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By JEFF MILLS, Staff Writer

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack … but not beer. At least not on the concourse at the regular concessions stands of NewBridge Bank Park.

ACC commissioner John Swofford earned nearly $1.5 million in 2010 based on the conference's tax records, according to a report by USA Today.

That represents an almost 27 percent increase from the amount he earned in 2009.

Swofford ranked fourth among power conference commissioners in compensation in 2010, according to the report, behind the Pac-12's Larry Scott (nearly $1.9 million), the Big Ten's Jim Delaney (nearly $1.8 million) and former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe (nearly $1.7 million), who left his post in September 2011.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive was paid just more than $1 million in 2010, according to the report, and former Big East commissioner John Marinatto -- who resigned earlier this month -- earned a little more than $600,000.

Should we stop military sponsorships in NASCAR?

Critics argue it's a waste of taxpayer money.

Supporters including Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is sponsored by the National Guard, believe it's a valuable recruiting tool.

Weigh in on our poll here

Wake Forest's sweep of Clemson last weekend might just have clinched the Demon Deacons their first spot in an NCAA regional since 2007.

The Demon Deacons, who had been on the outside looking in -- both for the eight-team ACC tournament field and most major NCAA regional projections -- heading into last weekend, jumped to the No. 7 seed in the tournament with their sweep of the Tigers and jumped to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA regional round on both SEBaseball.com and Perfect Game.

That doesn't mean Wake Forest is a lock. It could still probably use at least a win at NewBridge Bank Park this week to assure a spot.

But they're in much better shape.

Beyond that, not much has changed when it comes to how state teams are looking in regional projections.

North Carolina and N.C. State are both predicted to host, and UNC could garner a national top eight seed with its No. 6 ranking in the RPI.

N.C. State (No. 10) might even be able to sneak into one if it hasa good tournament.

Here's how the in-state teams are looking in this week's regional projections from SEBaseball and Perfect Game (with RPI rankings):

No. 6 UNC (42-13, 22-8 ACC)
SE Baseball: No. 1 seed, host of Chapel Hill regional with No. 38 Oregon State, No. 40 College of Charleston and No. 135 Austin Peay
Perfect Game: No. 1 seed, host of Chapel Hill regional with No. 26 East Carolina, No. 40 College of Charleston and No. 129 Cornell

No. 10 N.C. State (38-15, 19-11 ACC)
SE Baseball: No. 1 seed, host of Raleigh regional with No. 43 Coastal Carolina, No. 41 UNC-Wilmington and No. 71 Belmont
Perfect Game: No. 1 seed, host of Raleigh regional with No. 29 Mississippi State, No. 31 Appalachian State and No. 212 Sacred Heart

No. 26 East Carolina (34-20-1, 13-10-1 C-USA)
SE Baseball: No. 2 seed in Charlottesville regional, with No. 14 Virginia, No. 32 Vanderbilt and No. 57 St. John's
Perfect Game: No. 2 seed in Chapel Hill regional, with No. 6 UNC, No. 40 College of Charleston and No. 129 Cornell

No. 31 Appalachian State (38-14, 21-9 Southern)
SE Baseball: No. 2 seed in Columbia regional, with No. 9 South Carolina, No. 34 Wake Forest and No. 98 Stony Brook
Perfect Game: No. 3 seed in Raleigh regional, with No. 10 N.C. State, No. 29 Mississippi State and No. 212 Sacred Heart

No. 34 Wake Forest (32-22, 13-17 ACC)
SE Baseball: No. 3 seed in Columbia regional, with No. 9 South Carolina, No. 31 Appalachian State and No. 98 Stony Brook
Perfect Game: No. 3 seed in Gainesville regional, with No. 1 Florida, No. 21 UCF and No. 71 Belmont

No. 41 UNC-Wilmington (35-20, 24-6 Colonial)
SE Baseball: No. 3 seed in Raleigh regional, with No. 10 N.C. State, No. 43 Coastal Carolina and No. 71 Belmont
Perfect Game: No. 3 seed in Charlottesville regional, with No. 14 Virginia, No. 38 Oregon State and No. 98 Stony Brook

No. 51 Elon (31-24, 20-10 Southern)
SE Baseball: First 10 out of regional field
Perfect Game: Out

By JEFF MILLS and DAVID MORRISON, Staff Writers

The cold, hard statistics won’t turn many heads. But Luis Paula’s transition from do-it-all high school star at Northeast Guilford to promising right-handed pitching prospect at North Carolina isn’t about numbers this year.

BAD HOP: N.C. State shortstop Chris Diaz took a grounder off his face during infield practice at NewBridge Bank Park on Tuesday, leaving him with a nasty little gash on the left side of his upper lip.

Diaz took a couple minutes to shake it off -- spit out some blood -- and had a session with the trainer, but he didn't seem any worse for wear.

