The ACC meetings at Amelia Island have proven to be far less exciting than we all hoped with the “FSU wants to leave for the Big 12″ talk. So far the only two items of note is an expansion of the ACC Tournament and the football regular season schedule.

ACC commissioner John Swofford announced that with the addition of Pittsburgh and Syracuse, the ACC Tournament will include all fourteen league teams. That will necessitate the addition of a Wednesday round of games involving the bottom four teams in the ACC. The winners of the #11 vs #14 and #12 vs #13 games would advance to play the #5 and #6 seeds respectively on Thursday. Needless to say the excitement is more than I can bear. After all we know just how good the Thursday games have been, adding games on Wednesday will have us all taking the week off from work simply to take it all in. /sarcasm

Unfortunately this is what expansion has wrought. I imagine part of the new TV deal with ESPN included two more ACC Tournament games plus the Big East tried excluding teams from their behemoth of a league tourney and it did not go over all. Never mind the fact all this does is create two more bad games which could see fewer people in the Greensboro Coliseum than a UNCG home game. The ACC is struggling with a lack of good teams past the top three or four making anything that happens in the tournament before those teams get on the floor dicey at best.

On the football side, the ACC schedule will move to nine games with Atlantic Dvision hosting five home games in odd years and the Coastal Division doing so in even years. It will be interesting to see how this impacts scheduling. Schools, in general, are not going to give up the lighter portions of their schedule meaning the additional league game has the potential of removing a quality non-conference game from respective teams’ slates.

UNC’s 2012-13 schedule is taking shape and it will definitely be a challenge for a team that could be starting a freshman at point guard. It was announced on Monday, UNC would play at Indiana as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. That is one of a few tough road outings UNC has on the schedule. The Heels will also play at Texas in a return game for the one in Chapel Hill this past season. UNC will also play at Long Beach State en route to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. The field is Maui includes Butler, Illinois, Marquette, Texas, USC(the real one), Mississippi State and Division II host Chaminade. The home non-conference docket includes UAB, ECU, UNLV and a November 10th opener versus Gardner-Webb.

In ACC play, the Heels have, what could be, a very tough slate. The ACC season will be 18 games and UNC will play Duke, NC State, Virginia, Maryland, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Miami twice. The one time opponents will be Virginia Tech and Wake Forest at home with Clemson and Boston College on the road. The ACC kept the UNC-NCSU home and home on the schedule for this season but ultimately that will go away during certain seasons. The four teams UNC will only see once are also four teams that will likely finish towards the bottom of the ACC which means most of league games for the Heels will be against teams finishing in the upper half. In short, there will be no respite for a team that is recovering from the loss of four starters.

For more on the schedule check out Robbi Pickeral’s rundown.

The NCAA has announced a couple of potential changes for next season.

The first addresses the use of court decals which have long raised Roy Williams’ ire. The basketball rules committee is suggesting that the player surface be “consistent” which doesn’t mean the decals won’t be used but must be the same as the rest of the court as not to cause players to slip. I have always thought putting anything on the court(or field in football for that matter) which alters the normal playing surface is an inherently bad idea. Of course I am also opposed to elaborate halftime shows in football which require the placement of stages, equipment, etc on a field where a title game is being contested. Of course that is part of my master plan to rid us of stupid halftime shows but I digress.

Also on the NCAA’s mind is sportsmanship, particularly bench decorum.

Committee members believe the following behaviors hurt the image of the game and should result in a technical foul against the coach or other bench personnel:

-Comments directed at or referring to any game official that question the integrity of an official (repeated references to the number of fouls called against each team; suggesting an official is cheating” a team, etc.).

-Profane, vulgar, threatening, or derogatory remarks or personal comments relating to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation directed at or referring to any game official or opposing player/bench personnel.

-Prolonged, negative responses to a call/no-call that are disrespectful or unprofessional and include waving or thrashing the arms in disgust, dramatizing contact by re-enacting the play, or running or jumping “in disbelief” over a call/non-call.

