Expansion anxiety
It's good to read that the Greensboro Coliseum is still in the running for future men's ACC basketball tournaments.
Greensboro, and the Coliseum, provide the very best location for this outstanding athletic and cultural event.
And this may be the only place where the ACC tournament is a cultural event.
What worries me, though, is the impact of ACC expansion from nine to 12 schools. That translates to a 33 percent increase in demand for ticket allocation and pressure to hold the event in a much larger facility, such as the 36,000-seat Georgia Dome.
The Greensboro Coliseum seats 23,500 for basketball.
Basically, the difference between the two venues boils down to 1,000 tickets per school. That potentially represents a lot more happy donors when the tourney goes to Atlanta.
There are good reasons for the league to keep Greensboro in the tourney mix, and I hope those always will receive fair consideration. One is simply that those who do attend will have a much better tournament experience.
But there were good reasons to keep the ACC at nine members. The league decided to expand for reasons having a lot to do with money.
And, in terms of football, a 12-team conference divided into two divisions, with a championship game, makes sense.
For basketball, in my opinion, a 12-team league stinks. It's too big, it creates scheduling problems, and it waters down traditional rivalries. I've written a couple of times before about my ideal alternative.
Add to that the possibility that Greensboro will have fewer opportunities to host the ACC tournament.
If that's the way the ball bounces, I don't like it.