State coach Elliott Avent said Diaz needed "a couple of stitches" to close the cut, but the wound wouldn't keep him out of any games.

The junior is a first-team All-ACC selection, hitting .369 this year with a league-leading 23 doubles.

ONE WIN TO SLEEP EASY: Wake Forest has been poised directly on the NCAA bubble for most of the season.

The Demon Deacons (32-22, 13-17 ACC) improved their position tremendously after a sweep of Clemson last weekend, moving from one of the first 10 out of the NCAA field to one of the final at-large teams in most regional projections.

Still, coach Tom Walter would like to see his team win at least a game this weekend.

For his peace of mind, if nothing else.

"If we win one game we can sleep well at night the night before (the selection), that we'll get in," Walter said. "If we don't win any, is there a chance we'll be in? Yeah, I do think there's a chance we'll be in. 

"But then again, I wouldn't sleep as well the night before."

Wake Forest draws a tough assignment out of the gate Wednesday in North Carolina, winner of 13 straight games.

"They're hot right now. They're the hottest team in the country," Walter said.

Ralston Turner, a 6-foot-6 transfer guard from LSU, has officially joined the N.C. State basketball program after committing earlier this month, Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried announced Tuesday. 

Turner has signed a financial aid agreement and will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2012-13 season under NCAA transfer rules.

“Ralston is a young man I’ve known for quite a while,” Gottfried said in a release. “He’s a excellent shooter and a very good overall perimeter player. We are very happy to have him join us.”

Gottfried and his staff at Alabama recruited Turner out of Muscle Shoals (Ala.) High in 2009.

Turner spent his first two seasons at LSU, playing in 60 games with 59 starts for the Tigers. As a sophomore, Turner averaged 9.1 points per game while hitting 37.2 percent (51-of-137) of his 3-point attempts.

As a freshman, Turner led the Tigers in scoring, averaging 12.3 points in 29.0 minutes a game. He scored in double figures 18 times during his rookie season, including seven straight double figure contests in SEC action.

Turner earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors despite missing the first five conference games of the season due to injury.

He was given a release from his scholarship when the Tigers brought in new coach Johnny Jones and considered rejoining LSU before leaving for the Wolfpack.

At Muscle Shoals High School, Turner scored 2,502 career points, averaging 16.9 points a game. He also made 247 3-pointers and recorded 263 blocks. Turner was a three-time All-State selection and twice named the Florence Times Daily Player of the Year. In 2010, he garnered the Birmingham Tipoff Club’s Player of the Year honors.

The ACC baseball tournament, with its round-robin, pool-play format, is all about matchups.

You get three games to win as many as you can and -- if your pool's full of teams you don't match up all that well with -- that can be bad news for you.

Take, for instance, North Carolina.

The Tar Heels are the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the top seed in Pool B, but they've gone only 4-5 against the other three teams in their pool this year, including an 0-for-3 outing against No. 6 seed Miami.

That doesn't mean all that much to UNC. The Heels could probably go 0-3 this weekend and still host an NCAA regional.

But, for teams like Wake Forest and Georgia Tech -- who are both clinging to No. 3 regional seeds in SEBaseball.com's latest regional projections -- a good showing this weekend is a bit more important.

And both of those teams are 2-7 against their poolmates this year.

Here's a look at both pools and how the teams have done against each other (the overall seeds for the tournament precede the team):

Pool A

1. Florida State -- 7-2
(3-0 at Georgia Tech; 1-2 at Clemson; 3-0 vs. Virginia)

4. Virginia -- 5-4
(3-0 vs. Clemson; 2-1 vs. Georgia Tech; 0-3 at Florida State)

5. Clemson -- 4-5
(0-3 at Virginia; 2-1 vs. Florida State; 2-1 at Georgia Tech)

8. Georgia Tech -- 2-7
(0-3 vs. Florida State; 1-2 at Virginia; 1-2 vs. Clemson)

Pool B

6. Miami -- 5-1
(DNP N.C. State; 3-0 vs. UNC; 2-1 vs. Wake Forest)

3. N.C. State -- 4-2
(DNP Miami; 3-0 vs. Wake Forest; 1-2 at UNC)

2. North Carolina -- 4-5
(2-1 vs. Wake Forest; 0-3 at Miami; 2-1 vs. N.C. State)

7. Wake Forest -- 2-7
(1-2 at UNC; 0-3 at N.C. State; 1-2 at Miami)

Pool A looks as it is supposed to.

Pool B looks a little funky, partly because Miami and N.C. State didn't play each other this season, so they don't have the same number of games in their sample size as the others.

But it appears Miami and Florida State have the upper hand at advancing to Sunday afternoon's championship game, at least if this season's performance is to be trusted.

Still, Wake Forest, for example, had the misfotune of catching all three of its poolmates on the road this year, so a neutral site might do the Demon Deacons well.