-A negative response to a call/no-call that includes approaching/charging an official in a hostile, aggressive or otherwise threatening manner; emphatically removing one’s coat in response to a call/no-call; or throwing equipment or clothing on to the floor.

-Continual criticism during a game regarding the same incident after being warned by an official.

Committee members understand that there will be spontaneous reactions to calls, but they don’t want coaches to cross the line with officials.

You will likely hear this mentioned as a “point of emphasis” once the season starts which will result in an increase of technical fouls on coaches through December then it will disappear altogether once conference play hits. Well, unless Karl Hess is involved then I expect we might see him throw an ACC coach or two out of a game.

My question is whether this will actually result in referees penalizing coaches like say, Mike Krzyzewski, who has been known to take timeouts for the express purpose of talking to an official or Mark Gottfried who seemingly complains about every call made against NC State. Roy Williams does his share of barking at the refs(not egregiously but I am biased) and got a technical this past season in a game versus Georgia Tech in the Dean Dome after officials missed a Yellow Jacket player stepping out of bounds. Of course the area of concern with Roy is some of the demonstrative reactions he might have to mistakes his team makes. He has been known to pick up a chair and slam it back down in place, throw his jacket or slap the scorer’s table. In most cases he is not directing his ire at the officials but rather something a UNC player did or didn’t do on a particular play.

I actually don’t expect this emphasis will change much and ironically coaches will still be permitted to stand on the court during game action on their end as though the coach’s box does not exist. If they start enforcing that one to the letter of the law, coaches will be in real trouble.

Here is the full schedule via ACC Now.

Tuesday, Nov. 27
UNC at Indiana
N.C. State at Michigan
Minnesota at Florida State
Maryland at Northwestern
Iowa at Virginia Tech
Nebraska at Wake Forest

Wednesday, Nov. 28
Ohio State at Duke
Virginia at Wisconsin
Michigan State at Miami
Purdue at Clemson
Georgia Tech at Illinois
Boston College at Penn State

The shame of it is we didn’t get this match-up last season and a battle of Zellers. Instead it will be James Michael McAdoo vs Cody Zeller in Bloomington. Unlike Kentucky, UNC is not afraid to play at Indiana, even after losing four first round draft picks.

Looking at the rest of the schedule, Duke welcomes Ohio State in a return game from last season’s blowout of the Devils in Columbus. NC State at Michigan is intriguing and a nice test for the Wolfpack who will likely be tabbed to win the ACC in the preseason. Outside of that none of these games really move the needle and there is a good chance Virginia at Wisconsin will actually turn the earth backwards.

Apparently FSU is openly entertaining the notion of jumping to the Big 12.

For a primer, check out my thoughts on the ACC-ESPN deal then take a look at Joe Ovies’ piece at WRAL Sports Fan

 So what’s the problem? Money.

Ancient Shaolin philosophers lived by a simple premise: “Cash rules everything around me. C.R.E.A.M. Get the money. Dollar, dollar bill y’all,” they said.

Conference realignment has been fueled by this C.R.E.A.M. mindset ever since the conferences battled the NCAA over television restrictions.

Florida State isn’t interested in the possibility of better competition in the Big 12. The Seminoles want the money. The university is dealing with a $2.4 million budget crisis and simple math dictates that the conference with a better television deal would make it easier for Florida State to dig itself out of a hole. Even if the Big 12 only has a verbally agreed upon contract – which was needed to prevent the conference from imploding in the first place – the prospect of more cash is certainly enticing.

Haggard’s misguided complaints about “Tier III” rights had the unintended (or maybe it was intended) consequences of poking holes in the ACCs reworked deal with ESPN. Once you get past the glowing facade of the press release, which highlighted the big flashy $3.6 billion figure, it turns out the ACC will only get a small increase in the early years of the contract. ESPN back-loaded the agreement and will average out to $17.1 million per school over the life of the deal.

