Tag: ACC

Jerry Rice threatens reporters after perceived trolling about 49ers Super Bowl loss

Don’t disrespect the 49ers in front of Jerry Rice.

49ers Hall of Famer Jerry Rice took exception to a question from a couple of reporters from Kansas City at the American Century Championship golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.

In a wild video posted by TMZ Sports’ Michael Babcock, Rice is seen cursing at the reporters who asked him if the Chiefs’ receiving corps was good enough to win another Super Bowl.

The reporters claimed they were aiming to find out from Rice, the consensus greatest wide receiver of all-time, if Kansas City had improved its group of WRs enough to continue winning championships. Last season the Chiefs’ receiving corps was criticized throughout the year, but they figured out a way to hoist a Lombardi Trophy.

Rice told TMZ he believed the reporters were smirking at him and trying to troll him. He took enough exception to the question to hurl an expletive at the reporters.

Here’s the video via TMZ:

Rice told TMZ Sports he’s going to back the club that he spent 16 of his 21 NFL seasons with.

“I’m going to defend the San Francisco 49ers,” he said. “This is my history.”

The Hall of Fame receiver is a frequent attendant at 49ers games, so it’s not a surprise he took exception to what he thought was disrespect aimed at the club.

Rice notched 1,281 receptions with 19,247 yards and 176 touchdowns in his 16 seasons with the 49ers. He’s also the NFL’s all-time leader in all of those categories.

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The Big 12 is rumored to have Clemson, Florida State in it sights

“Clemson to the Big 12” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

When Texas and Oklahoma left the Big 12, it would’ve been rational to assume it was on the way to extinction. Instead, it added BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston. It also devoured part of the Pac-12 (now Pac-2), including Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah.

Apparently, the conference is still hungry, looking for more programs to join the 16-team league. Two of those teams are Florida State and Clemson.

Greg Swaim of the Greg Swaim Show made an X post claiming the SEC and Big 10 have all but ended their negotiations with the schools. While he gives no reason why the SEC stopped the conversation, he said that FSU and Clemson not being AAU accredited made the difference for the Big 10.

BREAKING: As we’ve said for a year, #FSU and #Clemson will not get a #B1G offer, due to neither being AAU accredited. But from Vegas the talk is the #SEC has now turned the pair down. With new sponsorship the B12 p4obably won’t pay quite what the other two do, but with those two they’ll pay double what the #ACC does.

P.S. And it won’t end there. The talk is the B12 will take six from the ACC.

After Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormak indirectly took a shot at the ACC, it was evident he was trying to vie for power among the remaining power conferences. But the comment looks to have more weight than initially thought, foreshadowing his plans to turn the ACC into the Pac-12 2.0. obvious

College football analyst has five SEC teams in the College Football Playoff

On3’s Andy Staples thinks that five of the teams in the 12-team playoff will be from the SEC.

College football is expanding to a 12-team [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

After decades of the polls deciding the national champion (1936-1991) and early attempts at creating a national championship game such as the Bowl Coalition (1992-1994) and the Bowl Alliance (1995-1997), the Bowl Championship Series was born. The [autotag]BCS[/autotag] lasted from 1998 to 2013, when the College Football Playoff was introduced and the four-team model stuck for a decade (2014-2023).

Now, the playoffs will feature 12 teams with five automatic bids for the five highest-ranked conference champions. The top four of those champions will get a first-round bye (likely the [autotag]SEC[/autotag], [autotag]Big Ten[/autotag], [autotag]ACC[/autotag] and [autotag]Big 12[/autotag] champs). The seven at-large teams and the fifth conference champion (probably coming from the [autotag]Group of Five[/autotag]) will be seeded 5 through 12, rounding out the field with the first round of games.

It’s yet to be seen how the playoff committee will balance teams with better records coming from easier conferences like the Big 12 and ACC against teams with worse records coming from harder conferences like the Big 10 and SEC. One college football analyst, however, believes the Oklahoma Sooners’ new league will be well-represented come December.

On3’s Andy Staples gave 10 of his predictions for the [autotag]2024 college football season[/autotag]. Among the most notable was that the SEC would get five of the 12 spots in the new expanded playoffs.

