Ah, remember the days when this logo existed?
The ACC, at its inception, was a seven-team league. When representatives from the schools sat around a table at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro in 1953, they probably could never have imagined the league would more than double in size at some point.
But here we are.
July 1 marked the ACC’s expansion to 15 teams, as Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame (sort of) joined the league officially. And to celebrate the occasion, the ACC representatives (and its mascots) took over New York City!
The ACC mascots were the talk of Twitter on Sunday afternoon and early evening, as they spent the time touring the big city. Maryland’s Testudo the Terrapin mascot was included for some reason, even though the Terrapins will be leaving the league after this year. So naturally, the ACC mascots gave him a bit of a goodbye hazing ritual.
Fun with mascots could go on all day. Clemson’s Tiger mascot gave us this crazy-eyed shot. N.C. State’s Mr. Wuf went fishing. And Testudo looks suspiciously like Fredo Corleone in this shot.
But aside from mascot fun, there was symbolism in commissioner John Swofford and representatives from some of the ACC schools holding a press conference and ringing the NASDAQ closing bell in New York City.
“This is a very important part of our new footprint for our conference,” Swofford said of why he chose New York City.
In a letter he wrote to the fans, Swofford said that the league already has the highest population in its geographic area of any conference, and said that by 2030, 55 percent of the population of the United States would lie within the ACC footprint.
And a new footprint means new eyes and ears on the league. And for the new members, there are some very important guidelines to follow if they want to be true-blue ACC.
To elaborate on this -- in football, be sure to take very ill-timed losses when ranked very highly, and if possible, make those losses come to teams that aren’t supposed to beat you. For example, Florida State losing to a Wake Forest, or Virginia Tech losing to Maryland. To be the ideal ACC football members, a team must be both in the period of 4-5 years. Be rolling along, get ranked in the top 25 and take a disappointing loss one year, then go back to mediocrity and upset a highly-ranked Florida State team late in the season the next.
In basketball, Duke and North Carolina have generally had most of the national success. Obviously, this should change with the addition of three very well established (former) Big East programs. Emphasis on should. After all, in football, Miami and Virginia Tech were supposed to improve the national reputation of the league. Virginia Tech has done its part, but Miami football has taken a precipitous fall. So in order for the new schools to fit in, they’re going to have to take some horrendous non-conference losses and then make early exits from the NCAA Tournament.
Seriously. Do this. Complaining about commissioner John Swofford can also fall under this umbrella.
When your team loses and the officiating was bad, it’s not as simple as a referee making mistakes! Nope, it’s a vast conspiracy.
Which leads us into ...
Almost since the ACC was founded, teams like Maryland have complained about their outsider status, and that everything the entire league did centered around the Tobacco Road teams.
(Oh, and it’s time to learn those: Wake Forest, Duke, N.C. State and North Carolina. Carry on.)
This has been a trend recently as well. In football, for example, Maryland edged William & Mary 7-6 in its season opener last year. Yes, that is a real score. And no, leather helmets weren’t involved. In basketball, Virginia lost at Boston College 53-52 -- a combined 105 points. And that’s far from an anomaly. The low-scoring epidemic in college basketball is certainly alive and well in the ACC.
And finally, the most important rule?
The ACC Twitterati are the best in the nation, hands down. And they are nothing if not self-deprecating. The hashtag #goacc is meant as such, and so use it accordingly. We don’t do the “A-C-C!” chant, unless we’re being sarcastic. We’re not the SEC here, people. This is the ACC. We have a long, storied tradition, yes. But that tradition also includes sarcasm.
Get on board.
