The Confidential

Taking a Stand Against Conference Expansion- In Defense of John Swofford

As a sports blogger, I love to talk about conference realignment. Why? Because it usually facilitates a lot of interesting discussion with our readers. BUT I HATE IT. It’s highly speculative, divisive and petty. It pits conference fans against one another, and leads to pointless name calling and trash talking. Like many others, I believe that conference realignment is ruining college athletics. It needs to stop. But as many sportswriters across the country publish that our conference is on the brink, I feel the need to clear up a few well-reported misconceptions. Love him, or hate him, John Swofford is the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. And unlike many, I believe that he’s the right man for the job. Below, I will set to defend him with facts based on history. If you don’t like what you read, remember that I am not responsible for your own school’s shortcomings and neither is the ACC. If Boise State has shown us anything, it’s that money and power aren’t always a precursor to success. It’s having the right people in place at the right time. John Swofford is the right man for the ACC.

Contrary to popular belief, John Swofford didn’t start realignment, the Southeastern Conference did.

The SEC was the first major conference to go to 12 teams, and then to 14. By doing this, they escalated the arms race, pursuing money, when tradition and fans were what really mattered. The ACC didn’t expand because we wanted to, we expanded because we had to. We did so with the best schools available, always fitting the athletic and academic profile of the conference, and always in a swift and efficient manner.

Contrary to popular belief, John Swofford doesn’t have some sort of mythical basketball agenda designed to keep The University of North Carolina on top.

Fans point to the fact that John Swofford is a former UNC Athletic Director and collegiate athlete as their evidence of his perceived North Carolina basketball bias. But John Swofford is simply one man in a long line of ACC-school affiliated commissioners, not a hand-picked puppet of The University of North Carolina system. The ACC has always had someone close to the conference in this position because it wants someone who understands the league and its members, not someone with no sense of its tradition or history like University of Maryland President Wallace Loh. Jim Weaver (Wake Forest), Robert James (Maryland) and Eugene Corrigan (Virginia, Duke) were all tied to the ACC somehow, and not surprisingly, not to The University of North Carolina. If the ACC hired a new commissioner today, it might come from a league school like Miami or Boston College. Only one thing would be certain- it would NOT come from The University of North Carolina. The point of having an ACC-school affiliated commissioner is to create familiarity and investment, NOT bias, and the league has been very successful at this whether fans want to admit it or not.

There’s no basketball-related bias either. It’s ridiculous to pretend that Duke University has more votes than Florida State when it comes to conference matters. They don’t. Even when grouped together, the North Carolina schools are less than a third of the voting membership. They weren’t even the majority when Florida State was added in 1991. Both recent expansions have happened since then, and history tells us that the expansion in 2004 was about nothing but football. A conference championship, stronger teams and new recruiting grounds were just some of the considerations that led John Swofford to add Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech. Basketball was simply not considered and in reality, most of the North Carolina schools voted against expansion and it happened anyway.

Contrary to popular belief, John Swofford is not out to ruin the BCS National Championship aspirations of the football-first schools. In fact, he cares a great deal about football, and it’s the schools that blame him for their own mediocrity that have ruined the football perception of the conference.

John Swofford does not go out on the football field each Saturday. He’s not the one losing to South Carolina. He’s not the one getting out-recruited by Georgia. And he’s not the one getting embarrassed in the Orange Bowl. That’s the ACC member schools. While he played college football at North Carolina, he finished his career a long time ago. Don’t blame him for what’s happening on the field now. The fact is, that John Swofford DOES care a great deal about ACC football. People seem to forget that when Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech were added, they were all at the top of the college football world. Scandals (Miami), coaching turnover (Boston College) and the inability to perform in bowls (Virginia Tech) have brought these programs down, not their conference or its commissioner. None of these teams have gone undefeated, or even gotten close since they joined the ACC, so they certainly can’t argue that they were left out of a championship because of what conference they’re in. They brought themselves down, and that’s simply a fact.

The same can be said for schools like Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech. If these teams can’t go undefeated in the supposedly “weak” ACC, why do they think they deserve “better?” What is “better” if you haven’t won a National Championship since 1981? (Clemson) Do you really even deserve to be called a football “power” when you can only claim two national championships and “basketball” school Pittsburgh can claim 10? (Florida State) No one would be calling North Carolina a basketball “power” that shouldn’t have to play teams like yours Georgia Tech if it hadn’t won a national championship since 1990. The reality is, that schools and fans want to blame John Swofford for the league’s poor football product, but they need to look in the mirror. No amount of money can make bad coaching hires, recruiting decisions and scandals better. It’s about what you do with the money, not about how much you have. Yes, money is nice. But Kentucky football is STILL bad, the SEC is rich, and I’ve heard that it’s good at football. The ACC positioned its schools for football success by giving it better competition and access to the highest level bowls. The schools did not capitalize on this and have no one else to blame, but themselves.

Let’s be honest. Many of you will probably reply to me and say that I only believe these things because I’m a North Carolina fan. That’s fine, you’re entitled to your own opinion. It’s what makes a blog like this so much fun. But what if I told you that I’m not only a North Carolina fan, but that I also have a Masters degree in Sport Management? Does that make me more of an expert? What if I told you that I’ve done extensive research on the history of the ACC and own numerous books on the conference written by non-North Carolina sources? How do you feel now? Probably the same. What if I told you that I have family members that have gone to at least six other ACC schools? Do you feel that I’m less-biased now? Probably not. We all have preconceived biases and conference expansion brings out these feelings in the worst way. But history has shown one thing, and it’s that John Swofford has done a great job and wants nothing more than the ACC to be on top.

This is the first article on a series of realignment-related topics that I hope bring about some great discussion for everyone. If you don’t agree with me, please contact John Swofford and let him know what you don’t like about the league. Contact your school president, or athletic director and tell them ways you think the ACC can improve. Your school’s athletic program will not get better by leaving the conference. You’re where you are for a reason, and if we work together we can make the ACC into the strongest league in the country. Don’t let an undervalued television contract and a lack of recent football success blind you from the overall quality of academic and athletic prowess in the ACC. We have the best television markets, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, baseball and academics in the country. We have geographic conformity and longtime rivals. We have tradition and THAT MATTERS. Don’t let realignment ruin what we have because in the end, you won’ t have any of your friends to help you count your empty money.