John Swofford’s presence obviously hurting the ACC

We are streaming ACC’s Operation Basketball from Charlotte live in this link that you should check out if you have some time.

The Commissioner of the ACC just finished his time at the podium and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to read the writing on the wall — John Swofford is bad for business, and if the Presidents and Athletics Directors of the Atlantic Coast Conference don’t act soon then they are going to pay a steep price.

Instead of a joyous day of promoting all of the great things that Atlantic Coast Conference has to offer, Swofford has clearly become a lightening rod and toxic presence as the face of the conference. On a day that designed to PROMOTE THE ACC, there was not one single positive question about the ACC from an historically friendly media. Not one.

After an obvious question about the additional penalties the ACC levied on Clemson in 1982 behind the leadership of Swofford when he was Athletics Director at North Carolina, the press conference was shut down and there wasn’t anything else to discuss.

Do you think this is what Notre Dame and Louisville were expecting when they signed up for the ACC? How do you think this sits with folks like Rick Pitino? Hey coach, welcome to the ACC! Haven’t you heard that you have stepped into Basketball Heaven where we eat, drink, breathe, live this stuff? Hall of Fame Legend or not…nobody really cares to talk about Louisville basketball while John Swofford is standing in front of us. We’ll get to you one day.

If you didn’t see or hear it, Swofford stuttered and verbally stumbled as he tried to explain some things using verbiage in his descriptions that just was not natural. In short, he looked and sounded guilty as shit.

As I am typing this I just received the following email from a friend:

Dean can’t be interrogated. Swoffy can. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that those two created the monster, and everyone down the line allowed it to continue and flourish.

It’s borderline criminal for the other ACC member institutions to remain silent about this clown.

This is now a serious problem for the Atlantic Coast Conference. UNC-Cess Pool and John Swofford’s role and presence (‘He’s a Tar Heel’) is now an obvious distraction. He needs to step down for the good of the conference and its member institutions. I remember being irate in 1997 when Les Robinson (then NC State AD) voted along with all of the other schools to elect Swofford as commissioner of the ACC; and I never understood how the member institutions thought it was a good idea to elect someone with so much bias for a fellow conference program.
it was a huge mistake then, and perhaps the rest of the league will wake up and realize what kind of a mistake it is now.

Post-Script: Pack Pride has a transcript from today’s press conference available here.

In the wake of last week’s North Carolina report, I presume you’ve read it, were there red flags there that as you look back on your tenure as athletic director, that you could have or should have seen?

David, I don’t think so. I think if you look at that report there, in my last few years there, there were some, in terms of numbers, very relatively minimal, independent study classes and AFAM, but that really took off in about 2000. So it never came up while I was there as an issue from any source. If it had, obviously, we would have addressed that with the appropriate people. But it never arose as any issue at all.

While you were the athletic director there, you created separation between academic support and the athletic department. Why did you do that, and again, in hindsight, was the distance created not great enough, and if so, why do you think that distance created was not great enough?

Well, I don’t know– you know, there are two things you have to look at, one, the system and what’s systemic, and the other is, you know. You can have the best structures and setup in the world with anything. But if you have some individuals who choose to, you know, do something outside of the mission, so to speak, or in a different way, then that can undermine that. ,P> I asked that we move our academic counseling program for athletes out of athletics and into the college of arts and sciences, not because I saw any particular problems with it. It just philosophically was and still is something that I believe in, because I think there needs to be a certain separation of church and state, if you will, when it comes to academics. And I think that’s the appropriate way to, you know, to help make that happen.

Obviously you’ve gotta– you need to connect the two, and you need to understand what student athletes go through and their time demands, but they also need to be free to major in what they want to major in and to have as many opportunities as is possible that universities present while they try to compete at the highest level. And you know, I just always felt that a separation there is just philosophically and fundamentally healthy. Different schools do it different ways. You know, that’s simply a personal view that I have.

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Home Forums John Swofford’s presence obviously hurting the ACC

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  • #60123
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    We are streaming ACC’s Operation Basketball from Charlotte live in this link that you should check out if you have some time. The Commissioner of the
    [See the full post at: John Swofford’s presence obviously hurting the ACC]

    #60127
    WV Wolf
    Keymaster

    Swofford sucks at punctuation too.

    #60128
    Hungwolf
    Participant

    3000 UNC grads and not a one could translate the press conference to Swahili so they shut it down, is what I heard!

    #60129
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    ^Period. Point Blank.

