The ACC’s search for long term viability and other stories to remember from 2023

As far as years go, 2023 was ... OK for Triangle-area sports. Just OK.

And hey: “OK” isn’t too bad, all things considered. We could be Charlotte. They yearn for OK down there. In Charlotte, OK would be cause for celebration. It’d be an upgrade. It’d be a sign, maybe, that Dave Tepper has figured something out, or asked for some help.

But around here? We’re used to better than OK.

It’s possible that 2022 spoiled us, what with Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell and North Carolina and Duke meeting in the Final Four. That was all pretty memorable, wasn’t it? And it’s possible that we’ve been spoiled by all the Final Fours and men’s basketball national championships, too.

Going back 40 years, to 1983, the Triangle has had a Final Four representative in more than half of those years. Twenty-four times, to be exact, among the men’s basketball teams at Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State. That’s probably the standard, then, by which sports years are measured around here. Did the year include a Final Four appearance? No? Then “OK” is probably the peak.

There could be exceptions. The Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup would qualify but, alas, they fell short despite a regular season that suggested they had the potential for such heights. Several Triangle athletes winning Olympic gold (or even silver or bronze) could make for a more than an OK sporting year, but we’ll have to wait until next year, and Paris, for that.

This wasn’t a bad year, by any means. Erin Matson became the best story in college sports (more on that in a minute). There was some good, though not great, college football. The Hurricanes have certainly had (several) worse years. But if greatness is the goal, a familiar sporting cliche comes to mind: Wait ‘til next year. Maybe.

And yet that doesn’t mean there weren’t memorable stories in 2023. Here are five of them:

The future of the ACC becomes more tenuous

The ACC entered the year in a precarious spot in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics. And despite moves meant to solidify its future, the league will leave the year amid arguably even more long term doubt.

The reality is that the conference faces an enormous revenue problem. It shouldn’t be that way, given that the ACC continues to make more and more (and more) money, but it is – because the Big Ten and SEC continue to make even more and more money.

And so here we are. The conference hopes the additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU – after a long month of deliberation about whether to add them – will help provide stability. There’s another argument to be made, though, that expansion will only hasten the conference’s demise.

College athletics was never intended to look and work the way it does in 2023, which was another in a long line of years that proved there’s no stopping the greed in college sports. More is never enough. The chase of more will, at some point, lead to a fracturing of the ACC, if not its outright collapse. The question entering 2024 is now not one of if, but when.

A new future for PNC Arena, and also for West Raleigh

The most important stories in college athletics happened off the field and outside the lines in 2023. The same could be said of the most significant sports story in Raleigh.

It’s a story that transcends sports, and one that will affect the city’s development and growth for decades to come. The impending renovations to PNC Arena – and the development of its surrounding area – are that big, and important, to the future of Raleigh.

In August, after lengthy negotiation and speculation and deal-making among power brokers with the city and at N.C. State and the Carolina Hurricanes, the Centennial Authority and the Hurricanes agreed on a 20-year lease extension that will keep the team at PNC Arena through at least 2044. As part of the deal, the arena will receive $300 million in upgrades and renovations, from taxpayer funds.

That’s big news on its own. Even more important for the city, though, are the long term plans to develop the land and parking lots near the arena into a mixed use area full of restaurants, bars and other destinations – including housing – that will keep people coming into the district year round. Think of it as a version of The Battery Atlanta, which surrounds the Braves’ baseball stadium.

Tom Dundon, the Hurricanes owner, has agreed to invest at least $800 million into the development over the next 20 years. But he has talked in terms of billions, too.

This will be a story to monitor, and for a long time. Undoubtedly there will be unexpected challenges and changes and a lot of following the money. Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin might’ve put it best, though, during an interview with The N&O in August: “This is the largest economic development project in the history of the city. It’s big. This is huge.”

Erin Matson reminds us of what college sports can be

For all the ills of college athletics, some of which are outlined in the above, there are still plenty of positive stories. Erin Matson became perhaps the best one of all in 2023.

It was like something out of a movie: the best college field hockey player in the country, and the most decorated athlete in North Carolina’s rich athletics history, becomes the head coach of her old team, and the youngest head coach of any Division I team in the country. And then all she does is lead the Tar Heels to another national championship.

Not a bad coaching debut for Matson, who became the subject of segments on network news and morning shows, and in stories published in national publications. While college sports burned, she provided a needed reminder of what they more often should be about.