“It’s not apples to apples because you can’t just port Texas or Oklahoma playoff appearances to the SEC because of how the automatic bids work and because we don’t know if those teams would have had a different record playing in a different league, but seven teams that will be in the SEC in 2024 (Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Missouri, LSU, Oklahoma) finished in the top 13 last season,” Staples said. “The No. 12 team is likely getting kicked for the highest-ranked Group of Five champ, but the power conferences are so big now that the champions of all four likely will finish in the top 11. That would keep anyone else from getting punted.”

Staples also backed up his prediction by touting the sheer competition that SEC teams will face every single week.

“The SEC’s schedule draw is the biggest reason for this prediction,” Staples said. “Alabama and Georgia got tougher conference schedules, but they’re also talented enough to handle them. Texas and Ole Miss appear to have CFP-caliber rosters and fairly manageable schedules. Missouri and Tennessee may not be perfect, but they’re going to be good and they fared well in the schedule draw. Oklahoma and LSU are Oklahoma and LSU; they’re almost always a threat to win double-digit games. That’s a lot of legitimate contenders, and it’s entirely reasonable that five-eighths of that group could finish in the top 11.”

Staples’ comments are felt by many in the new SEC footprint, hoping that the depth and competitive nature of the league will be rewarded.

For example, should a 9-3 SEC team with three close losses to playoff-caliber teams be left out in favor of a 10-2 ACC team that hasn’t played the same overall level of competition? That’s the answer Oklahoma and SEC fans are waiting for the committee to answer for the first time this winter.

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Notre Dame leads ACC in returning scoring for 2024-25 season

Amazing what continuity on a young roster will do.

A year ago, Notre Dame was completely rebuilding itself. So it was no surprise that it had by far the lowest percentage of returning scoring in the ACC. Ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Irish are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports has tweeted out the percentages of returning scoring for every ACC program, and it’s insane how much difference a year makes:

While the Irish still will be a young team making strides this upcoming season, the high roster carryover from the 2023-24 season should make things run at least a little smoother. It also helps that they barely lost anyone to graduation or the transfer portal.

One easily could make the argument that the Irish overachieved in [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag]’s first season. They stayed out of the conference cellar and even won their first ACC Tournament game en route to a 13-20 record. The question now is how they can build on that.

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California, Stanford, and SMU officially join the ACC

The long-awaited conference realignment finally became official on Monday with three new teams joining Duke in the ACC.

The Atlantic Coast Conference officially got a little bigger on Monday.

The Stanford Cardinal, the California Golden Bears, and the SMU Mustangs became members of the ACC on Monday with the 2024-25 athletic calendar kicking off in July.

The Golden Bears and the Cardinal come from the Pac-12, and the West Coast conference now only has Oregon State and Washington State left as teams fled to the Big 12 and the Big Ten. SMU joins from the American Athletic Conference, and the Mustangs won the football conference championship last season.

There are now 18 teams in the conference for the athletic calendar, although there will only be 17 teams on the football slate since Notre Dame remains independent.

The move does not come as a surprise with schedules already in place for months including the new schools. Duke will play SMU during the last weekend in October, but the Blue Devils don’t play either of the two West Coast teams this season.

Notre Dame to renew rivalry with Michigan State in 2026, 2027

Mark your calendars!

Notre Dame and Michigan State used to battle each other nearly every year. However, the rivalry has been put on in part so that the Irish can fulfill their obligations to schedule enough ACC opponents in exchange for retaining their independence. Fortunately, it only will be on hold for a couple more years.

The Irish have announced they will play a home-and-home with the Spartans in 2026 and 2027 with the first game being played in South Bend. It will be the first time the programs have met since the Irish won a 38-18 decision in East Lansing in 2017. The Irish have won three of the past four meetings in the rivalry.

It’s worth noting that the Irish also will renew their rivalry with Michigan, but that won’t come until 2033 and 2034. This should tide us over a little bit until then. Also, while we wait for 2026, let’s look a few photos featuring the Irish and Spartans together over the years:

Former Notre Dame midfielder makes U.S. Olympic women’s soccer team

Congrats, Korbin!

[autotag]Korbin Albert[/autotag] was too good for Notre Dame. Like, she literally was too good. She left after her sophomore season in 2022 after signing a professional contract with Paris Saint-Germain. Now, she’s going to be representing her country in the Olympics.

Albert was one of 18 players named to coach Emma Hayes’ U.S. Olympic roster and one of five midfielders. Having only joined the national team earlier this year, she already has won championships in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and SheBelieves Cup. Now, she’ll have a chance to add an Olympic gold medal to her trophy case.