    I would have loved to have heard the Clemson question, and seen the resulting shut down. I’m not a judge, and don’t work for the NCAA, but it seems to me that both rely on precedents in order to hand down punishment. If that’s the case, uNX should get hammered on the athletic and the academic sides. Just hammered.

    #60130
    deenz
    Participant

    All I have to say is, wow. And this:
    This man should have been run out of town years ago when it was determined that he funneled media rights to the company his son works for, costing the ACC, and thus each member institution, millions. For this debacle that he is now clearly involved in, creating fictitious courses allowing athletes and the university to cheat and win and prosper over others, he deserves jail time. Mr. Smith should be yanked from the hall of fame while he’s still living and Mr. Williams needs to be fired for that place to clean up and enjoy some last place finishes in all sports for a number of years.

    #60131
    Prowling Woofie
    Participant

    Kevin Ngandi (sp?) of ESPN tried to get Roy to answer questions this morning, and after stumbling over a couple, Roy played the old “I’ll be glad to talk basketball if you want to talk basketball, but I’m not going to talk about that other crap” line.

    Guilty, guilty, guilty…

    #60132
    deenz
    Participant

    I also love how the media is beginning to circle this storyline like sharks. They smell blood and they are not going anywhere until they get some bodies. The more people that are involved, the messier this gets, the happier they’ll be.

    #60133
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    Sooner than later…. Old Johnny’s gonna have plenty of time on his hands to help Uncle Roy keep the grass mowed over at Finley and Grandover …
    Peas in a Pod…
    or
    There aint no fools like two old fools…. right Mr. Stick ???

    Somebody needs to ask Jim Boeheim (the basketsaurus rex ) what he thinks about these two old fools…

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    #60134
    pakfanistan
    Participant

    #60135
    gso packbacker
    Participant

    I listened for about 2 minutes and then had to cut it off as it was too painful to listen. Regardless of his affiliation, I sure wish our Conference Commissioner came across as a more competent and effective leader.

    #60136
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    deenz — I’m not sure that was the first time in his career that funneling money (kickbacks) from media deals was a strategy used by certain parties. Would be really interesting for all of us to know the complete truth about some of these past dealings. But, its WAY too far in the past and there is no way records would exist to support anything. Interesting, however.

    #60139
    WTNY
    Participant

    Connecticut newspaper doesn’t hold back:

    “Throw The Book At UNC”

    How do a few years of lousy APR scores involving a dozen basketball players stack up against 18 years of staggeringly massive academic fraud involving 3,100 students, 47 percent athletes, getting A’s in phony African and Afro-American studies classes?

    And how much gold should North Carolina, part of the Power Five monopoly, forfeit for engaging in the most egregious and widespread academic sham in NCAA history?

    #60140
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    ^Haha, I love the piling on. It seems that we have reached and passed the tipping point for public awareness.

    #60142
    pakfanistan
    Participant

    Stuff like that makes me think it’s just a matter of time until UNC goes down in flames.

    #60144
    Mike
    Participant

    <iframe id=”twitter-widget-0″ scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” class=”twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered” allowfullscreen=”” style=”display: block; max-width: 99%; min-width: 220px; padding: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 5px; border-top-right-radius: 5px; border-bottom-right-radius: 5px; border-bottom-left-radius: 5px; margin: 10px 0px; border-color: rgb(238, 238, 238) rgb(221, 221, 221) rgb(187, 187, 187); border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14902) 0px 1px 3px; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 500px;” title=”Embedded Tweet” height=”212″></iframe>
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    Wait just a cotton pickin minute here. So Swoffy says no conference punishments beyond whatever the NCAA does? Is this the same Swoffy who lobbied for Klempsun to get further punishment from the league? Is this the same Swoffy who wanted FSU to get punished for resting softball players? What a complete joke!

    #60145
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    I’m pretty sure the media hands down the hall from Chancellor Folp’s office are going f’ing nuts…

    They can’t wait for the season to start… so…
    DumbAssDickie can handle the press for ’em…

    Just imagine someone saying…
    “We spent a million f’ing dollars and more to make this sh&t go away and these idiots won’t shut the F up! I want those SOBs in my office in the morning and tell ’em ‘No Coffee or Danish'”

    …and smile when that vision is fully engaged in your head…

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    #60155
    Primewolf
    Participant

    Doesn’t it take 3/4 of the Chancellors to agree to kick out the commish. What I can’t understand is other than UNC, who wouldn’t vote to kick him out?

    #60156
    Primewolf
    Participant

    And UNC should abstain.

    #60158
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    What I can’t understand is other than UNC, who wouldn’t vote to kick him out?

