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Message: [QUOTE="Lou_C, post: 1702521, member: 3201"] Exactly. The ACC fed money to an "old friend" instead of generating more money for it's member institutions. Glad you'll admit it. Of course, Raycom used to be a big player...everyone was with Raycom or Jefferson Pilot because that was the way the business worked. Those distributors "helped" everyone...the PAC, the SEC, etc. The business has moved on, and the conference shouldn't be in the charity business for "old friends." Raycom as a "friend" has no meaningful significance to FSU, Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville or Notre Dame. You know, half the conference? On top of that, I wonder if a poll of Clemson and Georgia Tech would find that "old friend" important enough to throw a couple million of their money each year to FOR NO REASON BUT CHARITY. Raycom holds a special place for those handful of Tobacco road folks that run into each other at their wives' fundraisers, or in Swofford's case, at the Thanksgiving table. This is not the 1970s. Is the ACC still spending as much of it's budget in Charlotte Observer sports page advertising as it was in 1980s? Does it still have a contract with Greensboro Pagers-4-All because that was the provider that used to provide pagers for the ACC execs in the late 80s? Does it still telegram it's messages because it did in 1959, because they don't want to hurt the Raleigh Western Union location? I don't even think I want to know the answer, because it's probably yes. That giveaway is not serving the majority of the conference. It was bad business by Swofford, and bad business by the schools that let him get away with it and didn't scrutinize it enough. I absolutely hold FSU, Miami, VT, BC as well as Clemson and GT responsible for letting it happen. Louisville, SU and Pitt inherited it, there's nothing they can do about it. The deal cannot be defended at all from a business point of view, and this is a business now, whether Swofford and Tobacco Road want to admit it or not. And if they can't admit it, he needs to be replaced now by someone who can be the "bad guy" and cut financially responsible deals. I think Swofford had a pretty decent run responding to crisis (significantly of his own making) from 2011-2014, I will give him credit for that. But now that he's on a losing streak, it's time for him to walk away with the legacy of having stabilized the ACC, bringing football to nearly credible levels, and assembling the greatest basketball conference of all time. And time for someone to step in and make the necessary business decisions to take the ACC to the next level financially. [/QUOTE]

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