ACC is looking for a new commissioner. These are our top picks for the job.
The ACC officially launched the search for a new commissioner to replace John Swofford on Thursday with the hiring of not one but two search firms.
The league hired the collegiate search firm Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, which includes among its executives former Boston College athletic director Gene DeFillippo, and Turnkey in turn brought aboard Ventura Partners, which operates more in the executive arena.
Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch and Notre Dame president John Jenkins will head the league’s search advisory committee, which will also include athletic directors, faculty representatives and athletes. Syracuse chancellor and president Kent Syverud is the chair of the ACC’s Board of Directors, which will make the final decision.
Three of the four men who’ve been the conference’s commissioner were former ACC athletic directors — Swofford came from North Carolina, Gene Corrigan from Virginia (via Notre Dame) and Jim Weaver from Wake Forest — but recent Power 5 commissioner hires have run the gamut from internal promotions (as the SEC did when Greg Sankey replaced Mike Slive) to going outside collegiate sports entirely (as the Big Ten did when it hired Kevin Warren from the Minnesota Vikings).
The ACC’s pool of candidates will break down into a few groups: Sitting ADs, ACC insiders and outsiders.
Sitting ADs
Virginia’s Carla Williams was the first Black woman to become a Power 5 athletic director and would bring diversity to a powerful position that has been held only by white men for 67 years. She has an impeccable reputation in the industry and will almost certainly be one of the finalists for the position.
Two other current athletic directors will merit consideration. Clemson’s Dan Radakovich has been an athletic director at two ACC schools and is a powerful figure within the conference. Notre Dame’s Jack Swarbrick, a lawyer by trade, was a candidate for both Big 12 commissioner and NCAA president. Could he bring the Irish into the league as a package deal?
Insiders
These are people with close ties to the league, even if they work elsewhere. All three are strong candidates: South Florida athletic director Michael Kelly, West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons and Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade.
As the ACC’s football czar, Kelly, a Wake Forest grad, played a key role in the league’s increasing competitiveness post-expansion and was a key figure in the launch of the College Football Playoff. Lyons spent a decade in the ACC office, overseeing compliance and academic affairs. McGlade, a former UNC basketball player and Georgia Tech coach, played a pivotal role in the growth of women’s basketball while working in the ACC office.
Outsiders
Those two groups comprise the traditional pool of ACC candidates, but there are several people outside the league who would be identified by any competent search firm. Among athletic directors elsewhere, Stanford’s Bernard Muir stands out as a top candidate. Muir worked at Notre Dame and is a former chairman of the NCAA basketball committee.
ESPN executive vice president Burke Magnus would bring television insight to a conference that is now basically a network that plays sports. A powerful figure in ESPN’s coverage of college sports, he may have the support of the Syracuse delegation, with Syracuse AD John Wildhack a former ESPN executive as well — no small consideration given Syverud’s role in ACC governance.
Oliver Luck is looking for work after a brief tenure as XFL commissioner, but he has deep roots in collegiate athletics having served as a top NCAA executive for five years and as the athletic director at West Virginia before that. And from inside North Carolina, would Charlotte Hornets president Fred Whitfield consider leaving Michael Jordan’s embrace to take over the ACC?
It won’t be a surprise if the ACC narrowed its search down to five finalists: Kelly, Magnus, McGlade, Muir and Williams, a group that represents a diverse range of backgrounds and experience. But the Big Ten surprised everyone when it hired Warren — anything is possible.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 10:25 AM.