    VT. Miami. BC. Pitt. Cuse. Lville. Think about all the deals that were made. I mean, if it weren’t for Swoff, they wouldn’t be in the position they are today. And then you have politics as usual with all the rest. He is a very well liked administrator at the conference and national level.

    #60161
    rthomas44
    Participant

    Move on, indeed! This scandal is far from over! Wainstein report is still a whitewash and Roy knows it and so does Swofford.

    #60164
    wufpup76
    Keymaster

    I just am catching up a bit – thank you all for the OP and subsequent posts.

    I haven’t heard, seen, or read about any of the press conference or individual coach/player questions. For those that have, did Swofford and/or Roy come off as arrogant?

    Meaning, did it seem like they didn’t expect questions about the report or surrounding information? I could see that being a possibility for either or both of them (moreover, I wouldn’t be surprised if their handlers communicated gestapo-type ‘no questions about the report answered!’ messages).

    I know it’s silly to say, but it seems funny that media members are going after UNC. Says a lot about the media and the UNC machine (no one questions the state!)

    #60166
    ryebread
    Participant

    Skip to about the 21 minute mark to hear the QA:
    http://www.wralsportsfan.com/rs/video/14127555/

    Good god the hypocrisy of Swofford is sickening:
    – About UNC: Separation of Church and State between academics and athletics is what makes sense.
    – Asked about whether athletes should get paid: No, because what is special about NCAA sports is the marriage of academics and athletics.

    It was also interesting to see all the talking points I’d predicted come out of Swof’s mouth:
    – Need to move on
    – Things are behind
    – I knew nothing
    – Separation of athletics from academics
    “Carolina” as Swof called them clearly had the talking points nailed.

    I’ve felt for years that the Swoff should go and that his presence has propped UNC up, held NC State down, and generally hurt our league’s overall value in contract negotiations (see the Pac 12 deal for reference). Watching this press conference and the media questions, it has to be painfully obvious to the rest of the adults that he’s bad for business.

    Fire the bum!

    #60170
    PackerInRussia
    Participant

    Kevin Ngandi (sp?) of ESPN tried to get Roy to answer questions this morning, and after stumbling over a couple, Roy played the old “I’ll be glad to talk basketball if you want to talk basketball, but I’m not going to talk about that other crap” line.

    Hard to not talk about crap when the smell in the air is so strong.

    Roy Williams: “I’ve never had a player ineligible. If you want to be a cynic & say, ‘no joke, with what they did,’ that’s a bunch of crap.”

    No, that’s common sense. (again with the crap?)

    Roy defending Wayne Walden now. “Wayne Walden is one of the most ethical people I’ve ever known in my life.”

    Considering the people you’ve been surrounded by, that’s not a title of distinction. It’s about as meaningful as “smartest UNC athlete.”

    #60173
    hdhntr91
    Participant

    Have not looked at the other posts, but…

    Has anyone considered looking at Swofford’s record prior to becoming Commissioner. Would that have happened without the wins and without AFAM?? Would it be safe to say AFAM was the vehicle to his current job??

    #60174
    JohnGalt78
    Participant

    RW at presser when asked crap questions:

    “If they fire me, it’s going to be because I didn’t win games,” said Williams, whose career winning percentage (.792) is the highest among active coaches with at least 20 years’ experience.

    TRANSLATION: “THEY DON’T CARE HOW I WON THEM, JUST THAT I WON THEM”

    “It’s not going to be because I for sure knowingly did something unethical.

    “FOR SURE KNOWINGLY”…REALLY? SO YOU’RE SAYING THERE’S A LOOPHOLE…AS IN JUST PLAIN KNOWING?

    “I don’t move my ball on the green when nobody’s watching.” FOR COURSE NOT. YOU MIGHT GET CAUGHT. YOU MOVE IT IN THE ROUGH…YOU IMPROVE YOUR LIE, LIAR!

    Williams went on for a short while, making golf analogies, defending his ethics, his character.

    “So no, I don’t worry one second about my ethics,”

    THAT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS, DIPSH!T

    “or what can be done there”

    YOU LIVE ON YOUR OWN STINKING CESSPOOL WORLD ROY. OF COURSE THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING YOU FEEL NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED.

    “And the NCAA – I have never knowingly done anything that would even violate an attempt at the rule.”

    YOU ‘FOR SURE’ KNEW. YOU KNEW YOU VIOLATE RULES…NOT “ATTEMPTS” AT RULES.

    Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/29/4275844/unc-coach-roy-williams-if-they.html?sp=/99/100/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

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