FERNANDINA BEACH, FLA. - ACC schedules will not expand to nine games in football or 18 games in men's basketball, conference officials said Tuesday.

Some basketball coaches expressed interest in an 18-game ACC schedule, but the issue died this week at the ACC spring meetings when they were reminded that a year ago they committed to 16 games through 2010-11. Football coaches rejected nine ACC games and will continue playing eight.

"It probably would be better for us to go play teams out of our conference to build up our national standing," N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said.

NCAA FOCUSES ON BASKETBALL: ACC officials were interested to read in USA Today that the NCAA is assigning three of its 20 investigators solely to college basketball.

It's the first time NCAA investigators have been devoted to one sport.

"I don't think that devoting three or five or 10 gets at some of the stuff they're trying to get at," said ACC associate commissioner for men's basketball operations Karl Hicks. "But it sends a message to the basketball world how important that is, and I think that's a good thing."

TAMPA ON PACE: Michael Kelly, ACC associate commissioner for football operations, said Tampa, Fla., is on pace to reach an early ticket sales goal for the 2008 ACC championship game.

Kelly would like Tampa to have half the 65,857 seats at Raymond James Stadium pre-sold when tickets go on sale to the public in July. The ACC is working closely with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and hopes to do the same with the Carolina Panthers when the championship game heads to Charlotte in 2010 and 2011.

RULES CHANGES: Football coaches were briefed Tuesday on rules changes. They include:

* Keeping the clock running after players go out of bounds, except in the final two minutes of either half.

* Using a 40/25-second clock like the NFL to standardize the time between plays.

* Getting rid of the 5-yard face-mask penalty.

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