Hey, it's the A C C. Panic room. We were actually in hiatus because there wasn't a lot going on until today. Lauren Job offered making the announcement that after the next round of the sports calendar, theoretically, starting in the fall, he will retire in 2021 the A, c C Washington D. C His last A c C tournament. Um, are you surprised by the news? Yes and no. I mean, you knew it was coming soon, right? And you knew was sure you knew was coming sooner rather than later. I'm definitely not surprised that he said it. Like with a year to go so that, you know, they can work on naming his successor. And, you know, he can help transition that person and whatever else. So I'm not surprised about that. Yeah, right. Why? So everyone can hate me when things go poorly for their favorite team. No, no, thank you. Ps like good. No. Even though, like I you know, don't religion really don't care any more about the outcomes of games? Guess where I went to school, so yeah, I doubt that would fly. Oh, no, actually, that makes you a candidate. if you went to North Carolina and that the rules, I mean, I would trust the rules, right? As a CC commissioner, I would require all a C C tournaments to be in Greensboro. So just I mean, I'm just saying already, I've alienated some of the my potential fans, but yeah, Look, it's kind of a thankless job, right? Like you're always gonna upset something, and everybody is always gonna assume whatever your alum. You know, whatever school you went to is the reason you're making whatever decision you're making And it just, you know, I think it's kind of a thankless job. It is not really one that I would want Who are state fans gonna pick on? I mean, they could still pick on the replacement, right? Yeah, but if it's not a care, a lot of person who's out to get him Well, if it's somebody that is like a swath protege Mm, I didn't think about that. Now, all all jokes aside, there's a lot of, you know, go inside. Hashtag going cc humor. When it comes to John Swofford retiring as commissioner of the A C. C. Now, I was a little bit surprised because I had given up trying to predict when John Swofford was going to retire. And I was of the mind that the A C C network launch was the last great accomplishment that he needed to solidify. And then he could look upon in the land and, you know, essentially not to get too literary here. But, you know, there there were no more worlds left to conquer, right? Um, no. And it's set up perfectly for the A C C tournament in Greensboro this past march. For it to be time right, you've just launched the network year approaching. You know your first fools football season on the network, your first full basketball season on the network. You're bringing it back to Greensboro for the A C C tournament after you have gone to New York and started to trail blaze different areas of what to take the tournament, much to people's disagreement, because they would always There are some people who would always have it in Greece, bro. So bringing it back made a lot of sense, and that would be his send off. But then that never materialized. And then you had this. Whatever this is with Corona virus canceling the A C C tournament. So I was surprised that the news came out today. But to your point, I guess it gives people an opportunity to kind of, like, get thing, get the ball rolling on who the successor is going to be. Four. John Swofford. Because this doesn't it doesn't work that way anymore. There's no you know, let's assign a pope and there's white smoke coming out of Sedgefield and then, you know, way suddenly find out this is gonna be a transitionary period, cause you kind of seen that happen in the SEC, and you saw that happen in the Big 10. So by default basis, you should probably about the same way. Yeah, and I think it makes a beautifully part of it. That surprised me is the fact that there's still so much uncertainty about what's gonna happen this year, and you could be bringing in your successor in a really bad What better time to do it? It's like starting a new radio show with no sports. What better talk? I'm to do it, Lauren. Yeah. I mean, it's not gonna be or whoever the new person is that is for sure. No, no, it's not. No, I understand your points kind of an odd time to do it. But you're also banking on the optimism by that. By like this time next year, things will have gone in the in the positive direction. I still think we're dealing with a lot of unknown now. Like, what's the college football season? Gonna look like? Etcetera. But hopefully by this time next summer, we'll have a better handle, maybe even a vaccine and a like big picture. A big picture for John Swofford. Fingers crossed. Big picture for John Swofford. There are two me. There are two, um, To tent pole aspects to the job that make his overall tenure over the last 25 years or what would have been 25 years? This overall success the 1st 1 is expansion, right? Yeah, I know you and I have been doing this long enough to remember. Expansion was not a popular idea when it came about, but it was necessary for the survival of the conference. If John Swofford did not raid