North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: A Sign of the Times
6/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
June 19, 2003
By Tony Haynes
So Josh Powell is jumping to the NBA after his sophomore season while the tight-knit ACC is seriously considering an expansion that could add up to four teams. What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is going on here? Just call it a sign of the times. In case the world has passed you by, it's worth remembering that things aren't the way they used to be. In just 40 years, primetime television has gone from Ozzy and Harriett to Ozzy Osbourne, sofas have been replaced by sectionals and phone calls to loved ones have often been eliminated in favor of e-mails.
On one hand, many of us crave those times when life seemed so simple, times when it felt safe to leave a door unlocked in case a neighbor wanted to stop by. On the other hand, it's now hard to imagine not having the Internet, satellite television and all the other modern day conveniences that we occasionally take for granted.
College athletes like Josh Powell have also changed with the times. Quite unfamiliar with the "old days" when basketball players didn't even consider playing in the NBA until the expiration of their college eligibility, Powell is only following in the footsteps of those trendsetters who have come before him. Perhaps it's no surprise that his favorite pro player is Kevin Garnett, who hurdled over college and gained quick NBA stardom straight out of high school.
And like the times, dreams and goals have also changed. When UCLA and NC State were the kingpins of college basketball in the early 1970s, it wasn't uncommon for teenagers to fantasize about becoming the next David Thompson or Bill Walton. Nowadays, idols on the college scene are few and far between; it's now all about evolving into the next Kobe Bryant or Allen Iverson by getting to the 'show' as quickly as possible.
Money, some scoff, is at the heart of all these changes. Well yes, money is a big part of it. Just as Josh Powell is attracted to the possibility of supporting himself and his family by playing the game he loves, the ACC is looking for new ways to help its athletics directors balance their budgets in the new millenium.
That's where expansion comes in.
It's somewhat ironic that in the same year the ACC glorified its illustrious past with various 50th anniversary celebrations, the league also focused full bore on its future. Again, it's a sign of the times when a conference that has always been so envied and revered because of its regional intimacy must now consider an expansion that could go as far south as Miami and as far north as (gasp!) Syracuse.
The pending expansion sounds nearly as drastic as another event in 1953 that we now know changed college athletics forever. It was then that NC State, Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wake Forest decided to leave the 17-team Southern Conference in order to form their own league.
And as the ACC was being born and the Southern Conference left hanging in apparent limbo, my guess is some folks frowned and accused the original seven schools of messing around with tradition and bowing down to greed. Others, however, were willing to go out on a limb and take a peek into the future.
The man chosen to represent the new conference at the time was Dr. J.T. Penney of South Carolina. "The main reason for the new conference was to make a more playable conference," Penney explained. "With seven members we can sit around the table and draw up all the schedules we have during the school year."
Surely, upon reading that statement some dude sitting in a diner somewhere snapped, "he ain't foolin' me; they're ruining the Southern Conference so they can pad their wallets."
It was then, just as it is now, a sign of the times.
