Challenges arise amid misconduct in ACC

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - ACC commissioner John Swofford did his best to put the conference's best foot forward Wednesday when he discussed the state of the league at ACC Men's Basketball Media Day.


Swofford highlighted the ACC's academic accomplishments, including that its schools lead the other power-five conferences in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, as well the conference's success on the court.


All of that is well and good, but the reality is that Swofford and the ACC have had a rough ride recently as two of the conference's high-profile programs -- Syracuse and North Carolina -- are in the crosshairs of the NCAA amid different scandals.


All this is happening while the NCAA is in a state of unrest as the power-five conferences seek autonomy for rulings on things such as player stipends, medical benefits, scholarship guarantees and smoother transfer processes.


Swofford said every commissioner is dealing with similar power issues, and he believes the ACC has a good plan to quickly move forward on autonomy.


He said the league has committees comprised of five athletic directors, five school presidents and five faculty representatives who will develop the legislation to improve the student-athlete experience by Dec. 1.


At that point, the committees will put the legislation to vote among the 65 schools from the power conferences in January, which could lead to some sort of resolution shortly thereafter.


The other power conferences are working on a similar play. The Pac-12 announced a plan earlier this week that included changes that would give student-athletes guaranteed four-year scholarships, better medical coverage and immediate aid for transferring among the conference's schools.


Swofford said he likes many of the Pac-12's ideas and thinks the ACC's plan will be similar, but maintained that he doesn't believe college athletes should be paid.


'I do not think athletes should be paid. I believe in the college experience, the collegiate model, if you want to call it that,' Swofford said. 'I think it has been a very important part of the culture of this country. It's unique in the world. It's not perfect. It needs to be adjusted.


'And I think the new structure in the NCAA will give us the opportunity to do that. With opportunity comes responsibility, and we need to take this very, very seriously, because we're at a point in time where college athletics is sort of under siege, whether it's [from] the courts, potentially whether it's [from] Congress, whatever it might be.


'And I think anytime you have those situations, it can be uncomfortable, it can be problematic, but the way to look at it is that it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity to make something better.'


The restructuring of the NCAA student-athlete model, however, is only one headache Swofford is dealing with as the NCAA investigation at Syracuse and the growing academic fraud scandal at North Carolina have clearly put a damper on the start of what should be an excellent season for the league.


Syracuse men's basketball and football programs will meet with the NCAA's Committee on Infractions this week as they are under investigation for possible major rules violations. At North Carolina, former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein released a report that alleged the school had academic fraud from 1993 to 2011.


Swofford said that while the two cases are not related, they are troublesome and obviously not something any commissioner wants.


'Well obviously the two don't have anything to do with each other and the NCAA asked us not to talk about ongoing investigations,' Swofford said. 'But you know, anytime one of our schools has a compliance issue, it's of concern regardless of what it is or who it is, and you want to see as few of those as possible.


'If you look at this league, over the past decade, the past two decades, the past three decades, what you'll find in terms of major NCAA violations is that we've had fewer than any of the other power conferences, and that's been a part of our culture, and it's an important part of our culture.'


Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim refused to comment on the investigation, but North Carolina's Roy Williams got emotional and said the report of academic fraud is troublesome because it portrays a different university than the one he knows and loves.


Williams, who so far has been exonerated of any wrongdoing, also made it clear he had no knowledge of the academic fraud -- among allegations were players and students taking no-show classes and being given grades for work they did not do -- nor did he choose courses for players. He added that he has always had the highest standards for academics in his program.


'This is my university, I went to school here, my wife went to school here, this is a place I love and more importantly this is where my children went to school,' Williams said. 'We made some mistakes, and these things I am extremely sad about, these things go to the core of our university. I'm extremely confident this will be the University of North Carolina again.


'You can say I'm too short, too ugly, too much gray hair, I've got a bad golf swing, but there isn't one person in the world [to whom] I don't emphasize the academic side of things.'


Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com and Twitter @paulzeise.

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