The basketball Big East still has its claim staked with the Big East Tournament. The Big Ten is trying to work its way in there with (*cough*, *snortle*) Rutgers joining and being a part of the Pinstripe Bowl. The American… Okay they quit and are going to Memphis for their tournament.
Then there is the ACC. Having their “Welcome to the ACC” event for Pitt, Syracuse and Notre Dame in NYC was yet another signal that the ACC is making a push for their place in NYC.
To ACC-centric beat writers this was a particularly overt and direct move.
This was the ACC like we’ve never seen. Lobster-on-crostini hors d’oeuvres and piped-in-jazz overlooking Times Square rather than barbecue, hush puppies and Kenny Chesney out yonder. An aggressive, confident marketing campaign instead of the staid, traditional odes to the past.
All to mark Monday’s official arrival of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame to the conference. All to transparently proclaim the ACC is in the big city to stay.
Oh, there were down-home touches such as sending the 15 schools’ mascots to the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. But Monday’s rollout was more Gordon Gekko than Bones McKinney, more single-malt than sweet tea, complete with the Twitter hashtag “#ACCtakesNYC.”
The only thing missing was ACC graffiti at Penn Station.
In short, this is business, kids, and the league wisely intends to do “bidness” in New York.
“This is a very prominent city from a media standpoint, from a sports standpoint, that has not been in our footprint,” Commissioner John Swofford said during an afternoon news conference at the NASDAQ stock exchange. “It is now, as of today, and we want to treat it with the appropriate level of importance we think it brings.”
If you think Swofford was being subtle about saying that the ACC is looking at NYC as in their market area, well…
“We wanted to showcase the Atlantic Coast Conference in New York City and to show that this is a very important part of our new footprint,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said.
The Big East and Big Ten could reasonably view that statement as meaning: shots fired.
