Trouble in ACC? Don’t tell league commish

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: July 22, 2008

GREENSBORO, Ga. - John Swofford said Tuesday morning that if some think the ACC has a post-expansion image problem, he doesn’t share that opinion.

The league’s commissioner — who engineered the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College three years ago, giving the ACC 12 members and a conference championship football game — declared that all is well within the geographical footprint that sprawls from South Beach to Cape Cod.

“How we as a conference evaluate expansion is not based on the short term competitive aspect of it, but on the longer term positioning and stability aspects of it,” Swofford said during his annual state of the league message at the ACC Football Kickoff. “If you have that and you have the type of commitment and the programs we have in our league, we feel as if we couldn’t be positioned any better for success.”

Did the move hurt hoops?

The conference has come under fire from some national and regional critics of late because of the league’s failure to put a team in football’s national championship picture and for a perceived drop-off in basketball.

When the ACC expanded, it was presumed that Florida State and Miami would continue their national gridiron success, but both teams have slumped. In fact, the last time the ACC produced a national champion came in 1999 when the Seminoles defeated Virginia Tech (then a member of the Big East) in the Sugar Bowl.

“All of this is cyclical,” Swofford said, “whether it’s individual programs or if it’s conferences. All you have to do is look at history there.”

The coach of this season’s favorite to win the ACC football title, Clemson’s Tommy Bowden, said Saturday that he agreed with the cyclical theory.

“Not long ago, it was Florida State and Miami dominating college football,” Bowden said. “Where was the SEC then? These things go in cycles. The SEC has had a nice run. I’m sure that the ACC or another conference will take its place.”

A big opportunity

Bowden’s Tigers could help the cause right out of the starting blocks when Clemson meets Alabama in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome to start the season.

Duke’s new head coach David Cutcliffe said that the SEC and ACC “are a lot more similar than people might think.”

Cutcliffe, arguably the top offensive coordinator in the country during part of his 19 years at Tennessee (he also was head coach at Ole Miss for six seasons in between), is familiar with both leagues via watching film.

New rules

Charlottesville’s Doug Rhodes who serves as the ACC’s coordinator of football officiating went over the new college football rules changes with media on Tuesday morning, specifically the change in play clock.

This season, the play clock will be set at 40 seconds when the ball becomes dead, either in or out of bounds, and when a pass is incomplete. However, the 40-second play clock will not be used after any of the following events occur: a penalty is administered; a charged team or media time out; measurement; change of possession; try for point after touchdown; start of each period; start of a possession in overtime; or an instant replay. In those cases, a 25-second play clock will be used.

When a ballcarrier goes out of bounds, the clock will now start on the referee’s “ready” signal, except during the last two minutes, when it will start on the snap.

Also, there are no more 5-yard facemask penalties — they’re all 15 yards now. And “horse-collar” tackles are now illegal, prohibiting players from grabbing the inside back collar of the shoulder pads or jersey and immediately pulling the runner down. Those sorts of tackles have caused serious injuries. There is also no more sideline warnings to keep coaches, players, and team personnel in order. The first two violations are 5-yard penalties and 15 yards thereafter.

A new bowl

The ACC now has nine bowl tie-ins, the latest is the Congressional Bowl, which will be held Dec. 20 at 11 a.m. at Nationals Park in Washington. The game will pit the ACC’s ninth pick vs. Navy. Starting out, this will be a pre-Christmas bowl game, but will be moved to a post-Christmas date after the inaugural year.

Wahoos tied for third

If you took the composite ACC football standings for the past four seasons (conference games only) and matched them by division and overall (excluding Boston College, which has been a member for only three seasons), then Virginia would be a three-way tie for third.

Virginia Tech has a 27-5 record, clearly the best and well ahead of Georgia Tech, which has gone 20-12 (and still fired its coach). However, the Cavaliers stand at 18-14 over that four-year span, tied for third-best with Clemson and Florida State. BC, which has naturally played one season’s fewer league games, is 16-8 over three years.

Who would have thought when expansion began that UVa would be no worse than Florida State or Clemson, and would be better than Miami?

The rest of the league: Miami 16-16, Wake Forest 15-17, Maryland 14-18, North Carolina 14-18, N.C. State 11-21, Duke 1-31.

Big bucks

Swofford noted that ACC football is producing slightly more revenue for the conference than basketball, but that those totals are probably as balanced as any league in the country. The ACC’s basketball revenue streams are still the best in the country and football has risen dramatically since expansion.

Play it again

Rhodes noted that instant

replay is working and not holding up games. He said that games were stopped 171 times last season and 40 times (about 22 percent) the call was changed due to replay. However, it didn’t take long for the change. The average length of stoppage was 1 minute, 39 seconds, which is slightly better than the national average of 1 minute, 47 seconds.

Rhodes also predicted that the new rules changes, particularly those affecting the play clock, will shorten games by about 10 minutes but he believes offenses will still average between 70 and 76 plays per game, unlike the clock issues of two years ago that dramatically impacted the number of offensive plays.

New talks

Swofford pointed out that the ACC will begin negotiations with Fox this summer over a future TV contract. There are still two years left on the current deal.

“We’re looking at another four year cycle, whether we extend it with Fox or go to the marketplace,” the commish said.

A deal should be struck with someone no later than early November, after which the ACC will start negotiations with its existing bowl partners.

Short yardage

ESPN’s College Game Day show will be at the Clemson vs. Alabama game to kick off the season. ... The ACC still pretty much owns ESPN’s Thursday night football package, with nine of the league’s 12 teams making at least one appearance in the game this coming season. ... A new twist that coaches demanded is that any team playing on Thursday night gets at least seven days of rest, rather than one team playing Saturday, then again on Thursday. ...There are also no open dates the last two weeks of the regular season leading into the ACC Championship game, which will be held in Tampa this season. ... About 20 percent of the composite football rosters in the ACC are comprised of players from the state of Florida. ... If you want to get an early glance at what the league has planned for its championship game, you should check out the following web site: TheRoadToTampaBay.com.