ACC: ALREADY CROUCHING COURTSIDE
If it’s November, it means that ACC fans not named “Seminoles” are already fully deserting football for basketball. This is no ugly stereotype of the average mid-Atlantic sports consumer, but fact: North Carolina has sold 1,100 of a 4,000 ticket block reserved for Tarheel fans for this weekend’s Maryland game, a game that sadly interferes with the tip-off for North Carolina basketball.
From the inimitable LOLJocks.
Butch Davis has repeated time and time again how he’s not interested in the Tennessee job, and may very well actually mean what he says and not take it, but he has to at least wonder what it would be like to coach at a school where fans show up in droves, or actually show up with consistency. (Admission: having coached at Miami, it is a feeling he should be familiar with at the college level.)
Loading ...
1
vthokiej says:
Umm, don’t group all of us ACC fans together. You won’t see any Virginia Tech fans abandoning football for basketball.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
2
Bobby Decatur says:
All a matter of perception. I would kill to be able to just walk up to the gate, towhead in tow, and grab a couple of tix and some popcorn for the price actually printed on the ticket. It must feel so free
As it is, I had to trade aforementioned towhead to slavery, plus pay $600 for two upper level tickets to the bloody Central Michigan game earlier this year. Life could be worse, Tarheel football fans.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
3
Rawk says:
I didn’t know you could sell 1,100 ACC football tickets. Someone tell the guys running the ACCCG there is still hope of getting people to actually PAY this year!
November 12th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
4
I R A Darth Aggie says:
You won’t see any Virginia Tech fans abandoning football for basketball.
Does VaTech even have a basketball team?
November 12th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
5
yoyofutbawl says:
I would rather watch any shitty SEC football game (re: Aubarn/MSU) than a better than average ACC basketball game. Unless the following happens:
Train fare to the ACC Tournament Semi Finals: $1.30
Scalped Ticket to same: $250
Seeing Dook & Coach K lose: Priceless
November 12th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
6
meatybob says:
Oh I dunno, how was attendance when Mack Brown had his top 10 N. Carolina team?
I think it is still a CF world. If NC was undefeated and ranked #1, I imagine that the situtation would be reversed, even if the BB game was Duke.
Maybe.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
7
Year2-Dave says:
I live in Charlotte, and the local sports radio has been nothing but ACC basketball today except for a couple of random South Carolina fans admonishing the “state across the north border” for not having any real football fans.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
8
Coop says:
And, yoyo is dead to me.
I have a question for all those Tennessee fans who think Davis is going to leave Carolina to coach in hickville because Tennessee is a “football school,” and Carolina is a “basketball school,” or “women’s soccer,” school as Dean Smith was fond of saying:
do you think Butch Davis was not 100% aware of what he was signing on for at Carolina?
Do you really think he went in thinking that all of a sudden he was going to turn Chapel Hill into Athens or Tuscaloosa?
They will give him a raise and set some permanent dates for upgrading Kenan, and he will announce he is staying, even though Tennessee will offer more money.
Why?
Getting paid $3MM, or close to it, with less expectations and beating up on the ACC is a lot more pleasant than getting paid $3.5MM or a little more, and facing unrealistic expectations and facing Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Mark Richt, and to a lesser extent Steve Spurrier, every year.
Also, that recruiting base of hickville and hickville state is certainly a peach, isn’t it Fulmer? Look what happens when your rival schools hire coaches who can recruit…
November 12th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
9
Geori says:
Butch Davis is going to leave Carolina in the next three years. If it was so great, then why’d Mack leave? Whether or not he goes to Tennessee remains to be seen.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
10
carolina football fan says:
I guess my friend and I will be among those 1100 proud Carolina fans in College Park on Saturday afternoon.
You have to wonder why the State fans are posting this information on their blog? Perhaps it’s a bit of a wish-fulfillment–searching for some reason that Davis might leave? A little afraid of what’s going on in CH?
November 12th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
11
Digital Headbutt says:
I don’t see it as thousands of Tar Heel fans who have abaondoned their football team; far from it. I see this as 1,100 souls brave enough to willingly travel to a game in College Park, Maryland.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
12
Year2-Dave says:
@9 Geori
Mack Brown left UNC for Austin when he was in his late 40s and still looking to climb the ladder.
Butch Davis is in his late 50s, has already coached at Miami and in the NFL, and is a cancer survivor. He’s in a completely different place in his life now than Brown was in when he left Chapel Hill.
The comparison is not really apt, and there’s no guarantee that Davis will leave UNC.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
13
I'm A Lasagna Hog says:
4, VT basketball is much like UNC football. Recent, moderate success living in the shadow of the school’s real program.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
14
Unconscious says:
I’m certain there will be more than 1,100 UNC fans at the game. Apparently the Rams Club returned their unsold allotment super-early. But when many of your bigwigs are going be courtside (and with the price of hoops tickets to see the #1 Heels, you’d better not let those go to waste), you’re going to lose some attendance.
