ACC settles into period of strength, stability

He says the observer will travel to all games with a team, including on the road. It continues to consider starting a revenue-generating cable network to rival the SEC’s and Big Ten’s. The medical observers will not have the ability to stop a game in progress, but they will be able to communicate with someone on the sideline to check on the medical status of players if there appears to be a concern.

“It’s the right thing to do”, North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow said. “For all the right reasons”.

ACC commissioner John Swofford kicked off the league’s 2015 media days today with various aspects of student-athlete at the top of his agenda.

As for the potential creation of an ACC TV channel, Swofford said discussions with ESPN remain ongoing, but there is no timetable.

“We’ve discussed those issues and best practices”, Swofford said. You hope they are not of magnitude that has huge ramifications for them or your program but when those situations take place, what’s important to me and to this league is our institutions deal with them when they happen. “I know you’re exhausted of hearing me talk and not saying very much on that subject”.

Swofford’s comments came during his annual preseason forum covering a range of topics, including the need for NCAA reform that includes cost of attendance, as well as the College Football Playoff. “We have to retain the fundamentals and the collegiate model combining education and athletics, and quite frankly, I think we’ve waited too long to make some necessary adjustments”.

“It’s not what you want to read from any of your schools”, Swofford said. “That way, in my mind, you have the five major conference champions and you have three at-large that are chosen”. They competed very successfully nationally for years before joining this league, so the simple way to say it is my impression of Louisville after one year in the league is that they are everything and more than we expected. “But that’s not in the cards right now”.

The college football commissioners voted unanimously to create the four-team playoff in 2012 and established a contract that would last 12 years.