Former NCAA President and ACC Commissioner GENE CORRIGAN, who helped "change the look of college sports," died on Saturday at 91, according to the AP. Corrigan was the ACC's third full-time commissioner, serving from September '87 until retiring in December '96. He was NCAA president from '95-97. Corrigan "spent his entire career involved in college sports as a coach, administrator and conference commissioner." He was a "leader in the creation of the bowl coalition, the precursor" to the BCS in the pre-CFP era. Corrigan also "led the effort" in '90 to have Florida State join the ACC, which "helped a league primarily known for basketball improve its football credentials." Corrigan was Virginia AD from '71-'81 and served in the same role at Notre Dame from '81-87 before taking over as ACC commissioner (AP, 1/25). In Indiana, Eric Hansen wrote Corrigan's time as Notre Dame AD included "two notable coaching hires," football program "resurrector" LOU HOLTZ and current women's basketball coach MUFFET MCGRAW (SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE, 1/25).
ONE-OF-A-KIND: In DC, John Feinstein writes as "friendly and self-deprecating as Corrigan was, there was no doubting his authority." He was "anything but your typical conference commissioner -- or athletic director or human being" (WASHINGTON POST, 1/27). In Greensboro, Ed Hardin wrote Corrigan "understood the importance of media, not only for the ACC but for all schools, forging agreements with television networks and reworking revenue models that would use television money along with football and basketball money to finance entire athletics departments" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 1/26). In Virginia, David Teel writes Corrigan was "deft negotiating television deals, shepherding NCAA reform and engaging with the media, forging consensus with his gravitas and intellect -- he convinced ACC schools to adopt equitable revenue sharing" (Hampton Roads DAILY PRESS, 1/27).
