The ACC publicly reprimanded basketball referee Karl Hess on Monday night for failing to follow protocol in ejecting two N.C. State basketball greats from Saturday's game at the RBC Center.

Hess had Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta removed from their seats behind the scorers' table with 6 minutes and 40 seconds left in the Wolfpack's loss to Florida State on Saturday because of "excessive demonstration on several calls," according to an email N.C. State received from Hess on Monday night.

The ACC announced on Friday new scheduling formats that will take effect when Pittsburgh and Syracuse begin league play, officially making the ACC a 14-team conference. Among the changes:

-A nine-game conference schedule in football.
-And an 18-game conference schedule in basketball, in which each of the 14 teams will play twice a year against one permanent partner. Games between permanent partners are only ones that will be guaranteed to happen twice per season. Given that North Carolina’s permanent partner is Duke, that means that in two out of every three seasons North Carolina and N.C. State will play just once during the regular season.

John Swofford, ACC Commissioner, spoke on Friday with The News & Observer about several issues related to the announcement of the new scheduling formats. Here’s the Q-and-A:

PINEHURST — ACC commissioner John Swofford said he was disappointed in the NCAA troubles facing North Carolina's football program on Sunday at the ACC Kickoff.

UNC, which had gone 50 years without a major NCAA violation, faces nine major violations in a hearing with the NCAA's Committee of Infractions in October.

Swofford, who played football at UNC and was the school's athletic director for 17 years, didn't specifically mention the school in his two-minute answer but said:

Add ACC commissioner John Swofford to the list of those who were disappointed that Virginia Tech was not selected to the NCAA tournament field.

"I'm surprised that Virginia Tech was excluded from the NCAA Tournament," Swofford said in a statement he released this afternoon. "I believe they are a quality team that earned and deserved to be in the field of 68."

In decisions that have prompted much controversy and criticism nationally, the Division I men's basketball committee awarded at-large NCAA tournament bids to Alabama-Birmingham and Virginia Commonwealth while leaving Virginia Tech and Colorado out of the tournament.

updated: 6:14 p.m.

RALEIGH – ACC commissioner John Swofford on Wednesday called last season’s ACC football championship game a “huge success,” and added, “I think we’ve probably found a home in Charlotte.”

“It’s hard to say that after one year because we want to see a progression of successes before you call a place a home,’’ Swofford said while speaking to the Raleigh Sports Club. “But the fact that Charlotte is within 300 miles of eight of our schools is a real plus, because it enhances the fact that you’re going to have at least one fan base that can drive in and out to the game. And Charlotte sold a little over 30,000 tickets before we knew which teams were going to be in the game. That’s not quite where we want or need for it to be, but it’s a great start.”

CARY – ACC commissioner John Swofford announced on Friday harsh sanctions for Florida State following coach Mark Krikorian’s decision to leave the team’s starters behind for this week’s ACC conference championship.

Krikorian will be suspended for Florida State’s next game, while the school will be forced to forfeit the women’s soccer championship expense reimbursement of approximately $15, 000. In addition, the Seminoles will be fined $25,000, which will be applied directly to the ACC Post Graduate Scholarship Fund. 

ACC commissioner John Swofford is not attending today's ACC basketball media day because of hip-replacement surgery in Greensboro, the league announced.

The league said it would have an update on Swofford's surgery on Thursday.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the need for changes in the National Letter of Intent, the scholarship agreement that binds recruits to colleges and vice versa.

My point, boiled down to a sentence, was that coaches have far more mobility than ever before and are sometimes the most important part of a recruit’s decision, and in the case of a coaching change recruits should have the freedom to change their minds.

I noted in the column that the National Letter of Intent program is administered by the NCAA on behalf of the Collegiate Commissioners Association, a mysterious body that has no website but consists of the commissioners of the 31 Division I conferences.

GREENSBORO — After a summer of wild speculation followed by some expansion in other conferences, ACC commissioner John Swofford on Sunday said he is comfortable with the ACC’s strength going forward.

The big changes have Colorado and Utah joining the Pac-10, and Nebraska entering the Big Ten to give each of those conferences 12 members. But for a time, it appeared the Big 12 was in danger of collapsing.

GREENSBORO -- Dealing with what has become known as The Agent Problem is going to require a lot of help, ACC commissioner John Swofford said Sunday, calling for assistance from the NFL, NBA and their respective unions.

“They need to give us some help as far as sanctioning agents and/or runners who don’t act appropriately,” Swofford said. “As a collegiate community, we have no hammer with those people.”