It Looked Good on Paper

The original Ugly Betty

Selling a product like Gatorade (1990’s style) one learns that you are neither as brilliant nor as stupid as you will end up looking at the end of the season. Beginning in December and January you start planning for the peak summer season ahead. That plan, contains promotional and distribution objectives is based on last year’s performance and the always expected growth. Assuming that you sell the plan to the retailers there are factors out of your control that will make you look like a genius, dry warm weather from May 15 to September 15, or an idiot, cool and rainy. Take the credit for your undeserved good fortune because you will catch hell when things go badly.

John Swofford put together a good plan for pushing the ACC from the bottom to the top of the BCS conferences (note that the original plan was the include taking Syracuse). The rest of the story is well known and does not require repeating here. Mr. Swofford got cold and rainy with the marquee programs of Miami and Florida State going 7-6 last year and Virginia Tech stumbling enough to miss the conference championship. The message for the recent Atlantic Coast Conference media day was, “We are better than we look(ed).” This is most probably true but only because things could not get much uglier.

So does the ACC want the usual suspects at the top or to root for the underdog like Wake Forest.

'What did our season say to the nation?' Wake Forest senior defensive end Jeremy Thompson said. 'For the most part, the public thinks we were a fluke and the ACC had a down season.

'The teams that were supposed to win, they didn't win. Is that our fault?'
ACC Has Answers For Critics
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/jul/24/sp-acc-has-answers-for-critics/

Sometimes, the field isn't any greener
http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/columnists/wendell_barnhouse/story/180095.html