Return to the Splash Page

J

ohn Wildhack wants Syracuse to be the supreme block “S.” SU’s director of athletics since 2016 prides himself on building the Orange into a worldwide commodity, with an emphasis that their bright orange “S” logo — which debuted in 1893 — must remain a universal symbol.

He sits each day in his office — a room buried in the John A. Lally Athletics Complex with hardwood floors that mimic Syracuse’s basketball court — attempting to ascertain how to do so. How can Syracuse stand out? What can be done differently? What’s best for the university moving forward?

In the fluid landscape of college sports, though, unpredictability reigns. The Atlantic Coast Conference has already added another block “S” school, which has to quickly get comfortable with the grueling 3,000-mile flight from northern California to central New York.

Yet the distance excites Wildhack, after the ACC admitted Stanford, California-Berkeley and Southern Methodist into the conference on Sept. 1, 2023. Breaking from the tradition of solely traveling up and down the Atlantic Ocean every season means Syracuse can venture its influence westward. Wildhack said when he flew out west to meet with alumni donors in the past, their top complaint was that SU rarely played in the region. That’s no longer an issue.

“Our brand is a global brand, right?” Wildhack reasoned after stating his support of the ACC’s expansion. “We’ve got a large student population from California, and a growing undergraduate population from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. So I thought, from a brand perspective, it made a lot of sense for Syracuse.”

Wildhack, and 11 other ACC athletic directors, approved a three-team expansion to push the conference to 18 schools beginning in the 2024-25 academic year. Syracuse’s Sept. 20 home game against Stanford is the first ACC football matchup featuring a newly-integrated university, signifying the start of the conference’s future.

Football, specifically, has caused numerous Power Five conferences to realign in heavy doses over the last few years. It’s created a landscape Wildhack called “unsettled,” with the deciding factor to switching conferences often coming down to media rights deals.

Yet the mild-mannered Wildhack has a vehement commitment to the ACC. He expressed confidence in SU’s future, even though little is guaranteed anymore.

“The only certainty of the current collegiate landscape is that more change is coming,” ESPN College Football Senior Writer Pete Thamel said. “Whether that’s continued incremental change as we’ve seen or some type of wholesale shift that reorganizes the whole space remains to be seen. But the only thing I can say with confidence is that there’s no permanence to this moment we are in.”

Thamel added that the ACC gained some security with its three-school expansion, while also increasing shared revenue going forward. It’s been a welcome development for the conference, issuing a successful response to the domino effect that ensued in 2022.

SU Director of Athletics John Wildhack discussed the ACC’s recent expansion prior to Syracuse’s first-ever matchup with Stanford. Brycen Pace | Asst. Photo Editor

On June 30 of that year, USC and UCLA announced their split from the Pacific-12, moving to the midwest-dominated Big Ten. Oregon and Washington followed suit on Aug. 4, 2023, also bolting for the Big Ten. Then, a flood of universities left the Pac-12, many of which merged with the Big 12, seemingly ending the Pac-12 for good.

The ACC reacted quickly, Wildhack said. Discussions were sparked to add Cal and Stanford to the mix, while SMU already had prior interest in joining the conference. Wildhack said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips looked at the Big Ten’s 18-school field, the Big 12’s 16 and the SEC’s 16 and felt his conference lagged behind.

“There was a sense that there could be strength in numbers,” Wildhack said.

California Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton prepared for all possible scenarios once UCLA and USC ditched the Pac-12. The Golden Bears and Stanford were left out of the early portion of the Pac-12 migration, with Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah going to the Big 12, while the Big Ten added four. Still, schools like Cal and Stanford elicited interest in the ACC due to their academic prowess and strong history competing in Olympic sports.

Wildhack added that it was important for the ACC Network — the conference’s personalized streaming channel powered by ESPN — to break into heavily-populated markets in the Bay Area. Plus, SMU’s interest put another lucrative market into play with the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. For Wildhack, it was a no-brainer. Only Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina voted no.

The ACC’s shift is a microcosm of the past two years’ conference realignment developments. No school, or conference, is safe anymore. The traditions of playing geographically close are gone. It’s a system based around money paired with on-field success, a recipe for significant parody.

Even on Sept. 12, the Pac-12 clawed out of its grave by adding four schools from the Mountain West beginning in the 2026-27 academic year. For Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State and San Diego State to rebuild a power conference and break away from the uncertainty regarding the Mountain West’s media deal ending in 2026, the decision wasn’t difficult. The ACC’s media deal expires in 2036. Once that nears, further change is inevitable.

“There might be a short period here where there’s some stability,” Wildhack said of the ACC. “It doesn’t mean that there’s no change coming.”

In the meantime, Wildhack and Syracuse are fully bought into the ACC. He said there was never any doubt about SU’s place in the conference and now sees the 18-team field (17 in football due to Notre Dame’s independence) as an opportunity Syracuse can seize.

Ayush Sawant | Design Editor

He lauded the ACC’s recent success, as it holds the most national titles over the last three years among all Division I conferences. At the same time, Wildhack’s confidence in SU’s athletic status is sky-high. With its women’s lacrosse team reaching back-to-back Final Fours, its men’s lacrosse team and women’s basketball teams ascending and already top-notch field hockey and women’s rowing programs, Syracuse is in a comfortable position across the board.

