ACC Football 2012: Conference Should Have Fined North Carolina

Late in April, we found out that the ACC decided to publicly reprimand North Carolina for their NCAA troubles. This move opened the conference up to criticism as the league had a track record for further punishing their league members that violated NCAA rules.

Now, more news has come out as the league actually voted in favor of disciplining the Tar Heels, just not in the two-thirds majority required for the measure to pass.

If you are a non-ACC school, you have to be hoping that your squad is not in the four that voted against it. This decision to merely reprimand the Tar Heels only serves to further the divide that is growing within the conference.

Clemson most certainly did not get publicly reprimanded for their probation and bowl ban in 1982. Maryland did not absorb a mere public reprimand in 1990 for their troubles. North Carolina, without a doubt, was far more egregious in their violations than either the Tigers or the Terrapins.

Perhaps this is a sign of the times; with Miami due to take on some serious NCAA penalties, the conference is sitting on two major violators in a very short time span. Georgia Tech just had to vacate their 2009 ACC Championship because of NCAA violations.

The conference, in the state it currently exists, cannot afford an extra year of no postseason for the Tar Heels; that bowl money going into the pot is too precious. Especially if Miami is unable to go to a postseason contest for a year or two.

That said, a fine most certainly should not have been out of the question. Much like the conference took a hard line to say this behavior will not be tolerated out of Clemson or Maryland; they should have done the same with North Carolina.

Apparently when you are one of the league's power brokers you have the ability to get away with serious violations only to have the league wag their finger and tell you, "don't do that again."

In a conference where there is already tremendous discontent, this incongruous treatment of North Carolina's violations does not ease minds or unite the disjointed league. Clemson and Florida State are watching this. Clemson most certainly feels the disparity in their treatment by the ACC and the league's handling of UNC with kid gloves.

A fine is most certainly a compromising measure that should have been taken. Let the Tar Heels know they are not above the fray, while keeping them on the field to help fill the bowl obligations in 2013. These are troubled times in the ACC and the decision to publicly reprimand the Tar Heels did not make things any easier.