A championship head coaching debut, and then a sophomore slump

For better or worse, fair or unfair, Hubert Davis and Jon Scheyer are always going to be measured against each other; they’re always going to represent a point of comparison. That’s always going to be true for the men’s basketball coaches at North Carolina and Duke, but it’s especially true for Davis and Scheyer, given their comparable ascents into their current roles.

Davis in 2021 went from UNC assistant coach to Roy Williams’ successor. Scheyer in 2022 went from Duke assistant coach to Mike Krzyzewski’s successor. The 2022-23 college basketball season was the first since the 1960-61 season without either Dean Smith or Krzyzewski as head coach at one of the two schools. Sixty-two years.

Another thing Davis and Scheyer have in common: they both experienced some highs in their debuts. Davis memorably led UNC to the Final Four (along the way ruining Krzyzewski’s final home game and ending his career) in 2022. And Scheyer last March guided Duke to another ACC tournament championship.

But while the Blue Devils were cutting down the nets at the Greensboro Coliseum, UNC was about to become the first team in the expanded NCAA tournament era to start a season ranked No. 1 only to miss the NCAA tournament. And so the wolves began to come out for Davis, and quickly – and with a sense of amnesia, perhaps, given what he’d accomplished in his first season.

Yet that’s the way it is, and the way it’ll be. These are coaches who will always be compared to each other, yes, but also to those they followed. Yet the greatest challenge for both might not be trying to match or exceed each other, or a standard. It’s likely how well they adapt to college basketball’s near-constant evolution.

North Carolina’s best professional team continues to reside in the Triangle

But there’s a but, which is this: The Hurricanes continue to allow championship chances to pass them by. Carolina has been one of the most consistently strong teams in the NHL over the past five seasons, but the franchise doesn’t even have a conference championship to show for it.

Still, things could be worse. A lot worse.

The other pro teams in North Carolina are proof enough of that. So, too, is the Hurricanes’ own franchise history. Before their breakthrough in 2019, they went nine seasons without making the playoffs. Fans grew more and more disillusioned. Some doubts, however legitimate, began to creep in about the team’s future in Raleigh.

Winning can cure a lot of things, though. Does the massive plan to renovate PNC Arena and develop its surroundings come to fruition without the Hurricanes doing their part on the ice? Maybe. But it was, undoubtedly, a lot easier to sell with the Canes in the midst of a five-year streak of playoff appearances, with fan interest back where Dundon needs it to be.

Other stories and moments worth remembering

A third consecutive national championship for the N.C. State women’s cross country team which, in the span of a few years, more than doubled the total number of NCAA team championships in school history. And for Katelyn Tuohy, another All-American performance.

And, at UNC, a women’s tennis national championship. The women’s tennis team became UNC’s eighth team with at least one national championship. Of the Tar Heels’ 50 NCAA team championships, women’s teams have won 37 of them.

We remember N.C. State football, missing an offense for much of the season, persevering and reaching nine victories. And UNC football, with one of the best offenses in the country for much of the season, devolving and only finishing with eight victories.

We remember Mike Elko, leaving Duke in the night for Texas A&M. It’s impossible to blame Elko for taking the money and running, but the how of it left something to be desired. We remember Payton Wilson, becoming arguably the nation’s best defensive college football player at N.C. State. And Drake Maye, despite his team’s disappointing finish, making a case to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

We remember a Chelsea-Wrexham match ... in front of a full house at UNC’s Kenan Stadium.

And how about N.C. State’s leadership, looming large? In August it was Randy Woodson, N.C. State Chancellor, casting the decisive vote in favor of ACC expansion. In December, it was State athletics director Boo Corrigan, as chairman of the College Football Playoff selection committee, delivering the most controversial decision in the committee’s history after it decided to leave undefeated Florida State out of the four-team field.

We remember ACC spring meetings are less than six months away now. To be a fly on the wall when Corrigan and Florida State athletics director Michael Alford trade their first greetings.

We remember the last (for a while, anyway) ACC tournament in Greensboro. A nice bit of nostalgia. And, now, an empty office building in Greensboro after the ACC moved its headquarters to Charlotte. Though the more things change, there was this: 2023 was another year of local college basketball halftimes with occasional appearances by Red Panda.

At least some order still remains.