Duke, UNC in spotlight at ACC football media days

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) -- SMU coach Rhett Lashlee went out of his way Friday to congratulate Duke on winning the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference championship, adding that the Blue Devils should have made the College Football Playoff over Sun Belt champion James Madison.

"I think we all know they should have easily been in the playoff," Lashlee said. "When you win the ACC, the way they did and who they beat, they should have been in instead of a team from the Sun Belt. But hopefully things get learned, and that doesn't happen again. We should have been a two-bid league."

Duke beat No. 20 Virginia 27-20 in overtime for the ACC title last December after winning a five-team tiebreaker to qualify.

The ACC spent the week leading up to the title game campaigning for then-No. 10-ranked Miami to get into the playoffs by virtue of a head-to-head win against Notre Dame, along with the Duke-Virginia winner.

Miami and JMU got in; Duke and Notre Dame did not.

Duke was the only Power Four champion to miss the 12-team playoff, something that still irks Blue Devils coach Manny Diaz eight months later.

"We're all here because 17 teams are entering into a competition to determine who this champion is," Diaz said at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte. "In my mind, whoever wins that competition should always be in the College Football Playoff. And by the rules that everyone agreed to ... we won the competition. So therefore, we should have gone to the playoff."

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips announced this week that the league is changing its tiebreaker format by using the SportSource Analytics metric. Under the new format, Miami would have won the 2025 tiebreaker and played in the ACC title game over Duke.

Diaz said that doesn't really matter when it comes to last season.

"The story shouldn't be about the tiebreaker creating more deserving teams. The story should have been that last year the ACC deserved to have Duke and Miami in," Diaz said. "It's a respect thing for our league."

Diaz said the problem still comes down to what he called "a fashion show or a beauty pageant."

"I don't like tiebreakers that still use the beauty pageant," Diaz said. "We absolutely deserved to be there because of all the teams that won six games - and we weren't great at everything last year - but one thing we were pretty good at was winning ACC games. And we won six, and everyone else that won six didn't play as good of teams as we did."

Belichick's first season at UNC a learning experience

NFL coaching great Bill Belichick spent a bumpy debut season at North Carolina trying to blend a roster full of newcomers and adjust to life in the college ranks.

It was a learning experience even for someone with a résumé featuring six Super Bowl titles as a head coach and ranking as one of the NFL's all-time leaders in coaching wins.

"Look, I learn every year, I learn things every day," Belichick said Friday morning during the Atlantic Coast Conference's preseason football media days.

"Every week is a learning experience for me. Try to listen to the people that are around me that work for us, that do various things, whether it's academics, training, nutrition, offense, defense, special teams, so forth. Try to do the best I can to help put it all together.

"Recruiting, fundraising - you name it. There are a lot of different things, and I can improve in all of them."

It was a rough debut for the 74-year-old Belichick, best known for his time hoisting trophies and winning with relentless precision alongside star quarterback Tom Brady with the New England Patriots.

His arrival at the college level was a spectacle, one that put a national spotlight on a school with a football program that had long been an ACC also-ran compared to its tradition-rich men's basketball program being among the nation's blueblood elite.

There's less buzz this time around. There's no curiosity to imagining what it will look like for Belichick to roam a college sideline sporting his trademark hoodie garb. And the Tar Heels' poor on-field performance offers little reason to expect a big leap in Year 2.

Yet similar to what he was known for in his Patriots tenure, Belichick is focused on his internal evaluation. And he sees cause for optimism.

"Last year when we started, we were literally starting from scratch," he said. "We're above that now for sure."

ALSO SEE | NC State at ACC football media days; league revamps tiebreaker policy

Belichick's appearance at this ACC Kickoff event last year was the center of attention. So too was his nationally televised Labor Day debut in front of a sellout home crowd against TCU.

Yet the Tar Heels lost that game in a blowout in what turned out to be a harbinger of frustration to come. And Belichick's mere presence on the sideline only magnified the pressure that arose from on-field troubles and unwanted off-field headlines, from an assistant coach's suspension to tabloid-like interest in Belichick's relationship with 25-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson.

"Seeing a guy like Coach Belichick, who's constantly in the spotlight - I mean, the guy could cure cancer and people would still write negative pieces about him," offensive lineman Christo Kelly said.

"But seeing how he handles himself through everything, seeing how he's continued to block out the noise, it really sets the standard for what we should be doing."

By the end of the year, Belichick had fielded a team that had more losses by double-digit margins (five) than total wins, with two home losses ending in an empty stadium with Tar Heels fans having fled early for the exits. UNC's three wins against Bowl Subdivision opponents came against teams with a combined 8-28 record (Charlotte, Syracuse and Stanford), while the Tar Heels failed to make a bowl for the first time since 2018.

"We really felt like it was all Carolina - Carolina for Carolina, nobody else was really rooting for us, everybody wanted to see Coach Belichick fail," receiver Jordan Shipp said. "It was just like we knew that we were in this by ourselves. And everybody that was here last year, we know that feeling. So now we know what to expect."

