An open letter to ACC Commissioner John Swofford:

Dean John,

Congratulations on a great 24-year tenure and your forthcoming retirement. Sorry you are saddled with this latest challenge before you and Nora ride off into the sunset.

As an old classmate at Carolina, I know you would expect me to weigh in with my opinion on the 2020 football season, which seems in greater jeopardy as the COVID-19 cases rise across the country.

You saw what the Big Ten announced, basically tear up the schedule and play only conference games, as many as 10, with travel limited to teams taking a fleet of buses to the game sites.

Though nothing is guaranteed, this gives the Big Ten maximum flexibility to rearrange the schedule match-ups between teams with the closest proximity and have two or three open dates along the way.

Obviously, you and the ACC members have been working on a number of options, and the clock is ticking on when you have to announce any kind of major revision of the schedule.

Here is my idea, taking into account the ACC’s elongated footprint:

Form three divisions for this season – the South, Central and North; four or five schools in each division. For example, Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson in the South; the Big Four plus Louisville in the Central; Virginia Tech, Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse and Boston College in the North. (If rumors are true that BC won’t play football this season, that’s okay).

Play the three divisions like in the NFL; all teams bus to and from home-and-home series with each other. If schools want to add a non-conference home game or two with trust-worthy opponents near them, that’s fine.

The ACC sets its health and safety protocols, and all programs are consistently tested and stringent guidelines followed. This eliminates the mistrust factor playing schools from other leagues on the road.

If the season plays out, match the division winners based on their ACC-only records and one wildcard from the best of the rest in two semifinals on November 28 for who goes to Charlotte on December 5.

Make this your best and boldest move before you retire.

Best regards, John.

-Art Chansky

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Bailing Out
Roy Williams probably had reasons for the soft statements. Carolina fans reacted strongly to the video of a team party after the win over Duke. Only Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe were in the video, but a statement from players and managers said it was supposed to be a closed event that other students and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Please, Go In!
UNC men's basketball faces what is an early season must-win at Georgia Tech. Art Chansky says a look at the statistics is painful, but not terminal.
Chansky's Notebook: Leaky Steps Up
Dean Smith used to say he’ll be happy with a one-point win. The legendary UNC basketball coach struggled spiritually between playing well according to his teachings, regardless of outcome, and winning no matter how poorly you play. Since his job was to win and he was so competitive, he chose the latter. If he was […]
Chansky's Notebook: Rock(et) Star
Ben Kiernan was UNC’s MVP of the Notre Dame game. When Mack Brown went over the 31-17 loss, he gave mixed reviews to the two main branches of his Tar Heels’ play. He said the offense was good in the first half and then “went dead” in a scoreless second half. He praised the Tar […]
Chansky's Notebook: Goals and Ambitions
Garrison Brooks has both opportunity and pressure. On paper, the ACC looks as weak as it has been in some time due to widespread losses to graduation and early departures to the NBA, and no sure-shot superstars in the incoming recruiting classes. A beneficiary of this development is Brooks, the Carolina senior who was second-team All-ACC last year and earned the league’s […]
Chansky's Notebook: A COVID Debate
Clemson was livid that Florida State wouldn’t play the game. Let’s be lawyers, and make a case for each of the teams that did not play its scheduled game over the weekend. Clemson had traveled to Florida State when it learned a player with mild symptoms who had practiced with the team all week tested […]
Chansky's Notebook: Draft Dodgers
Carolina and Duke players have lost ground in the NBA draft. Like everything else with sports in the COVID era, the NBA draft goes off tonight after being postponed for five months. And if you look at the various mock draft boards, certain things jump off your screen. First of all, about half the names […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Two-Thirds Bet?
What if Phil Mickelson and Mack Brown amended their bet? With the Masters being moved back to this weekend due to COVID, perhaps the three-time champion should revisit the fun bet he made with Carolina’s football coach back in 2003. The famed lefthander was still seeking his first Green Jacket when he partnered with the Texas football coach at the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Kudos To Carolina
UNC teams did a commendable job beating the odds. Who among us thought the ACC would be playing football and other fall sports last summer? With the pandemic upon us and the medical experts still learning, the seasons looked like a long shot. While other conferences pumped the breaks and/or called off football, the ACC […]
Chansky's Notebook: Extra Motivation
Carolina’s schedule could be working to its advantage. When the COVID-revised list of games came out, it looked troublesome for the Tar Heels with Virginia Tech and Florida State basically bookending Notre Dame and Miami with four rivalry games in a row right in the middle. Coaches usually don’t like that because it takes a […]
›