There is a great deal of unhappiness in the FSU fan base to the point the BOT Chairman Andy Haggard raised a ruckus about everything from TV money to Tier III rights and the always reliable “North Carolina schools runs the ACC” canard. Apparently one issue is the TV deal looks a lot less glowing when it was discovered the money on the contract was backloaded, not uncommon with such arrangements. That means schools will only see an increase of around $1 million or so in the first year but be at $24 million per season by year fifteen for a $17 million per year average over the life of the deal. In addition, FSU thinks the money the deal brings in is insufficient on its face when compared to other conferences. And that would not be necessarily wrong but the question is why?

Simple. ACC football has been medicore for quite some time, something Ovies points out. In basketball, UNC and Duke carry the water and keep the league at the top of the TV schedule. Duke has every game they played televised somewhere as does UNC with the exception of an ESPN3 game or two. In football who is carrying the national torch? The answer is it should be some combination of Virginia Tech, FSU, Clemson and Miami but that hasn’t been the case. In that respect some of the “blame” for the lack of kick on the TV contract falls in part on FSU for not being the national power it was in the 1990s.

Despite FSU’s lack of championship potency in football over the past decade, they still operate with a brand which means the ACC will need to do something to address Seminole concerns. Some chatter this morning has John Swofford’s head on a platter as a possible demand which may or may not get support from other schools. The only thing that is certain is there is a huge emotional element at work here. The Seminole fan base is up in arms and those concerns real or not are being piped into the mainstream by a member of the board of trustees. The FSU president, Eric Barron, is saying the right things in public but anyone who has paidattention to college athletics for at least 90 seconds knows fan base noise carries a lot of weight.

At any rate, those ACC meetings we normally pay little to no attention to could be ground zero for some big news over the coming days. Stay tuned.

Coastal Division Champions!

UNC had another 4-0 week and have now won nine straight games, the longest such streak of the season.

The Heels opened up the week with a 4-2 win over UNC Wilmington. The Heels jumped out to a 4-0 lead through six innings with Adam Griffin collecting a couple of RBIs on sacrifice flies. Benton Moss started the game and staff ace Kent Emanuel made a relief appearance with Michael Morin getting his 14th save of the season.

The weekend series with Duke saw the Heels get some outstanding pitching from on the way to the sweep. Kent Emanuel dueled with Duke’s Marcus Stroman on Friday for the 2-1 win. Stroman, who is being projected as a first round pick in the upcoming MLB Draft consistently pitched out of trouble only giving up two runs. Emanuel moved to 7-3 on the season giving up one run on five hits in eight innings of work. Morin retired the side in order in the ninth for his 15th save. The two Tar Heel runs came in the 2nd off a throwing error by the Duke catcher then a triple from Chaz Frank.

On Saturday, the game was tight early before the Heels opened things up on the way to a 15-1 win, the Heels second 15 run game in as many weekends. Heading into the 6th inning UNC was clinging to a 2-1 lead when a Colin Moran double plated two runs. The Heels tacked on a third in the 6th then scored two in the 7th, two in the 8th and six in the 9th. Duke, which can best be described as hapless, committed four errors in the Saturday game after committing three on Friday. R.C. Orlan ran his record to 8-1, all in relief.

UNC came back on Sunday looking for the sweep and got a huge starting performance from Shane Taylor to grab a 3-0 win and clinch the Coastal Division. Sophomore pitcher Hobbs Johnson was originally slated as the starter for this game but fell ill on Saturday. Mike Fox turned to Taylor who did not disappoint with eight shutout innings. Taylor gave up one hit and one walk while striking out eight and retiring the final 15 batters he faced. With Morin’s scoreless ninth for his 16th save, UNC did not allow a hit over the final six innings. Brian Holberton’s two RBI single was part of a three run 8th than gave the Heels the winning margin.

