We now know for certain that UNC-CH and NC State will be playing each other in a home-and-home series next season, but after that it may be a few years before the Pack and Tar Heels face each other in each team's respective arena. NC State and UNC have been playing each other twice each season for almost a century, so why is the ACC deciding to change this long standing tradition now? Besides, the ACC prides itself on upholding tradition. The only somewhat logical reason to end this home-and-home series is money. With everything in college athletics now dictated by the dollar signs, I can see where ACC Commissioner John Swofford (I'll have more on him later) and ESPN decided to end this. I will admit, ESPN and subsequently the ACC make a lot of money off of the Duke-UNC rivalry, but what is going to happen to this so called rivalry when both Roy Williams and Coach K retire? K announced this week that he was not going to coach the 2016 US Olympic team, and I have been hearing rumors recently that K will retire after the 2013-2014 season. With NC State on the rise, and Duke appearing to be on the decline after their somewhat boring season last year and loss to Lehigh in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, I think this is a stupid move on the part of the Commissioner and ESPN. One way this could be solved is to institute two divisions. Once Syracuse and Pitt join the conference (probably in the fall of 2013), there will be 14 teams in the conference. Seven of these teams will be the original teams from the ACC, and the other seven will be implants from the Big East. So my two proposed divisions would shape up like this:
- Original ACC Teams
- Clemson
- Duke
- Maryland
- UNC-Chapel Hill
- NC State
- Virginia
- Wake Forest
- Old Big East Teams
- Boston College
- Georgia Tech
- Florida State
- Miami
- Pittsburgh
- Syracuse
- Virginia Tech
With this system I would have each team play every team in their division twice, home and away, and every team from the opposite division once. The only negative to this system is that there would be 19 conference games as opposed to the 18 game schedule that is proposed for next season. Another problem would be cross-state rivals in different divisions (i.e. UVA-VPI), but that could be easily rectified by scheduling a non-conference game in addition to the regularly scheduled ACC game. Even though this system would more than likely work, it would never be implemented because it is fair to all teams, which the ACC does not want.
Which brings me to my last point, ACC Commissioner John Swofford. Swofford has got to go. There are so many reasons that bring me to this conclusion that I do not have the time to list them all. However, I will highlight a few important ones. First, Swofford is a UNC grad. Why on earth is a commissioner of a league a graduate of one of its member institutions? This is just asking for trouble. When UNC was in trouble with the NCAA for their numerous athletic and academic scandals (more on that in a later post), who went to all or most of the meetings UNC had with the NCAA? You got it, John Swofford. But when the University of Miami and Georgia Tech were going through the same ordeal with the NCAA, who was no where to be found? You got it, John Swofford. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but there is no telling what went on behind closed doors in those meetings. However, I probably don't want to. Second, the ACC as a football power conference is no more. When did this all start you may ask? In my opinion it began when the conference expanded in the early 2000s to bring in Boston College (what a joke), Miami, and Virginia Tech. At the time, these schools were somewhat decent at football. But since their inception into the league, Boston College has become non-existent (literally), Miami is in trouble with the NCAA, and Virginia Tech is actually holding its own. How this relates to John Swofford is he orchestrated this expansion, and in my opinion has watered-down the quality of competition we every Saturday on the football field. I also think that this will repeat itself with the addition of the two perennial powerhouses (yeah right) Syracuse and Pittsburgh... Once again, it is all about the $$$ and expanding the ACC market into these new territories. My third and last reason is the sub-par officiating crews that run the basketball games for the league. It frustrates me to watch an ACC game, and see fouls called on the most subtle touches up by the top of the key. LET THE GUYS PLAY! If someone blatantly fouls someone on a layup or something similar, then by all means call that a foul, but not on something small like touch fouls. When I watch other conferences play, specifically the Big Ten, fouls are only called when they are rough fouls, and this is the reason why many people hold the Big Ten to be the best basketball conference in the country. I could also write a whole story here about the Hess-gate scandal as well since I witnessed the ordeal from 20 feet away, but for the essence of the time I will not delve into that topic today, but that also goes along the lines of favoritism showed by the ACC elite and the officiating crews. Had Karl Hess thrown Michael Jordan or Rasheed Wallace out of the Dean Dome for the same "objectionable behavior", all Hell would have broken loose and we would never hear of Karl Hess again. But like I said, that is for a different day.
So in summary, State will be just fine without Amile Jefferson, State better enjoy this year's home-and-home with UNC because it may be a while before it happens again, and John Swofford needs to be fired, plain and simple.
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