Swofford’s retirement is the end of an era, as he led the league through sweeping changesACIE WYATT/SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL
ACC Commissioner John Swofford said his decision to retire next June was "planned for at least some time," according to Steve Wiseman of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Swofford said he and his wife, Nora, "started looking at this several years ago." Swofford: "We had sort of set this point in time as the right time. This will be my 24th year." He added, "We just didn’t know it would be during a pandemic." Still, Swofford said, "It’s the right time for us. I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve done in this league as a student-athlete, as an AD, as a commissioner" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 6/26). Sports Business Journal's Michael Smith wrote there was a symmetry to Swofford’s youth and career, growing up in the foothills of North Carolina and going to college in Chapel Hill, becoming AD at the Univ. of North Carolina and then commissioner of the ACC. That will continue in retirement for the 71-year old. He is building a house along the 10th fairway at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. It is about a driver and 7-iron from the house to the Sedgefield clubhouse, the same building where the ACC was formed in 1953. “That seems kind of fitting,” Swofford said. “To be able to spend my career in a conference like the ACC, one that I grew up in and played in, not many people get to do that.” Click on Thursday's SBJ College newsletter for more on Swofford's retirement.
LASTING LEGACY: In Greensboro, Jeff Mills writes Swofford’s retirement is the "end of an era." He "led the league through sweeping changes, from nine to 15 schools and its own TV and streaming network." Former Wake Forest AD Ron Wellman said, “I don’t know that there would be an ACC (without Swofford’s expansion efforts)." He added without Swofford's leadership, "there probably would have been schools from the ACC gobbled up by others" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 6/26). In Atlanta, Mark Bradley went so far as to write had Swofford "not been the league’s commissioner these past 23 years, there mightn’t be an ACC." Swofford "kept adding to his conference, and by binding existing members to a grant-of-rights agreement." He effectively "ensured there’d be no more Marylands." He also "brought Notre Dame into the fold, and that’s a move that could pay its biggest dividend after Swofford has called it a day" (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/26).
21ST-CENTURY MAN: THE ATHLETIC's Nicole Auerbach wrote Swofford "helped a league known for its basketball brilliance remain that way." At the same time, he "made sure to elevate and invest in football -- irrelevance would have been the alternative -- growing the league from nine members to 15." Auerbach: "Swofford navigated both conference realignment and the evolving landscape of college athletics rather nimbly. And he was patient, waiting and working toward what eventually would become the ACC Network, which launched last year. Both will be key parts of the legacy he’ll leave" (THEATHLETIC.com, 6/25).
IT'S TIME: In Raleigh, Luke DeCock writes Swofford "saved the ACC." DeCock: "There’s no question it’s time for someone else to take charge. That much was clear in Greensboro in March, when Swofford’s usual attempts to govern by consensus left the ACC slow to react in the wake of an unprecedented situation." But Swofford "ensured the league’s survival." He "pushed the network through, finally, in the summer of 2016." More DeCock: "Swofford still has plenty of work left to do over the next year. But it's time for someone else to build on the platform of stability Swofford painfully and successfully constructed" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 6/26).