The sweep over Duke puts UNC three games ahead of Virginia in the Coastal Division with three ACC games left to play. Since UNC swept UVa earlier in the season, the Heels control the tiebreaker over the Cavaliers. By securing first in the Coastal, UNC is locked into the #2 seed in the ACC Tournament and would be assured of not facing Atlantic Division leader and #1 team in the country, Florida State, until the championship game should the Heels advanced that far.

UNC has four games remaining against UNC Asheville in Asheville mid-week then hosting Virginia Tech. Given the Hokies status as a top 40 RPI team, a series win or sweep would be highly beneficial to UNC’s national seeding situation.

The women take on Navy at noon while the men will play Denver at 7:30 PM. That men’s game will be televised on ESPNU.

In baseball, the Heels will go for the series win vs Duke after Kent Emanuel got the best of Blue Devil pitcher Marcus Stroman 2-1. Michael Morin recorded his 15th save.

The #1 seeded softball team lost to #4 Virginia Tech in the ACC semifinals on Friday.

In the NBA playoffs, Ty Lawson and the Denver Nuggets will face the LA Lakers in Game 7 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

The stat line: 30 mins, 32 points, 6 assists, 5 rebs, 0 TOs, 13-18 FG, 5-6 from three.

In case you forgot(and I’m sure Duke and LSU would like to) when Ty Lawson gets it rolling, he pretty much takes the game over.

Via ESPN’s Ivan Masiel.

The Atlantic Coast Conference membership last month came up one vote short of fining North Carolina $100,000 for the NCAA violations committed during the tenure of former coach Butch Davis.

Instead, the league’s Infractions and Penalties Committee issued a public reprimand of the university.

The vote of 7-4 in favor of the fine (North Carolina did not vote) fell one vote shy of the two-thirds majority needed to approve the penalty, according to two sources within the league. However, the failed vote indicates that a significant majority of North Carolina’s fellow members took a dimmer view of the school’s behavior than the issuing of a reprimand would indicate.

“We do not comment on actions not taken by the committee,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said in an email Wednesday night.

Part of me actually wishes the fine had been approved just to shut up rival fans but then I remember that nothing short of dropping a World War II-era nuke on Chapel Hill will appease those people so it is probably better to simply watch them be pissed.

The fine required eight votes, it got seven with UNC’s representative on the committee, Bubba Cunningham, abstaining. So who were the four who voted against the fine? No one knows but we can certainly speculate. Miami probably voted against considering the Hurricanes are facing their own NCAA violations and wouldn’t want UNC to cast a vote against them when the time comes. Believe it or not, Duke probably voted against the fine. While UNC and Duke may be rivals, they also share a common goals and areas of focus such as basketball. The two schools can be, at times, strange bedfellows.

Outside of those two, it is hard to say but as Doc noted on Twitter, it would be hilarious if we found out NC State and Clemson voted against the fine.

With the future addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC, the league exercised its right to re-negotiate the 2010 TV deal with ESPN which has produced a new 15-year, $3.6 billion contract. That number almost doubles what the deal two years ago brought in. ACC member schools will receive $17 million per year under the new pact, an increase of $5 million per school annually. Per the ACC release here is a rundown of what can be expected from the new contract which goes into effect on July 1st.

ACC on ESPN

ESPN has been televising ACC content since 1979 and has exclusive rights to every conference-controlled football and men’s basketball game, plus women’s basketball and Olympic sports matchups, and all ACC championship events. ACC content is distributed on the widest array of multi-media platforms in the sports industry. ACC on ESPN highlights:

• Football on national TV: Extensive regular-season action on Saturday afternoon and nights, primetime Thursdays, three Fridays including Thanksgiving Friday, Labor Day Monday and the ACC Football Championship Game;

• Men’s basketball on national TV: The most comprehensive coverage of regular-season games and the entire conference tournament produced and distributed via ESPN; regular-season matchups of the storied Duke-North Carolina rivalry each year; full national telecasts on all games televised on an ESPN platform; a weekly ACC Sunday Night Basketball franchise on ESPNU;