Albert’s short time with the Irish was memorable. She was named the ACC Midfielder of the Year, a First Team All-American twice, an all-conference selection twice and a Hermann Trophy finalist. Talk about a fantastic addition to the legacy Notre Dame’s women’s soccer program has created.

Best of luck to Albert and her Olympic teammates in Paris.

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Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano wins 100 freestyle at U.S. Olympic trials

Go for the gold in Paris, Chris!

Notre Dame’s [autotag]Chris Guiliano[/autotag] always will remember the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Largely overlooked going into the 100-meter freestyle, the reigning ACC Swimmer of the Year surprised everyone by dominating the event. It culminated with a win in the final with a time of 47.38 seconds. Here’s the final in its entirety:

A surprising number of Irish fans made the trip, and they made their feelings about Guiliano’s victory loud and clear:

This victory qualifies Guiliano for his first spot on the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics. The U.S. has won gold in this event in two of the past three Olympics. Caeleb Dressel took the gold in Tokyo, but his third-place finish in Giuliano’s triumph means he won’t get a chance to defend that medal.

Guiliano also qualified for the 4×100 relay team simply by finishing in the top four. His teammates will consist of Dressel, Jack Alexy and Hunter Armstrong.

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ACC Tournament will feature top 15 teams beginning in 2025

The Irish men will have to get better fast.

The ACC will include California, Stanford and SMU beginning with the 2024-25 season. That will bring the total number of conference members to 18. With that clearly being too high of a number for its conference basketball tournaments, the conference decided a change was needed.

Starting in 2025, only the teams that finish in the top 15 in the conference standings will be invited to the ACC Tournament. This follows a cue from a recent decision by the Big Ten, which also will be expanding next season to the point where it also only will invite the top 15 teams in the conference standings to its tournament.

While Notre Dame’s 16th-ranked women’s team is not expected to slide to the bottom of the ACC anytime soon, the men already are there in a rebuilding season. If the new rules went into effect for this season, the Irish wouldn’t be invited to the tournament.

Hopefully, with a year of experience under their belt, the young men’s Irish team will improve enough that they still will play in the 2025 ACC Tournament. There’s a long road ahead though, and there’s no guarantee of things being any better next year. Best of luck to [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] and his team in reaching this new goal.

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Charlie Beilinson and Zac Morris named NCBWA All-Americans

Two of Duke baseball’s best senior contributors earn All-America honors.

While Duke’s season was far from what they wanted it to be, Chris Pollard, his staff, and his players had one heck of a baseball season. They reached new heights in the polls, had a historic offensive season, and won the second ACC Tournament title in program history. Bowing out before making it to Omaha in the NCAA Tournament will sting and inevitably serve as fuel for next year’s squad.

Replicating some of this year’s team’s magic will be difficult, considering the Blue Devils must replace some significant contributors in the offseason.

Two of those contributors are major holes because they were good players, great leaders, and all-American caliber players.

Charlie Beilenson was one of the nation’s best relievers and was named a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association first-team All-American. His 2024 was remarkable. In 2024, he appeared in 34 games on the mound, posting a 7-3 record with a 2.01 ERA. He worked 62.2 innings, allowing 14 earned runs and striking out 92 of the 226 batters he faced. Beilenson held opponents to a .181 average and walked just 18 batters. Earlier this week, he was named a Perfect Game First Team Relief Pitcher and an ABCA/Rawlings First Team Relief Pitcher. If that wasn’t enough, he’s a Stopper of the Year finalist. Whenever Chris Pollard needed outs from the seventh inning onward, Beilenson was available and almost always answered the call. He was as consistent a player as Pollard had all year.

If Beilenson was the most consistent pitcher Pollard could depend on, Zac Morris was the bat his coaches could believe in every time he came to the plate. It shouldn’t be surprising that he was named NCBWA third-team All-American. The former transfer from VMI, Morris, was named the third team’s second baseman. He was an All-ACC First Team second baseman during the 2024 campaign. In his 60 games played, Morris produced a .343 average at the plate, posting a robust OPS of 1.068. He registered 245 at-bats, scoring 69 runs and collecting 84 hits to lead the Blue Devils. Morris added 12 doubles, two triples, a career-high 18 home runs, 59 RBI, and walked 39 times.

He was a walking offensive powerhouse at the top of the Duke lineup. He played a terrific second base in the field, too.

Both players are set to move on to professional endeavors and will look to be drafted in the upcoming 2024 MLB Draft.