The same goes for Belichick, who was asked in the afternoon what he had learned about himself at UNC.

"That I like coaching in college," Belichick said. "I didn't know whether I would or wouldn't, but I do."

Clemson's Swinney says Congress must help discourage 'blatant' tampering

It's been six months since Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney called out Ole Miss for engaging in what he called "blatant" tampering to lure away transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli.

He has heard nothing back despite providing an alleged timeline, evidence and receipts to the NCAA.

Swinney said Thursday he doesn't regret pointing the finger at Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding and general manager Austin Thomas. And he again pushed for change and accountability on Thursday for what he called "rampant" tampering in college football.

"We're probably gonna need some congressional help for that," Swinney said during the Atlantic Coast Conference's preseason football media days. "There has to be some type of order put in place. The tampering is a problem. So there needs to be consequences or you just say to heck with it, don't worry about it, and let's just call it like it is - the wild, wild West."

Swinney suggested fines, suspensions and even firings should be considered to discourage tampering, which has been a frequent topic of concern in multiple sports.

"There is lots of things that can be put in place," Swinney said. "(Tampering) is rampant because there hasn't been consequences, and I don't know there has been much fear of consequences. So you've got to get some order."

Golding defended Ole Miss in April, explaining there are "two sides to every story," referring to Ferrelli, who abruptly transferred to Ole Miss 20 days after beginning classes and team meetings at Clemson in January.

Ferrelli played last season at Cal before originally transferring to Clemson.

Other ACC coaches express support for Swinney for speaking out

"I agree with Dabo," Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said. "He should have been upset. To me, that type of tampering shouldn't happen. It goes back to there needs to be more guardrails. There needs to be a system in place where there's consequences for doing things you're not supposed to do, and that's not in college football right now."

Brohm said it's one of the reasons he wants to see the Protect College Sports Act passed in Congress.

The bill that top lawmakers and athletic leaders have described as the best hope to stabilize college sports cleared a key vote in the Senate Commerce Committee in June following weeks of input from schools, conferences and athletes.

It is currently in the Senate for a vote.

The bill would address many areas, including tampering.

"It may not be perfect for everyone, but I'm all for it," Brohm said. "I think it's important that we do something to try to help the game overall and then make adjustments along the way. Until there's consequences for cheating and tampering, people will continue to skirt the edges."

Syracuse coach Fran Brown said he's not sure any rules will change how some teams conduct business behind the scenes.

"Some people just gonna be certain ways," Brown said. "There's still crime in America, right? It's just certain things that you're not gonna ever be able to stop."

Swinney said that despite not receiving an update from the NCAA, he doesn't regret going public with the allegations against Ole Miss - despite receiving some public criticism.

"They don't owe me an update," Swinney added. "I did my part. The NCAA, ask them for an update. No idea."

Franklin looks to restore Virginia Tech's luster

New Virginia Tech coach James Franklin knows the Hokies' proud history going back to the Frank Beamer era.

Annual bowl bids. A trip to the national championship game. Special teams play so reliably good that it spawned the name "Beamer Ball," and the beaten-up metal lunch pail symbolizing a blue-collar defensive ethic.

"You guys all remember that Virginia Tech," Franklin said Thursday, "but none of the current players do."

That explains why Franklin's arrival as the big-name hire after a dozen years at Penn State is about more than trying to win a few more games on crisp autumn weekends in Blacksburg. Rather, it's an admission that the school must elevate its sports profile after years of seismic changes to NCAA rules and conference alignments. That includes raising more money and investing more in athletics in what the school has described as a "reset" to meet that moment, down to the recent hiring of athletic director Brian White and the ongoing search for a new university president.

As always, the spotlight is on football with its revenue-driving role in college sports.

"Even before the job was open, Virginia Tech, I think, had realized that what we had been doing for the last nine or 10 years hadn't worked," Franklin said during the Atlantic Coast Conference's preseason football media days. "And there needs to be a commitment.

"And I think this is a problem at a lot of places: does your expectations match your commitment?"

It didn't seem likely at this time last year, with Franklin coming off leading the Nittany Lions to the CFP semifinals and was set to enter the year as the AP Top 25's No. 2-ranked team. But things unexpectedly unraveled, swiftly enough that Penn State fired Franklin by mid-October amid a 3-3 start.

"He's a big name, and it's just crazy he's here," defensive lineman Kemari Copeland said Thursday.

Franklin also represents a marquee addition to the league's coaching ranks, still headlined by two-time national champion Dabo Swinney at Clemson. SMU coach Rhett Lashlee is among those to cross paths with Franklin before; his Mustangs lost to Penn State in the 2024 CFP first round.

Franklin talked Thursday about the importance of getting Beamer's blessing in a phone call before taking over. It captured his approach now: embrace the past, but make sure to evolve, too.

"I want the people that love Virginia Tech to watch us and say, 'That's what Virginia Tech football's supposed to look like," Franklin said.

- The Associated Press contributed.