And anything can happen in tournament play.

North Carolina and Florida State have more in common than just being the two combatants in this year's ACC tournament title game.

They're also the two teams in the ACC with the most work to do to get back to that level next season.

By going through next year's supposed rosters -- all of the players expect to be back and fully operational -- and seeing how much of a factor those players had in their teams' fortunes last year, we see that UNC and FSU are the two teams in the conference who lost the most.

That's easy to tell just by eyeballing.

Each team lost four starters: UNC lost Tyler Zeller, John Henson, Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall and FSU lost Luke Loucks, Deividas Dulkys, Xavier Gibson and Bernard James.

By the numbers, UNC returns only 35 percent of its minutes, 30.8 percent of its points, 30 percent of its rebounds, 20.8 percent of its assists, 39 percent of its steals and 17.2 percent of its blocks.

All those numbers are worst in the league, except for steals (38.1 percent, FSU) and blocks (15.5 percent, also FSU).

Here's a rundown of what percent production each team is returning from last year's team in six categories, with league leaders and last-placers bolded and an average for the league:

Pct. Returning             Min.     Pts.     Reb.     Ast.     Stl.     Blk.
Georgia Tech               80.9     80.2     78.7     81.2     75.8    76.3
Miami                            80.7     79.8     86.9     82.1     83.3     90.7
Duke                             71.7     70.1     70.1     78.3     74.3     75.0
Boston College          70.6     74.6     78.8     72.9     60.8     79.8
N.C. State                    62.5     69.0     63.7     66.7     67.5     76.7
Virginia Tech               60.9     63.0     60.4     64.0     67.8     61.7
Virginia                         60.0     51.1     56.4     65.5     61.4     58.0
League Avg.                59.1     59.6     60.1     57.6     58.9     57.1
Clemson                      54.2     51.8     63.5     37.5     45.9     66.7
Wake Forest                50.6     60.7     42.4     43.8     53.7     16.9
Maryland                       43.6     38.3     51.0     47.1     38.6     50.4
Florida State                38.7     45.9     38.7     31.1     38.1     15.5
North Carolina            35.0     30.8     30.0     20.8     39.0     17.2

Some thoughts:

• UNC will also have one former starter -- Leslie McDonald -- coming back from injury after missing last season and another -- Dexter Strickland -- who sat out the last half of last season, so its attrition is just a little misleading.
• The optimism around Duke and N.C. State is pretty well backed up by this chart. Duke went 13-3 last year and returns around 73 percent of its team across the board. Unless Andre Dawkins redshirts. Then they're returning about 70 across the board, with two McDonald's All-Americans coming in. The Wolfpack has about 68 percent of its team coming back across the board, and it is bringing three McDonald's All-Americans on board. Those two are the teams to beat.
• Wake Forest's numbers are weird. Most of the categories the Demon Deacons are stronger in (minutes, points, steals) come from two guys: Travis McKie and C.J. Harris. You can see the toll of losses like Ty Walker and Carson Desrosiers in the rebounds and blocks. Wake Forest better hope some of its young posts get up to speed quickly.
• Georgia Tech could be your sleeper this year. Why not Miami, you ask? Well, because the Yellow Jackets' players have a better recruiting pedigree than the Hurricanes'. In my "starts vs. stars" blog from earlier this month (I'm going to keep plugging it because I spent a lot of time on it) I originally had Miami and Georgia Tech projected for 10-6 years based on what teams with their similar experience and star power have done over the past three seasons, then adjusted them back to 8-8 and 7-9 (respectively) due to their historic underperformance. I think 8-8 is about right for Miami. It wouldn't surprise me to see Georgia Tech inch closer to 10-6 than 7-9.

N.C. freshman starting pitcher Carlos Rodon was named ACC pitcher and freshman of the year by the league office Monday, after a regular season in which he went 9-0 with a 1.59 ERA.

Rodon, from Holly Springs, was a 16th-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers last summer, but opted to play for the Wolfpack.

He has struck out 114 batters in 96 innings this season and allowed opponents to hit only .184 off him, helping N.C. State to a No. 3 seed in this week's ACC tournament at NewBridge Bank Park.

Rodon is first in the conference in ERA, second in strikeouts -- behind Duke's Marcus Stroman (136), another first-team selection -- and third in batting average against.

The Wolfpack landed three players on the All-ACC first team and one on the second, North Carolina had two first-teamers and two second-teamers, Wake Forest had a first-teamer and a second-teamer, and Stroman made the first team for Duke.

Florida State outfielder James Ramsey was named conference player of the year, and the Seminoles' Mike Martin was coach of the year.

Here are all of the players from the Big 4 that made the All-ACC baseball team:

First Team

-- Chris Diaz, SS, Jr., N.C. State -- Hitting .369 with a home run and 49 RBIs. Ranks fourth in the conference in batting average, second in hits (80) and first in doubles (23).

