said “Major upset in college basketball as North Carolina knocks off Duke 87-75.” Seriously.
AlphaWolf wrote:
The city of New York only gave the Garden a ten year license renewal to continue operations last year with the understanding that would be the last of it because there are plans to rebuild and expand Penn Station, which the current Garden sits on top of.
I’ll believe that when I see it. A “new Penn Station” was first proposed by the late Sen. Moynihan back in the early ’90s and they’re still “finalizing plans” for it. The project is truly a cluster with all the government entities that have a stake in it (NYC, State of NY/MTA, Port Authority, State of NJ/NJ Transit, and Feds/Amtrak). Having lived in the area for 3 years when talk of the “new Penn Station” was really heating up again when NYC was making its push to get some “shovel ready” stimulus money to kickstart the project, I remember that the Dolans/Cablevision/MSG originally offered to move MSG a few blocks west to accommodate the new Penn Station. Dolans knew current MSG either needed a massive renovation or start over and build MSG V (current MSG is the fourth MSG). However, all the government entities involved kept bickering about location, design, who would have which tracks and where, etc. Finally, Dolans got tired of waiting and set about renovating MSG based on the most favored plan at the time that the Farley Post Office (designed by same firm that designed old Penn Station) would be converted into the new headhouse for Penn Station rather than building a brand new headhouse where the current MSG sits. you are correct that the City Council did vote in 2013 to only extend MSG’s permit 10 years, but they did that over Bloomberg’s objections (City Council is heavily democratic and not as business friendly as City Hall has been under Rudy G/Bloomberg). After 10 years, MSG has to either relocate or reapply for another permit, and I’m guessing that the legal battle will be epic given the amount of money invested in renovating MSG, only to find out it might only be good for a decade. Will be interesting to see the effect De Blasio has on City Hall too…could be a whiplash effect back towards pro-biz candidates after him, which could trickle down to City Council.
Back on topic – I’ve resigned myself that the “new ACC” will have changes, including the Tourney being held more up north and a lot less in G’boro. Since that’s the case, Barclays is a great option – it’s a first class venue in its own right. It doesn’t have the tradition of MSG, but it gives up nothing in amenities to even the renovated MSG. And IMO, it’s an easier venue to get to than MSG. Same or better mass transit connections (both subway and LIRR), without the hassle of being on top of the busiest train station in the US. Plus, Brooklyn is the “hot/trendy” borough with some great entertainment options, and Manhattan is still just a quick trip across the East River. The other thing is that I believe the Swoff approached MSG during the breakup of the Big East and MSG wanted a long-term exclusive deal with the ACC to ditch the Big East. Swoff (rightly so) decided that would be too drastic and that he still wanted a rotation among traditional sites with a new NYC venue added. Barclays will allow that. I will say that unlike the Tourney’s trips to other far flung conference outposts, Barclays will likely have a huge home-team attendance surge – Cuse fans WILL show up in big numbers (they always did at MSG). I was at the Tourney in 2005 in DC and for all their whining about it never being in DC, when it was the Twerps didn’t exactly pack the arena (of course, they also lost in the first round too…).
