Indecent Proposal

Dear John Swofford,

I hope money can buy happiness, because after the events of the past few weeks, that might be the only shot you have.
Since you announced that the ACC would expand by three, first with Miami and Virginia Tech and then later with Boston College, the move has provided nothing but bad publicity and public outcry.
First, the University of Miami, the crown jewel of your football-based expansion effort, admitted a football player with a lengthy rap sheet. How long? Let's just say that if he as many sacks next year as he does prior arrests, he'll be first team All-American.
Of course, Willie Williams might be an All-American anyways, but I'm sure that didn't play any role in Miami's decision-making process.
Then, Virginia Tech, a school that you never wanted in the first place but only reluctantly took because the governor of the state pulled a Vito Corleone to your Jack Woltz, suspended their starting quarterback for the year after multiple arrests.
During one of said arrests, the player, Marcus Vick, was arrested with two other VT football players. I guess when your brother is Michael Vick and you play in an environment with no consequences for football players, you think you can do anything you want.
Not bad Swoff.
You sold the soul of your conference for two schools; one which heralds its non-existant integrity and the other which makes no such claims.
Then, when it seemingly couldn't get any worse for you, the ACC announced the 2004-2005 basketball schedule.
Usually, this announcement was greeted by back-page stories in newspapers throughout ACC country.
But not yesterday.
Every major paper representing an ACC school had a front-page story on Wednesday heralding the release of the basketball schedule, a schedule which didn't include the double round robin system that makes ACC basketball so special. Needless to say, people aren't too happy.

"It hasn't set in yet that we will not play in places like the Comcast Center or Smith Center [North Carolina] this season. That's the collateral damage of expansion. While we'll miss playing longtime rivals, you hope that it's counter-balanced with new rivalries against Virginia Tech and Miami."
- Skip Prosser, Wake Forest Basketball Coach

Prosser would have every reason to be happy about the new schedule. His Demon Deacons, which could be the #1 ranked team in the country in the preseason polls, don't have to play tough road games against Maryland or UNC, instead playing a home-and-home with Miami and playing at Virginia Tech.
Instead of two probable losses, Wake can look forward to three likely wins, wins which will go a long way to securing a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
That Virginia Tech game will be a first for Prosser and his Wake Forest team: an easy ACC road game.
But Prosser isn't happy about it. Even though he's only coached in the league for three years, he understands the tradition and the meaning of playing each team twice. He knows that a road game against Virginia Tech won't prepare his team for the NCAA Tournament the way playing at the Comcast Center would.
And no amount of games played in Blacksburg or Coral Gables will change that.
The ACC lost something today. And Prosser, the other coaches, the players and the fans are upset for good reason. The tradition is gone.
You think Mike Kryzewski is happy that his team won't go on the road to Charlottesville, a place that has always been tough for Duke?
Or that Gary Williams is pleased that his young Terrapins won't be tested by Wake's backcourt twice during the season?
Sure, Prosser says he is looking forward to new rivalries with tradition-less basketball schools like Virginia Tech and Miami, but one can almost hear the sarcasm in Prosser's voice as he says it.
Some other lowlights of the schedule:

- Maryland will not play rival Virginia in the final game of the regular season for the first time in years. Instead, they will play their other arch-rival, the Hokies of Virginia Tech.
- Fans at Clemson and Virginia will not be able to heckle J.J. Redick and Duke.
- Wake Forest will not play at North Carolina, robbing basketball fans of a rematch of the wild opening season, triple-overtime classic in which Wake prevailed last season.
- February 2, 2005 and February 19, 2005 - Virginia Tech at Miami, Miami at Virginia Tech.
- Wake Forest, my alma mater, will not travel to College Park to play the Terrapins, thus depriving me a chance of seeing Chris Paul and company in action until, hopefully, I go to the ACC Tournament at the MCI Center. There are thousands of other people in different locations that won't be able to see their favorite team in person either.
- Three Thursday play-in games at said ACC tournament.

You've managed to ruin perfection.
I wish I could say I'm not going to watch any ACC basketball this season as a form of protest against the new schedule. But I can't do that, I love it too much.
You're not a dumb guy John. You knew there would be backlash against the basketball scheduling, that's why you announced it during the Olympics, three weeks later than the ACC usually releases the schedule.
You also know that ACC fans, like me, are loyal and will keep watching no matter how much you screw them.
While we'll complain this year, and into the future, about the schedule, you know that we also still watch the games and in time, get used to the horrible new system.
I won't like it, I never will, and I'll still talk about the good ol' days when every team played each other twice, but I'll get used to it just like when Popeye's changed their sweet & sour sauce, or The Washington Post started using color or when Capn' Crunch added green and blue crunch berries. I fear change, but I'll eventually come around.
Not today though. And not this year. ACC basketball season will never be the same because of you and your pocket-stuffing cronies in Greensboro and I can't forgive that in the blink of an eye. The resentment will always linger.
I saw that you guys just announced that Jacksonville will be the site of the ACC Football Championship Game in 2005 and 2006.
Those better be two great games. Because those 120 minutes of football are the reason you ruined the greatest basketball conference in the country.

Enjoy the money,
Chris Chase