-- Kent Emanuel, P, So., UNC -- Has an 8-3 record with a 1.80 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 95 innings. Ranks second in ACC in ERA and strikeouts looking (52).

-- Ryan Mathews, OF, Sr., N.C. State -- Hitting .343 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs. Ranks second in the ACC in slugging percentage (.663) to Ramsey.

-- Michael Morin, P, Jr., UNC -- Has a 5-3 record and a 0.91 ERA, with 17 saves. Leads the ACC in  saves and has 43 strikeouts in 49.1 innings.

-- Carlos Rodon, P, Fr., N.C. State -- Has a 9-0 record with a 1.59 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 96 innings. The ACC's pitcher and freshman of the year.

-- Marcus Stroman, P, Jr., Duke -- Had a 6-5 record with a 2.39 ERA and 136 strikeouts in 98 innings. Leads the conference in innings and strikeouts.

-- Mac Williamson, OF, Jr., Wake Forest -- Hitting .287 with 17 home runs and 52 RBIs. Leads the league in home runs and is third in RBIs and slugging (.608)

Second Team

-- Michael Dimock, P, Sr., Wake Forest -- Is 3-3 with a 3.57 ERA and 12 saves this season, with 36 strikeouts in 40.1 innings.

-- Brian Holberton, DH/Util, So., UNC -- Hitting .301 with one home run and 14 RBIs. Has a .407 on-base percentage.

-- Jacob Stallings, C, Sr., UNC -- Hitting .297 with four home runs and 36 RBIs.

-- Trea Turner, 3B, Fr., N.C. State -- Hitting .340 with three home runs, 38 RBIs and a league-leading 54 stolen bases in 58 attempts. The next closest player has 22.

Check out the entire All-ACC teams here.

Atlantic Division champion Florida State and Coastal Division champion North Carolina are the top two seeds for the ACC baseball tournament, which runs Wednesday through Sunday at NewBridge Bank Park.

FSU (43-12, 24-6 ACC) is in Pool A, along with No. 4 Virginia (36-16-1, 18-12), No. 5 Clemson (32-24, 16-14) and No. 8 Georgia Tech (33-24, 12-18).

UNC (42-13, 22-8) is the No. 2 seed, joined in Pool B by No. 3 N.C. State (38-15, 19-11), No. 6 Miami (34-19, 16-14) and No. 7 Wake Forest (32-22, 13-17), which played its way into the tournament by sweeping Clemson this past weekend.

Under the pool-play format, each team will play one game against each of the other three opponents in its division Wednesday through Saturday. The two teams with the best records within their brackets will advance to the title game on Sunday, with the winner earning the ACC’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

Game times Wednesday through Saturday are set for 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m, and Sunday’s championship game will begin at noon.

All eight teams in this year’s ACC championship field are ranked among the top 40 of the most recent NCAA RPI report. Florida State held a No. 1 national ranking in two major national polls last week, while UNC was ranked as high as No. 7, N/C. State as high as No. 13, Virginia as high as No. 19 and Miami as high as No. 21.

Fans can still purchase tickets to next week's competition. Complete books to all 13 games are available, as well as individual game tickets. Online ticket information can be found at http://www.theACC.com/championships/12-baseball-tix.html or by calling 336-268-2255.

All 13 games of this year’s ACC Baseball Championship will be televised for the sixth straight year. RSN will carry 12 total games on Wednesday through Saturday. Please check theACC.com for local affiliates and stations. Sunday’s noon championship game will televised nationally by ESPN2.

All games will live-streamed via the Internet by ESPN3.

2012 TOURAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, May 23
11 a.m. – Florida State vs. Georgia Tech
3 p.m. – NC State vs. Miami
7 p.m. – North Carolina vs. Wake Forest
Thursday, May 24
11 a.m. - Virginia vs. Clemson
3 p.m. – North Carolina vs. Miami
7 p.m. – NC State vs. Wake Forest
Friday, May 25
11 a.m. – Virginia vs. Georgia Tech
3 p.m. – Florida State vs. Clemson
7 p.m. – Miami vs. Wake Forest
Saturday, May 26
11 a.m. – Clemson vs. Georgia Tech
3 p.m. – Florida State vs. Virginia
7 p.m. – North Carolina vs. NC State
Sunday, May 27
Noon – Championship Game

Practice Times – Tuesday, May 22
10-10:50 a.m. – Miami
11-11:50 a.m. – Wake Forest
12-12:50 p.m. – NC State
1-1:50 p.m. – North Carolina
2-2:50 p.m. – Clemson
3-3:50 p.m. – Georgia Tech
4-4:50 p.m. – Virginia
5-5:50 p.m. – Florida State
(Practices are open to the media and to the public)

Here's the complete bracket.