the Big East, which is a misnomer anyway, they willingly wanted to leave that conference to join one that had what other conferences didn't have. And that was an equal revenue share that helped all the athletic departments eyeballing the fact that football was going to be the big money maker, not basketball, which was what the A C. C was known for for the longest time, to a certain extent, continues to be known for in in most circles by what wasn't the cleanest transition for expansion. Ultimately, the way now worked out for all parties involved. Virginia Tech ends up being a good fit for the A C C, even though they weren't originally on the list of expansion targets. You can thank the Virginia government forgetting that involved Syracuse in a weird sort of wonky way, actually fits in pretty well with the basketball culture. Like they Syracuse fans really love the banter back and forth with. I mean, they go toe to toe with Virginia fans. Carolina fans took fans state fan, so I welcome Syracuse basketball fans and their overall culture and how to go about things and even the loss of Maryland. While you do lose an original member of the A C. C in a certain fan base to pick on because of the way they were and they couldn't help themselves. Bringing on Louisville scandal side help bolster their football side, too with when you combine like they had the grant of rights, you know, inked up. So with Maryland leaving, that was still, you know, I don't know how they paid his Maryland pain. It's done right. But that's the thing like that was that even with them leaving like it was still like a with full in the moment for the A C c of like All right, here's all this extra money you have to pay us what was like 50 million over time or so, Yeah, I think it was anything I think was like $85 million have the notes. But I think, like any fun like 50 30 around 53 then, you know, with the Big 10 and not having their full rights and then Notre Dame this big, you know, the manic pixie dream girl of football expansion they have have they have this built in relationship now, and the schedule that works out and who knows how things play out between now and 2035 which is that whole kind of rights that you mentioned earlier. That letter Dame at some point time might actually join the A C C full time because we don't know where things were going to go. But they put themselves in a position where the A C C would be the landing spot for Notre Dame, cause I don't think expansion is done. There's too much of people going on for this. Had to be settled here in the next couple of years. So expansion in the way that played out, while not the cleanest thing, ends up saving the conference. Which thing gets you to the other 10 Poll now that you have this football league and you have Florida State winning a national championship? Clemson, rising to this power and despite the fact Florida State's been down in Miami has never been able to get their act together consists consistently. They were still able to get that SEC network launched relatively successful. I know people were wringing their hands, that's that how much clearance they were gonna have. But you know, if you watch the panic room enough times or listen to the show enough times, you would know that it was always gonna be an 11th hour thing. And for the most part, it is ending successful launch NIT pick wise. The Lorne you know, that network launched probably gets delayed a little bit because off the very, um, familial relationship with Raycom, right? And wanting to bring people that have been so good to the conference for so long along for the party, you could make the argument that it actually delayed some of the progress in the a c. C by keeping it so close knit like that and not just moving forward all in with ESPN or maybe even going it alone. But here we are. I think Swofford and that kind of to me sums up his tenure in the sense that he very much had to do a lot of balancing between what was best for the league and sort of trying to hang on to the tradition and things like that that people really clean Teoh and whether that's Greensboro but also having to New York and D. C or, you know, a C C network. But let's also make sure we have some familiar faces and we pay proper homage to Raycom and whatever else and you know, he's always been sort of balancing. Expansion was probably for his, you know, relatively speaking the most, like ruthless is the word, but like ruthless than you did in terms of, like, not really worrying about what other people were gonna think and just doing it and even the Notre Dame things. An example of this was Swofford, though, right? Because, you know, yeah, they could have said No, your football or nothing, but he was like, No, we're gonna put ourselves in position. To where? When? Once they have to join somebody for football, it's us. And it's It's just sort of like this. Give and take a compromise that it's it doesn't always please everybody. Sometimes it pleases almost nobody, but I think he's done a really good job. That's what I'll remember the most about him is just sort of this attempt to, like bring