July 8, 2013
Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
ACC Commissioner John Swofford and representatives from ESPN appeared at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Monday to announce a major new ACC event.
"We're very pleased to announce the inaugural ACC Invitational, which will take place this November," Swofford said from the podium.
"The ACC will bring four teams to Brooklyn - Duke, UNC, Syracuse and Notre Dame - to take on four of the nation's finest other teams in a winner-take-all tournament."
Although the other four teams have not been formally announced, sources close to the ACC office confirmed that they will be Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan State and UCLA.
Swofford was joined at the podium by coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams and Mike Brey.
"What I love about this," said Krzyzewski, "is that the ACC is confident enough to invite the very best teams in the country to this event. It's about champions and teams that can become champions. It's a huge event."
Boeheim added that "we did some interesting things in the Big East, but never anything quite this exciting. This is basically Elite Eight-caliber competition at the beginning of the season. You won't get this anywhere else. And look, it's not in Greensboro."
Williams added that "I'm not sure I can get around New York like I can Chapel Hill, but I'd crawl on my belly through Newark to be in this field. It's going to huge."
Brey joked that one positive was that while he could see other ACC teams in action, he wouldn't have to play anyone until January.
When asked about this event in conjunction with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Swofford declined to comment, but sources told this reporter that the ACC is laying the groundwork to eliminate the challenge and replace it with the ACC Invitational.
"The plan," said one anonymous source, "is to expand it and to invite a broader field. The Invitational is being conceived of as a step beyond the Challenge, not least of all because you don't have to deal with weak sisters like Penn State or Nebraska."
Another source said that the ACC would end the Challenge regardless because "no one wants to play Maryland anymore."
Our source went on to say that the ACC was planning to expand the field to 12 teams as soon as possible, something Swofford confirmed:
"We don't want to limit this to four teams," he told the media. "The ACC is the strongest league in the country and we can go a lot deeper than this. Four is just a starting point."
The ACC is also investigating eventually holding the event in Madrid, London and Rome.
On the off chance that anyone missed it, this is not real but rather something we wish were real.