Re: Hating Swofford is easy, and in some ways very deserved, BUT..

Moondog

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Jul 13, 2017, 3:34 PM

No. Giving Swofford credit for “leading us out of the darkness” ignores the fact that he’s the one that led us there in the first place. He should get no credit for the following:

• The ACC Channel. The Big 10 and the SEC have both had networks for multiple years and we still don’t have one. That’s revenue we’re not getting despite recent Football (CU & FSU), Baseball (UVa) and Basketball (UNC) National Championships. We also have one of the worst TV deals with our revenue coming in WAY behind the SEC and reportedly also behind the Big 10 and PAC 12.

• Notre Dame. The ACC deal is essentially only good for Notre Dame. They keep their money from football -- their only truly “valuable” program -- and yet they fully share the ACC income and scheduling benefits from all of their unprofitable Olympic sports. In return they simply have to play some games against ACC teams (they already had a history of playing Miami and BC) and “IF” they join a conference we get first dibs. Be aware, as long as NBC sports is willing to pay for lackluster, overhyped Notre Dame football -- something they’ve proven throughout the Davie, Weiss, Willingham and Kelly years -- Notre Dame would be stupid to join a conference in football. It’s not going to happen. There’s a reason no other conference made them this offer. We’ve taken on their unprofitable sports and demanded nothing tangible in return except for a 5-game-per-year association with Notre Dame.

• The ACC has gotten better in Football. Why does Swofford get credit for that? He’s been the commissioner since 1997 and he isn’t doing anything differently than he did 10-15 years ago when we all sucked. What in the #!%& has Swofford had to do with Clemson’s rise? He’s been more of an impediment to our success than a reason for it. We’ve gotten better, Florida State, under Fisher, is still very good and some other programs are improving simply because they hit rock bottom -- a rock bottom they hit under John Swofford.

• Maryland replaced with Louisville. How does Swofford get credit for this? Maryland wanted to leave the ACC. Are we giving Swofford credit for making the ACC so bad that a jump to the Big 10 was irresistibly attractive to a conference member? Maryland wanted out and Louisville, which had no stable home with the disintegration of the Big East, wanted in. The only positive here for Swofford is that he didn’t run the ACC quite as badly as the Big East was run.

John Swofford has proven himself to be a poor conference commissioner. His body of work confirms that. However, he simply never should have been given this job in the first place.

He’s not just a graduate of UNC. He’s not just a former football player for UNC. He was also the long time athletics director at UNC. No other conference has such a clear conflict of interest in its highest position.

To illustrate how incredibly, clearly biased this man is look no further than the academic fraud scandal at UNC. This same man, in his position as AD at UNC, voted to add an extra year of probation on Clemson -- on top of the NCAA's two year probation -- after the 1981 football season. Whether or not he instigated the extra punishment is still debated (and denied by Swofford) but he certainly voted for it. He voted that the allegations against Clemson harmed the reputation of the ACC and deserved another year of no TV, no contention for conference championships and no postseason. Yet, where is his action on the embarrassing fake classes and obvious lack of institutional control that’s rampant at his own alma mater? Has there even been a public denunciation?

John Swofford deserves no credit from the ACC. At least none from a member school that isn't UNC.

Just my opinion,
-Moon

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The SEC and Big 10 have channels already, because there was demand for those channels. Nobody wanted to watch the ACC, but Swoffy went out and got a bunch of teams and now there is demand. And how can you possibly know that our deal is one of the worst, when it hasn't even been negotiated yet? Let's see the numbers before we say how bad our deal is...

I think you are also minimizing the impact Notre Dame has had on the conference. I doubt we have a network without Notre Dame. And at the end of the day, tickets still produce the most revenue, and Notre Dame packs the house. The Wolfies dusted off the bleachers for the first time in ages when Notre Dame went to Raleigh.

Of course Swofford gets credit for Louisville. Maryland bailed and all the Internet warriors were pronouncing the death of the ACC. Swofford acted fast and with force, inviting Louisville before the dust had even settled, and catching the Big 12 with their pants down. Louisville and Pittsburgh could very easily be in the Big 12 right now, and we would be in trouble.

Yes Swofford and UNC are easy to hate, but the ACC was considered most likely to fold when realignment was going full force, and Swofford helped kill the Big East, sneak Notre Dame away from all the other conferences, and negotiate a TV deal with ESPN. The ACC is very healthy and he's part of the reason.

Hating Swofford is easy, and in some ways very deserved, BUT..