At a fan event Tuesday night, Georgia Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich affirmed his school’s membership in the ACC while offering commentary on the state of the league.
At the league’s spring meetings last week at Amelia Island, Fla., Radakovich said there was a “large level of unanimity among athletic directors and faculty athletic reps to stay the course as the current Atlantic Coast Conference. There’s a lot of things out there, but sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
His comments came in light of reports of Florida State’s reported interest in joining the Big 12. Radakovich also said that there was “absolutely no basis” to a report that Tech was in talks with the Big 12.
Radakovich did call on the league to be fresh and aggressive in how it presents itself, saying it was more necessary now than in the past. He said the league’s perception is important to Tech as a member school and that Tech was not alone in voicing that sentiment to league officials at the meetings.
“Do we need to do some work as the Atlantic Coast Conference? Absolutely,” Radakovich told fans at the Georgia Tech Caravan event at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Midtown. “Do we need to be aggressive in certain areas? Absolutely. Is that not always the way the Atlantic Coast Conference has been? Absolutely.”
After the event, Radakovich acknowledged that the league’s subpar performance in non-conference and bowl games were factors in the league’s perception. He made the suggestion that the league can make better use of its affiliation with ESPN by bringing its coaches to network headquarters in Bristol, Conn., to put them on a national platform.
“I think we need to take better advantage of those kinds of things,” he said.
Radakovich also told fans that the league is trying to develop a bowl game similar to the one that the Big 12 and SEC announced Friday. That game will match those two leagues’ conference champions should they not make the expected four-team playoff. He said there is a great desire for the ACC to match up its conference champion, should it not make the playoff, “and play a quality bowl game.”
Radakovich mentioned the Big Ten and SEC as potential partners.
Football coach Paul Johnson, who also spoke at the event along with men’s basketball coach Brian Gregory and women’s basketball coach MaChelle Joseph, offered a few notes about his team.
- Dennis Andrews, an early enrollee who played quarterback in the spring, will move to A-back at Andrews' request. Quarterback Synjyn Days, if he does not win the quarterback job, will move to another position.
“We need to get him on the field,” Johnson said.
- The team likely will honor linebacker Julian Burnett, whose neck injury has ended his career, by having different players wear his No. 40 jersey this season.
- A-back Orwin Smith, who missed spring practice recovering from toe surgery, was cleared "full go" Monday. Guard Omoregie Uzzi, who also did not participate in spring practice, is scheduled to be cleared to play in July.
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