As to the Davis-Brown departure comparisons, UNC has walked through the valley of the shadow of death and now knows the economic perils of leaving the program in the hands of untested buffoons. Mack had UNC in the top 5; no reason Butch won’t see that same potential, especially given the big fish he’s reeling in on the recruiting trail.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
15
Unconscious says:
P.S. This is a road game, just to be clear — five hours one-way from Chapel Hill.
November 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
16
bofavol says:
@8 I’m hoping for a younger coach that will be there for a while, but the only reason he wouldn’t take it if offered is that he doesn’t plan on coaching that much longer and doesn’t want to start over.
It’s easy to recruit nationally at Tennessee with the name recognition, the facilities, NFL factory status etc… which is why we have two top 5 recruiting on the roster currently (although you’d never know it by how they’ve been managed and developed).
As far as the expectations and fear of the SEC, successful coaches don’t think that way. They have type A/ Alpha male personalities with varying degree of ego. They all want to prove they are the best. And to be the best you have to beat the best, and the best my friends are in the SEC.
Lastly, I don’t know if we WILL, but we CAN offer to double his 2.2 million salary. Money talks.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
17
Coop says:
You have also finished #23 and #35 in recruiting in the last 3 years. The above is with the largest recruiting budget in the nation. The above is a far cry from what Tennessee was doing in the mid 90s, when every year you were in the top 10 and most years you were in the top 5.
You know why you are becoming more inconsistent in recruiting? Saban, Meyer, Miles, Richt…heck Tommy Bowden was beating you out for recruits.
Tennessee’ s success under Fulmer came when they were in a watered down SEC where they only had to play two teams with talent and coaching, Alabama and Florida.
Now, LSU, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and South Carolina all have coaches who can both recruit and coach. You play 4 of the above every season, and most of the years you will be playing 5.
All of the above schools have much better in-state talent to recruit, and will continue to make it harder for you to cherrypick their states. I will say the same about the states of Oklahoma and Texas.
You are going to find during this coaching search that Tennessee is not as desired a coaching spot as you folks think, and you will be overpaying for whomever you hire.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
18
bofavol says:
Well, I guess thats it. The 9th winningest football program in the country should just shut it down because there is no hope. Funny, your argument is very similar to one I made to an Alabama fan 3 years ago. I feel pretty stupid now for that. You will too. I just hope it doesn’t take us a decade to find the right guy.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
19
Gen. Stoopnagle says:
Coop nailed it as far as I’m concerned. I would consider Butch Davis less smart than I do now if he jumped from UNC to UT. I think he learned when he left the juggernaught he built for Larry Coker for the not-so-greener pastures of Cleveland that sometimes where you are at is a nice place.
If I were a coach, I’d take the potential of a flagship university’s football program in a basketball centric – but BCS – conference over an SEC job any day. The path to success is less rocky through the ACC almost every year. Why do you people think FSU joined that other league anyway? For basketball?
Plus, Tennessee is one of the great CFB programs in the nation. No doubt. But it’s not the plum job of the SEC. There’s little instate recruiting talent, you have to go national and your competing against Florida, Georgia and Bama who can lock up their respective states. It’s just a tougher deal than UNC.
Davis could be in the Orange Bowl THIS YEAR.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
20
DrB says:
Well, not all of us ACC fans are jumping to Bball. Clemson is only average and most of us in orange dont care about basketball all that much.
I just dont see why Davis would leave UNC yet. He’s going to win the ACC Coastal either this year or the next, and likely from then onwards they’ll be at the top of that division every year. That seems like a good chance to get to a BCS game every year to me. He wont get that at UT with Florida and Georgia in the same division, and playing Alabama every single year.
The only question is whether a)he wants the extra money (which UNC could pay) or b) the status as Top Dog on campus.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
21
NRBQ says:
Is it just me who can recognize a Coop post from reading the opening sentence?
November 12th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
22
Holly says:
Nope.
November 12th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
23
Neil says:
Y’all will have to forgive us; we got a little out of the habit of travelling to road games given the exquisite joys of seeing your team stomped into a mudhole 55-7 or so on repeated occasions. Plus, it’s College Park. Have a little understanding. Even Maryland fans don’t want to spend any more time than necessary in College Park.
If Davis stays and keeps recruiting and winning like we think he can, have no fear, we’ll draw enough insufferable and obnoxious bandwagon Wal Marters to do our hoops program (or the SEC) proud.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
24
Bakka says:
FYI, its Tar Heels. And I’m sure there will be a decent contingent on hand for the Maryland game. The blame (as always) falls on Dickie Baddour for allowing this scheduling fuckup.
November 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm