EDWARDS COLUMN: Technically speaking I am no fan of realignment

I received my first technical foul of the season last week when we played at Lander. I used to get them all the time, but not so much now. I have mellowed with age.

The commissioner of the Peach Belt Conference, Dave Brunk, was at the game. Dave is a nice enough guy, but conference commissioners are not my favorite people right now. They are destroying the college athletics I grew up with.

So when the referee came over to me and said, “Make sure you stay in the coach’s box because the conference commissioner is here,” it put me in a bad mood. And when I am in a bad mood, I usually get a technical.

If a coach gets two technicals, he is ejected from the game. In the Peach Belt, if you get thrown out of a game, you can’t coach the next game. It is Dave Brunk’s rule.

So I stopped at one technical, even though I was growing tired of watching my team play. Our next game was against Allen and I figured we would win that one, so I didn’t want to miss it.

We did beat Allen and I was able to get home in time to watch the end of the Duke-North Carolina game. What a game! It brought back memories of what Atlantic Coast Conference basketball used to be.

North Carolina State and David Thompson. Maryland and Len Elmore. North Carolina and Phil Ford. The ACC used to be the best basketball conference in the nation and every game was a happening.

Now it is North Carolina State playing Boston College, in BOSTON for crying out loud, in front of 3,611 fans waiting for the Red Sox to begin spring training. Or Miami playing Virginia Tech with 4,292 in attendance looking for football schedule cards.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford brought in Boston College, and Miami, and Virginia Tech, a few years back to strengthen ACC football. That move decimated the interest and quality of ACC basketball, and ACC football still stinks.

Now he is bringing in Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Nothing says ACC basketball like a good Pittsburgh-Miami matchup in front of 3,000 fans in Coral Gables.

It’s not just Swofford and the ACC. Commissioner John Marinatto and the Big East will have 12 football and 17 basketball schools playing in 2015. Big East founder Dave Gavitt will officially turn over in his grave when SMU travels to Providence to take on the Friars.

Kansas and Missouri. Texas and Texas A&M. Syracuse and Georgetown. All of these great basketball rivalries are going the way of the rotary phone because of conference realignment and expansion.

The Peach Belt Conference is adding Young Harris as its 14th member next year. After experiencing the charms of Americus, Georgia, I can’t wait to see what Young Harris, Georgia, has to offer.

I will have a much shorter trip today as my Francis Marion Patriots travel to Augusta to take on the Jaguars. Wait; isn’t the Peach Belt Conference office located in Augusta?

I feel another technical coming on. 

Gary Edwards is the men’s basketball coach at Francis Marion University. E-mail him at gedwards@fmu.edu