• Women’s basketball: Numerous women’s regular-season basketball games and the entire conference tournament;

• Olympic sports: An extensive commitment to the league’s soon to be 23-sponsored Olympic sports with regular-season and championship telecasts, highlighted by baseball, softball, lacrosse, and men’s and women’s soccer;

• Digital media: Exclusive ACC football, men’s and women’s basketball, and Olympic sports games as well as simulcasts on ESPN3. Live ACC games, including football and basketball, on ESPN Mobile TV;

• ESPN 3D: Select live ACC action on ESPN 3D;

• Additional outlets: Select ACC action on ESPN International, ESPN GamePlan, ESPN FULL COURT, ESPN Classic and ESPN Deportes; and extensive content rights for ESPN.com.

The one notable change is the ACC will now have three Friday night football games, much like the Big East has done for several years. That probably won’t sit well with high school coaches in the ACC footprint since it will conflict with prep football games. One of the Friday games will be the day after Thanksgiving which will be interesting. As with the old deal, the ACC will continue to have teams playing on Thursday night.

Overall reaction to the deal has ranged from satisfaction that ACC Commissioner John Swofford secured more money for the league to some complaints from league football schools saying there should have been a better deal given how much cash is being thrown at college football. The problem there is the ACC has not exactly been tearing it up on the national stage in football with much of the blame for that resting at the feet of the very schools whose fans are complaining about the deal. The ACC is 2-13 in BCS bowl games. Virginia Tech has won a number of ACC titles since joining the league but not performed well at the Orange Bowl nor did the Hokies beat Michigan at the Sugar Bowl with the ACC’s first ever at-large BCS bowl bid. Florida State continues to be the program everyone claims is back in September but has yet to pan out. Clemson gave up 70 points(!!) to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl after winning the ACC title game. Toss in the fact Miami is not your Miami of the 1980s and 1990s and Georgia Tech is running the triple option, you begin to see that it is the schools who should be carrying the water in football simply aren’t doing it.

On the basketball side, things are not as great as they could be but the two national powers, UNC and Duke, continue to win consistently and draw solid ratings. The additions of Syracuse and Pitt will be a boost for the ACC in basketball but ultimately the big money is in football. The fact the ACC got what it did given the state of football is impressive within itself. If people want more then one or two of the football powers in the ACC really need to make waves on the national scene.

This week’s projections:

Perfect Game: Carolina the #6 national seed with a regional that includes Ole Miss, Appalachian State and Belmont. The Tar Heels’ regional is paired with the Lexington (UK) regional in the supers.

ESPN: Carolina the #5 national seed with a regional that includes ECU, UNCW and Coastal Carolina. The Tar Heels’ regional is paired with the Lexington regional in the supers.

SEBaseball.com: Carolina the #8 national seed with a regional that includes ECU, UNCW and Monmouth. The Tar Heels’ regional is paired with the Lexington regional in the supers.

College Baseball Nation: Carolina the #8 national seed with a regional that includes Appalachian State, UNC-Wilmington and Austin Peay. The Tar Heels’ regional is paired with the Lexington regional (are you sensing a trend?) in the supers.

Also check out Baseball America’s rundown of NCAA Tournament bids for each conference. BA currently has UNC on the bubble to receive a national seed.

It would seem that all the projections are dead set on a potential UNC-Kentucky Super Regional which would be ironic considering we would finally be seeing UNC-UK in the 2012 NCAA Tournament….in baseball.

UNC’s current RPI is 8th which means the Heels really cannot afford too many losses down the stretch. UNC dispatched UNC Wilmington last night 4-2 and has a great RPI building opportunity tonight with a trip to Greenville to face ECU. The Pirates are 22nd in the latest RPI so a road win against a top 30 RPI team would be extremely helpful.