the A C C into the future while also hanging onto enough things about the past to kind of make people happy. You think John Swofford's gonna miss the opening Swath statements and things like that at a CC kickoff for Operation Basketball? I mean the swath Filibuster is kind of legendary. Yeah, the Phyllis watch. Yeah, right you heard. Was like, what, like 26 minutes or some like that? That's an opening statement. People like there's their press conferences in their entirety that do not last 26 minutes, and I'm sure he's not gonna miss. He's not gonna miss the questions about Hey, any comments on this? A C C school that's been with, you know, riddled with scandal to and that would probably be another NIT pick four. John Swofford in a the North Carolina ongoing academic scandal that took place or what had happened with football or poking around with basketball. I know Clemson fans for the longest time where, like, where were you and where you voted against us? Of course, that kind of stuff has been debunked. Um, you know, there's been some pushback on the fact that Syracuse has been in trouble. Louisville has been in trouble and, like what did they really add to the A C. C? Of course. Never mind that we've had issues with original members of the A. C. C. Getting in trouble with the unsuitable A as well. It's just you know, it's it's been you're right is a thankless job, but the A C C is better today than where it was back in 1997. Yeah, I mean, he's really I think for this I know The Syracuse chancellor was quoted in the release, and it seems, for the most part, that the new additions to the leader relatively happy with him, right? I mean, as far as I can tell, and for him to have to, like, add all of those teams in a relatively short amount of time and balance out the interests of everybody, that's this pretty hard to do. And it doesn't seem like you ever heard a lot of like team. You know, School X is upset it. John Swofford, because whatever. You never really heard that kind of stuff, right? So you know, you the fans are different, right? The fans are always gonna feel how they feel. But you didn't really weird a lot of like that kind of stuff from administrators and stuff, like, you know, things are always gonna fan. I mean, we started this conversation kind of Mick, in light of you know, who are NC State fans gonna blame for being average in basketball and football for the last 20 some odd years. Because, remember, it's always been this Carolina conspiracy to keep them always protect the blues and what not you know who's Florida State football gonna complain? What's what's fs you Twitter gonna be all mad about? You know, we talk talking about the Knowles and officiating right? Every every fan base has their one issue with John Swofford because that's what the position in a very in a very passionate sports community, that sort of thing comes with the territory. So the question now becomes alright. Swofford's out. Who's in? And that's the thing where, as of this recording, I have no idea. If you would ask me this question a couple of years ago, I would have had some names for you. Shut out to Michael Kelly, who used to be the associate commissioner for football within the A C C. Who went on to go be the college football playoff president, used the guy in charge of it, and now he's the A D at the University of South Florida. I think that's a name that would still make sense. It would it would. But I think also what do you need as a commissioner of ah, of a college conference now had changed in the last 25 years as well. I mean, look, it's look at who's Syracuse hired to be there a d? What was his background? What's wild hacks? Background? Well, it was all those times. It was all those years spent at ESPN. It's that kind of thing because you gotta remember the conference isn't about just putting on a sports league anymore and running championships. The conference is now a content generator. And if you and if, If, If you were slow on the come up for something like that, all you need to do is watch how things like media events like the A C C Kickoff for Operation Basketball have morphed into, Ah, very kind of casual. You get to talk to these people sort of thing. You got your writers tables in your radio row now this very expansive television production that has the A C C network there on site, or shout out to our guy Jordan Cornette, who's doing a Q and A with John Swofford at Commissioners round table rather than that sold done because it's meant for television. So I'll be curious if the next commissioner has to have more of an eye towards the branding. The content. Television. Here's another thing the A. C C network launched as a linear network on ESPN three years beyond the expiration date for linear networks. OK, in my opinion and where we're headed now, thanks to Covert 19 is a further acceleration off the cable bundle being dismantled. So how do you navigate this with ESPN? Who you've got a grant of rights now through 2035 or whatever it is? How do you push forward to be more on demand? Because I know I sound like a broken record. Anybody who's been watching the panic room or has made jokes about me asking questions to John Swofford at these commissioners forms has always been at eye towards What are you doing? Is an on demand content generator, as opposed to just the cash cow that was a linear network. Even ESPN has talked more openly. Now, behind the scenes about going on demand consumer direct, then they were just two years ago. So these are things that the next commissioner has to worry about the grand scheme. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I think you know, Swofford. I think it's done a good job of listening to people you know within the office that have maybe a better understanding of that. Thank you Note or whatever. But, you know, I my soul requests for the next commissioner is to please fix the A C. C s website, please. For the love of God, please. It is the a c c dot com. I hate it. It's a terrible Please fix it. Please. I just like very few things. I want the tournament in my state so I can go to it. Uh, and I want an HTC website that I could navigate and I want to be able to re watch games that aired on the A. C. C network relatively easily on that website. That's about it. That's all you are. You want another website? Yeah, they've got some replaces that like they had a basketball replay I saw in there that, like, was basically like here's the key moments, but they only showed, like, made shots. And I was like, I want to see the whole game. I don't, you know, steam. Probably miss, like, 57 shots I'd like to see. Well, I'd like to see some of those. You think Debbie? Yeah, was looking at that vacant commissioner seat? Just kind of doing the bird man hand rub. Um, maybe she might be great. Maybe, baby, do you think there's a current a D? I mean, I don't think that you put me in a tough position, cause you know, I love Debbie. Yeah, but there's a 0%. That's Debbie. Debbie knows we love her. Um, but I'm sure at some point in time, she probably looked at that job and thought and maybe me, Right. But she might be enjoying retirement too much, but does it? Doesn't really matter who is there an a d E currently in the a. C. C. That will be elevated the same way that that John Swofford was elevated from a D at North Carolina to the A d at or to be the commissioner. I mean, boo Corrigan just got here, but yeah, he's got the name right. He's got the name and he's got the lineage. For sure. He's got the name. He's got the money and she's got the background to. I'm not trying to sell him short in terms of the off his background. I mean, he's been he's been a college administrator lifer because it is because of its stop his dad, Gene Corman. Um, or could it be somebody with a TV mind like I just mentioned John Wild Hack at Syracuse, Clemson's 80. Dan Radakovich, Dan Radical? It's not like they haven't done pretty well for themselves. Yeah, no, dont They've done pretty well for themselves to. So if it were a different time, Tom George might have been a guy that people would have looked at. Of course, he lost his job for, ah, variety of reasons at Louisville. So it's, uh, Virginia's 80. I like her. So yeah, no, look, there's any number. There's there's a bunch of pros and cons to who could be the next person. You know Bubba Cunningham or Kevin White could also be in the dynamic Bubba. Bubba always strikes me as a guy who's looking for the next thing up. He's forward thinking he is somebody who some people have joked about. I mean, he was in the running if I wasn't mistaken for the for the Southern Cal job. Yeah, Theo A CC, though I think does have some capability to read a room I don't And even though Bubba didn't go to Carolina and I think has really I think he's run the UNC Athletic. Berman I saying he hasn't grown attached in some ways, but like he has run it like a business in my, which is what ISS so And he's done a good job of that, so I But I don't think he and I don't think he has the same level of emotional attachment as you could have Maybe accused John Swofford of having having gone there, having been the 80 there for 17 years, but at the same time, it doesn't matter. You got to read the room. People. There's is I just feel like there's no way they will hire another Carolina. I would suggest Western and we'll just go look I would endorse. Let's just have Western, be the next commissioner of the A C C. All right, that's gonna wrap it up for this edition of the A. C C. Panic room. It's funny. Laura and I were talking the other day about So is there anything that panic about my lying? Yeah. No, I mean, we felt I think we both look a little weird Pant like doing a panic room about what was going on with Dav. Oh, and I'm glad we didn't, cause they're there was plenty of stuff to happen involved. That was That was a moving target. Uh, relates to what was going on with Davos. So but no. Hey, shut out! The John Swofford Always thinking about the content. Hashtag go a Cease it. Ah, that Wrap it up for this edition of the A C C. Penna group We will see while may be closer to one a C C. Kickoff is supposed to be since it's all virtual, I guess we'll continue with some virtual panic rooms. See that?