UNC catcher Jacob Stallings and the Tar Heels bring a 13-game winning streak into the ACC tournament. PHOTO: News & Observer file.

GREENSBORO — Welcome to Greensboro, and to the 2012 ACC baseball tournament. Before we go on, an apology for the lack of activity here on the blog of late. After spending last week out of the office, on furlough, things will be a lot more active from here forward.

Now onto baseball. We’ve already seen one upset here in Greensboro, at least in terms of seeding. Georgia Tech, the eighth seed, prevailed in a 5-4 victory against top-seeded Florida State, which has been ranked No. 1 nationally – in various polls – for much of the season.

What does this mean for North Carolina? That, possibly, the Tar Heels’ path to the ACC championship became a bit easier. The Seminoles now need to win their two remaining pool games, and hope for help (a Georgia Tech loss), in order to reach the championship game on Sunday.

The ACC tournament will be two games, and one day, longer when Syracuse and Pittsburgh finally arrive from the Big East.

The conference athletic directors and basketball coaches settled on a format for the expanded, 14-team tournament as their spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla. concluded on Wednesday.

The ACC got smashed in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge last year with eight losses in 12 games. Since winning the first 10 Challenges, the ACC has dropped the past three.

North Carolina and N.C. State will have to restore the conference's honor with road wins over teams projected to open the season in the top 10. UNC will play at Indiana on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and N.C. State will play at Michigan on the same day.

Roy Williams and his North Carolina team will be traveling to Tallahassee again during the 2012-13 season. PHOTO: Robert Willett

The addition of Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC – and the adoption of an 18-game conference schedule – will bring an end to the home-and-away series between North Carolina and N.C. State that has existed since, well, forever. At least it seems that way.

But the home-and-home between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack will survive another season at least.

The teams will play next season in both Chapel Hill and Raleigh, according an email that Karl Hicks, the ACC’s associate commissioner for men’s basketball, sent to UNC in April. The university earlier today released that email to The News & Observer.

UNC could be playing football games on Fridays as part of the ACC's new TV contract. PHOTO: Robert Willett

As I’m sure you’ve heard about by now, the ACC and ESPN earlier this week announced a restructured TV rights deal that will pay the conference $3.6 billion over 15 years. The deal goes into effect July 1, and runs through the 2026-27 college sports season.

So what does this mean for the individual schools and, particularly, for UNC? It means, for one thing, that ACC schools will stand to make, on average, $4 million more per season off of this TV deal when compared to the old one, which only went into effect July 1, 2011.

The impermissible benefits and academic fraud scandals that led to Butch Davis' firing also led to UNC's internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American studies. PHOTO: N&O file

CHAPEL HILL — The University of North Carolina recently released the results of a months-long internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. UNC’s investigation found widespread academic fraud involving more than 50 courses, and the investigation found evidence of academic fraud ranging from professors who never showed up to teach class to unauthorized grade changes.

You can read The News & Observer’s story about UNC’s internal investigation right here. You can also find a complete copy of the investigation right here. 

If UNC’s internal investigation wasn’t damning enough, the situation became worse today. Responding to a request from The N&O, UNC provided the number of football and men’s basketball players who enrolled in courses at the heart of the investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies. According to UNC, 39 percent of those enrolled in the suspect courses were either football or men’s basketball players. Here is the story from N&O reporter Dan Kane.

UNC coach Larry Fedora and his staff of assistants will receive a combined $4.07 million during their first year on the job. PHOTO: Rober Willett

The University of North Carolina will pay its football coaching staff $4.07 million during its first year on the job, according to figures the university released on Monday. That includes the $2.13 million UNC will pay to head coach Larry Fedora, whom the university introduced in December as the successor to interim head coach Everett Withers.

Fedora’s salary includes a one-time payment of $400,000, which the university was to provide to him by March 15, according to his contract. Blake Anderson, Dan Disch and Vic Koenning are UNC’s three highest-paid assistants. They will each receive $250,000 annually. 

Hubert Davis, seen here (center) in 2006 at his annual basketball camp at the Smith Center, is the latest addition to UNC's coaching staff. PHOTO: N&O file --Leslie Barbour

CHAPEL HILL — In case you missed it, I wrote a story about Hubert Davis, North Carolina’s newest assistant basketball coach, that ran on Sunday. You can check that out right here.

Davis and I spoke for a bit late last week about a variety of topics: His decision to leave ESPN to join to the Tar Heels’ coaching staff, how the opportunity came to be in the first place, what he anticipates his role being with UNC and what he learned from Dean Smith, whom Davis played for in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Here’s the interview with Davis:

After sitting out 21 games with a broken right hand, UNC baseball star Colin Moran has been cleared to play and could see action today against Winthrop at 6 p.m. in Chapel Hill.

Moran, picked by Baseball America as the national freshman player of the year in 2011, broke the fourth and fifth metacarpals in his right hand during a 3-1 loss to N,C. State on March 26.

Former North Carolina defensive end Quinton Coples was a 4-star prospect entering college. Fourteen other ACC players who were selected in the NFL draft were also 4-star recruits. PHOTO: Associated Press

Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly, at the ninth overall pick, was the first ACC player to be selected in the NFL draft over last weekend. Florida State offensive tackle Andrew Datko, who went 241st overall, was the last. By the time the draft ended, NFL teams selected 31 players who spent the 2011 season in the ACC.

For those 31 players, being drafted represented the culmination of a dream. It wasn’t all that long ago, though, that they began their college careers as incoming recruits hoping to find a role with their college teams. With the draft over, it's as good of a time as any to look back and examine what kind of recruits these draftees once were.