Still, Wildhack knows it all comes down to one sport.

“Much of it is driven by football,” Wildhack said of conference realignment. “We’ve invested in the football program here and we need to get it good. We’re on that path, and then we need to keep it good.”

Football is king. Just last season, New Year’s Six bowl games averaged 13.5 million viewers, its best audience in five years. And with ESPN reporting last September that since SMU, Stanford and Cal won’t receive a full share of broadcast media revenue for at least the next nine years, it opens up an annual pot of $50-60 million that will be split among the other schools. Programs that win will be rewarded more, per ESPN.

It’s been years since Syracuse football was included with the country’s top programs, much less the ACC’s. But football success directly reaps benefits for the university. SU’s hype has grown immensely under first-year head coach Fran Brown and Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord, though the Orange need wins to show for it.

A rather unknown financial hurdle with realignment, however, is the amount each university will need to spend for travel. With how spread out the West Coast schools are from the heart of the ACC, there was concern among all athletic directors about how to properly handle it. A risk of student-athletes developing brutal travel schedules by regularly flocking from one side of the country to the other grew significantly during realignment discussions.

The ACC worked through the potential issues with travel, though. Since most schools are on the East Coast, Olympic sports teams only have to take one trip out west per season.

Schools like Stanford, which sports a quartered academic schedule, don’t even begin classes until mid-September, increasing its ability to fly east early each school year. It won’t be a perfect system — Stanford, Cal and SMU will always be at a travel disadvantage — but administrators have pledged that it’ll work out.

“Obviously, the increased travel was a concern,” Knowlton said.“But we have been very intentional and deliberate about employing the best practices to mitigate the challenges our student-athletes face as much as we can.”

Knowlton said Cal has hired a sleep expert and examined how its players can maximize their time on airplanes. California has also increased its academic support for student-athletes, among other extra measures.

According to Knowlton, the Golden Bears will attempt to schedule nonconference games versus West Coast schools to minimize travel. He even expressed positivity in that just 12 of Cal’s 30 athletic teams will be experiencing significantly increased travel due to realignment.

It can only be assumed that Stanford and SMU will follow similar paths. Stanford Director of Athletics Bernard Muir and SMU’s Rick Hart could not be reached for comment.

While it doesn’t need to adjust as severely, Syracuse is also answering the travel equation.

Wildhack said the ACC worked tirelessly to prepare schedule models that reduce exhaustion. For instance, both Syracuse basketball teams will play Stanford and California all in one trip this season, Wildhack said. He added the procedure will be the same for every school.

Even with the ACC’s plans, Wildhack said he and his department are always prepared for different scenarios to arise. Whatever avenue can best uphold Syracuse’s brand prominence is what Wildhack wishes to explore. His mission to stay in the ACC, though, hasn’t been impacted by Florida State and Clemson’s ongoing lawsuits against the conference.

In December 2023, FSU sued the ACC to challenge a contract that binds schools with the conference, arguing that the financial penalties for withdrawing are unfairly large. Clemson then sued the ACC in March, also seeking to exit the conference. The ACC has countersued both universities as litigation currently continues.

It’s fostered some uncertainty for the conference’s future. FSU and Clemson are traditionally the class of the ACC’s football scene. Losing them would force a major revenue decrease. At the ACC Football Kickoff in July, Phillips lambasted the lawsuits.

“We will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” the conference’s commissioner said during a press conference. “These disputes continue to be extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful to the league as well as overshadowing our student-athletes and the incredible successes taking place on the field and within the conference.”

The threat of Clemson and Florida State’s exits haven’t concerned Wildhack. He said he holds strong relationships with each of their athletic directors, Graham Neff and Michael Alford, respectively. He hasn’t found it more difficult to collaborate with them while the lawsuits persist.

Syracuse’s focus, however, is on completing its shorter-term goals so it can grow its place within the ACC for the foreseeable future. Especially in football. Wildhack said the ACC is an under-the-radar football conference, and Cal’s Week 2 win over Auburn of the SEC this year helps prove that. He wants nothing more than for SU to develop consistency in its program, and his trust in Brown’s squad shows that the 2024 campaign is critical.

At the same time, establishing greater West Coast outreach is important to Wildhack going forward. Brown believes that will extend to his recruiting efforts. He said before SU’s Week 4 game against Stanford that Syracuse can establish a new dynamic with potential commits out west when traveling there to face Cal or the Cardinal.

Further, Wildhack said the alumni response to football playing at California and the basketball programs taking trips to the Bay Area has been overwhelmingly positive. He said marketing plans haven’t been put into action out west yet, but they’re expecting a major turnout from fans and alumni for those road contests.

Before the Orange travel to Berkeley in mid-November, though, their inaugural meeting with Stanford looms. Wildhack recalled a lighthearted conversation he had with Muir regarding the historic game, reminding him that it’ll be another prime opportunity for Syracuse to grow its image.

“‘This is the battle of the block S’s,’” Wildhack joked to Muir. “But I think it’s great because Stanford’s a national brand, and we’re a national brand,” he added.

Illustration by Flynn Ledoux | Illustration Editor

Published on September 19, 2024 at 12:23 am

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews