ACC has interesting rule changes in 2009

John Swofford announced during his State of the Conference Address today at the ACC Media Days in Greensboro,NC that teams would be able to wear dark colors on the road if agreed upon by the home team without penalty. He also announced that punters whom kick the ball rugby style are subject to hits as if they were a ball carrier, not a punter.

I personally agree with both of these rules changes. If Florida State wants to wear all-garnet when they play at Clemson and Clemson wear all-orange I see that as interesting and something new. Teams with similar coloring can not do it. An example would be NC State Vs. Maryland, and Clemson Vs. Virginia Tech. Those two match ups contain teams with similar primary and secondary colors so it would make no sense if both teams had all-red, or all-black, or all-purple.

This came about because of two reasons. The first reason is that last year in the PAC-10 USC played UCLA and both agreed to wear solid colors as a new tradition, but the PAC-10 demanded that officials call an automatic time out on the road team for doing it. The second reason is because Clemson and Coastal Carolina want to have a special Orange/Black Halloween Game on October 31st. The Chanticleers want to wear All-Black against the Tigers All-Orange.

I also like the new rule with rugby style punters. These players could easily fake a kick and get a first down because defenders never knew whether they were going to run with it or kick it. If they kicked it at the last second the defender got a roughing the kicker penalty and if he was worried about hitting the kicker, the kicker could easily take advantage of the situation and run for a first down.

If a player begins the motion of running with the football he should be treated the same as a quarterback or running back. Players should not be cheated because they are afraid of a bogus penalty call.

Other news from media days
Spiller most notable player at the event
CJ Spiller is the most talked about player at the media day event today. Players from other teams are being asked about his talent and the importance of an ACC player being considered for the Heisman.

Spiller was asked about the VIRGIN QUESTION Tim Tebow got. He and Tebow are great friends and Spiller was shocked that Tebow was asked that. Spiller himself is an outgoing Christian with a 3 year old daughter that he loves dearly.

SEC TV Deal big topic as contract running out with ACC and ABC
With the SEC signing a new huge contract with the Disney Networks and CBS paying SEC schools $17,000,000 a year A PIECE the topic became "CAN SWOFFORD DELIVER FOR THE ACC?"

Football is clearly dominated by the SEC, but the ACC is getting more competitive and the money the schools put into the sport is growing enormously. The ACC has several HUGE programs with a total of 13 National Championships between five conference schools and 9 bowl tie-ins. The league is also the most respected basketball conference in the country with arguably the two most recognizable coaches in all of college basketball in Roy Williams and Coach K. The league has alot to offer.

Word around the ACC is that FOX wants to make a big push into college sports and is prepared to offer the ACC a similar package to the SEC that includes sporting events on FOX, FX, FSN, FCS, and Fox Regional Cable Networks. There is also talk of a cable television station similar to The Big Ten Network.

ACC Championship Game Attendance Problems
Questions are arrising concerning the attendance at the title game and whether Charlotte should be the permanent host of the title game. One problem the ACC has is that other than Virginia Tech none of the other division winners in the past three years have been teams with large alumni bases and fan support. The other problem is that the cities in Florida haven't been promoting the event as Charlotte surely would.

If Clemson and Florida State can start making the title game out of the Atlantic on a regular basis from the Atlantic and Virginia Tech and Miami from the Coastal Division then the title game would have more fans attending. Charlotte is also the logical choice for the title game as the city gets behind sports and events in the city and surrounding area.