Even if John Swofford never intended to finish the final few months of his 24 years as the ACC Commissioner adding another chapter to his already impressive legacy, the COVID-19 pandemic left him with no choice.
Set to ride into the sunset upon retirement in the spring, Swofford instead dove into the final and greatest challenge of his career, and he nailed it.
* Swofford nailed it in July when he negotiated and reached an agreement that would boost his league’s profile and provide Notre Dame a lifeline by inviting the Irish into his league as an honorary football member for one season.
* Swofford nailed it again in August when he unveiled an aggressive but workable scheduling plan for his 15 football programs — complete with flexibility and a couple of bye-week bail-out dates to reschedule postponements — under this season’s extreme and unusual circumstances.
* And Swofford nailed it again on Dec. 1 — though not unanimously among his members — when he announced the cancellation of seemingly meaningless road games on Dec. 12 for Notre Dame at Wake Forest and for Clemson in a potential makeup date at Florida State.
The immediate blowback to Swofford’s final of these three efforts came from the University of Miami, whose reps complained that cancelling those two games for Clemson and Notre Dame was preferential treatment because Miami still had to play North Carolina on Dec 12 while the other two enjoyed a bye.
That complaint had already sailed before and officially after the Hurricanes (7-2) were handed their second league loss of the season in a 62-26 drubbing to North Carolina, a bad beat that made No. 2 Notre Dame (9-0) and No. 3 Clemson (8-1) the two outright title game participants — no tiebreakers needed.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey also piled on, complaining that Swofford’s cancellation of these two games for the league’s top two teams against two opponents hit hard by coronavirus outbreaks this season was nothing more than investment insurance that two ACC teams would become two of the four invitees to the College Football Playoffs (Jan. 1, semis & Jan. 11, title).
“I was surprised to see [the ACC] announcement,” Sankey told Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. “It begs one question — if their two most highly-ranked teams were, for instance, [ranked] five and six in the CFP Rankings, would this decision have been made?”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was quick to pour cold water on the hot takes out of Sankey and from Miami, arguing that if a six-win Ohio State team is playoff eligible and worthy, then two ACC teams that played 11 games — and survived almost twice as many on- and off-field risks as the Buckeyes faced this season — have already built stronger playoff profiles.
“If six wins can get you in the playoffs, shouldn’t nine get you in there, shouldn’t 10 get you in there?” Swinney rhetorically asked.
Suggesting that Swofford didn’t weigh his game cancellation decision with a nothing-to-gain everything-to-lose viewpoint would be naive.
And if indeed he did, then again, he nailed it.
Asking the players from your two best teams to leave their COVID bubbles last weekend to travel and play in “who-cares” games — Notre Dame and Clemson were both listed as more than four-touchdown favorites — was a risk Swofford wisely decided wasn’t worth taking.
And now because of Swofford’s preseason foresight, his in-season plan, and some smart decisions preparing for the postseason, each of the 15 ACC football members — sans COVID-ravaged Wake Forest — will play no fewer than nine conference games this season, and two of those 15 teams should already have a spot reserved at the playoff party, win or lose.
“There’s no question in my mind, these are two of the best teams in the country,” Swinney said this week, in an assessment of Clemson and Notre Dame that’s as spot-on as Swofford’s Swan Song has been.
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