GREENSBORO, N.C. – Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Commissioner John Swofford covered a variety of topics when he addressed the media on hand at Grandover Resort to set the college football season in motion as the 43rd ACC Kickoff event took place on Sunday.
The commissioner’s tone was upbeat and positive.
“The combination of the league’s 15 member institutions is remarkable, and this conference has never been stronger and better positioned,” Swofford told the record amount of scribes, photographers, and videographers in attendance.
The conference has a new member, the Louisville Cardinals, who joined the ACC on July 1, filling the spot of the departed Maryland Terrapins who left to join the Big Ten.
“As I’ve said previously, Louisville brings to the ACC an institution and athletic program on a tremendous upward trajectory,” Swofford said.
“It brings a dynamic city and a rabid, large and passionate fan base. Frankly speaking, I know of no other athletic program that has progressed as much as Louisville has in the last 15 years.”
As the conference has enjoyed an impressive run in competitive success in recent years, the inclusion of another reputable athletics program will make an already competitive conference that much tougher to win championships in, but one that can help win even bigger ones as well.
The ACC had five teams win NCAA Championships during the 2013-14 academic year and placed at least one team among the top five in 14 of its sponsored sports, while nine ACC student-athletes claimed individual NCAA titles.
Swofford was also quick to highlight the conference’s collective academic accomplishments as well the issue of enhancing student-athlete welfare in terms of athletic scholarship enhancement.
“Academically, I continue to be inspired by the student-athletes that attend our conference’s unique mix of public and private institutions,” Swofford said.
“I applaud the great efforts by Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch, who also serves as the chair of the NCAA Board of Directors in leading the membership throughout this process,” Swofford continued when referring to athletic scholarships.
“The change that continues to be called for is key to ensuring that the model reflects the needs of the 21st century student-athlete, while also recognizing how special the collegiate model is to the educational system within our country.”
Swofford said the ACC, along with the Big Ten, Big XII, PAC-12 and SEC, will continue to prioritize the discussions surrounding the enhancement of the athletic scholarship, ensuring that student-athletes have every opportunity to earn a degree (even if they return to school following the completion of a professional career) and ensure that they have their health and safety needs met by the institutions they represent.
The commissioner addressed the upcoming football season, but preceded it by proudly recognizing the previous campaign’s accomplishments that included Florida State claiming the national championship, an NCAA-record 11 ACC teams competing in bowl games, and 11 league teams finishing with a winning record.
League players also dominated individual award recognitions and the ACC became the first conference to see its players win the Heisman, Nagurski, Outland, Lombardi, Bednarik, Doak Walker, Lou Groza, Rimington and Davey O’Brien Awards in the same season.
With such collective success, the upcoming season will challenge all member schools to repeat the feat due to increased competitive scheduling according to Swofford.
“No ACC team will face fewer than six opponents that participated in bowl games last year, while 11 of the 14 ACC teams will play at least eight bowl teams from 2013, with both Miami and Virginia each facing 10 teams that were in postseason play a year ago,” he stated.
“Our teams will also play 24 nonconference games against teams that participated in bowl games in 2013, which ties for most of any Power 5 Conference.”
The ACC Football Championship Game will return to Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium for the fifth consecutive year, and is set to remain at that venue through 2019, while the ACC will be represented as one of the Power 5 conferences in the new College Football Playoff, and continue its long-time partnership with the Orange Bowl as part of the new postseason format.
There will also be no shortage of postseason play opportunities for league teams as the ACC’s other postseason partnerships include agreements with the Orlando’s New Year’s Day Bowl, Russell Athletic Bowl, Hyundai Sun Bowl, New Era Pinstripe Bowl, Belk Bowl, Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, TaxSlayer Bowl, Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman, Duck Commander Independence Bowl, the Detroit Lions Bowl, the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with the future line up of bowl games including many long-time partners and some new ones too,” Swofford said.
“Overall, these outstanding partners provide more postseason opportunities, selection flexibility, improved financials, marquee matchups and attractive destinations for the ACC’s teams, fans and alums.”
Swofford also highlighted the ACC’s reach in terms of television access.
“We are extremely pleased that every ACC controlled football game will be available to our fans nationwide,” Swofford said.
“Our relationship with ESPN allows us to maximize our reach and bring ACC football and content to fans whenever they are across a multitude of devices. Whether traditional television or national digital and mobile platforms like ESPN3 and Watch ESPN, ACC content is truly available everywhere. In addition to ESPN, the ACC Network through Raycom continues to be broader than ever before, with a reach of over 90 million households and no geographic parameters on the distribution. The ACC Network is available in each of the top ten television markets within the US, and in 21 of the Top 25.”
Thus, with the numerous positive points that the commissioner put forward to build up momentum for the upcoming college football season and what it will bring for the ACC, it was a few challenging questions regarding the potential reopening of an NCAA investigation at UNC and the discussion surrounding unionization of players that eventually slowed the forum’s pace to end with a less-pronounced finish than might have been desired.
“You know, I think it’s a situation that I’m sure UNC is doing everything that it can do to put it behind them, get to the bottom of it,” Swofford said.
“They’ve already made a number of changes that I understand. Whether the reopening will lead to anything any different, I have no idea at this point in time. But any time – I think any commissioner would tell you that any time an institution is having an NCAA issue, you’d like to get it clarified and put to rest and move forward as soon as you can. That’s true any time we have any of those kinds of situations.”
Regarding player unionization, Swofford stated, “ You’d be hard-pressed to find any of us in college athletics that think our student-athletes are employees of the university, and we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out with the NLRB as it plays out and then deal with it from that standpoint.”