ACC claims expansion victory

Expansion generated more revenue, specifically from television, for the ACC and to that end conference commissioner John Swofford claims victory for adding Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Andrew Carter of the Orlando Sentinel reviews the financial particulars of the pre- and post-expansion ACC. Swofford's still bravely flying the "Mission Accomplished" flag.

"I think the way you have to measure expansion is positioning for the
long term," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said. "What we've done is put ourselves in a position to be stronger than we've ever been before and play at the very top level at a consistent basis."

Money talks and tradition walks but what will become of the TV contracts in the next negotation cycle when Disney and Raycom discover Miami and Florida State have morphed into Texas A&M and Fresno State (re: second- or third-fiddles in their own state)?

Do I even have to bring basketball and the death of the round robin? Or the effect of unbalanced schedules?

Leave it to UNC's Dick Baddour to be the voice of caution. Expansion has "worked better than some people expected and in other ways we've got some work to do," Baddour said in the Sentinel.

For the record, if Florida State — as was reported — wanted to leave the ACC in 2003, Swofford should have shown them the door and added Virginia Tech and West Virginia — two programs with immense fan bases (read: the opposite of Miami and BC).

The Pac-10, Big Ten and Big East are all existing quite comfortably despite the absence of a 12th team.

Swofford will never admit that expansion was a mistake. Contrary to the temporary financial gains, only a fool would argue he didn't.