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GREENSBORO - The first game of the ACC football season is 39 days from today when N.C. State hosts South Carolina on the first Thursday night of September.

But, truth be told, the season really starts today at Grandover Resort. Coaches and a couple of players from each of the league's 12 teams will gather there for the ACC Football Kickoff conference.

For two days they'll play golf, listen to speakers and talk football, football and more football.

Heading into the Kickoff, ACC Commissioner John Swofford sat down with the News & Record for a one-on-one question-and-answer session about football, football and more football.

Q: Ten of 12 ACC teams played in bowl games last season. That's a tough act to follow. What do you do for an encore?

A: I think the way you follow it up is sustaining that kind of competitive depth in the league. And I'm looking forward to a year in which we have a team involved in the national championship picture, which I'm confident that we'll have at some point.

What we've seen since expansion, from a football standpoint, is a very high level of interest from fans, from a media coverage standpoint, from a television coverage standpoint. We've had excellent divisional races that have generally gone right down to the last weekend of the season, and that enhances the interest level in the sport.

The guaranteed tie-in with the Orange Bowl is something that is very, very good for us. ... I think we're on an excellent track in terms of football and commitment to the sport throughout the league.

Q: The ACC is getting ready to start its sixth season since adding Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech. Has expansion gone the way you hoped it would back in 2003?

A: From our perspective, it's gone extraordinarily well. It has gone the way we would have hoped and expected it to go. We added three programs that, from a geographic standpoint and from a competitive standpoint, have without question improved us as a conference in multiple ways. They're three schools that have fit in tremendously well to the culture of the league, to what our goals are and what our values system is. That's been pleasing to see, because I think that our league is something special from a cultural and values standpoint.

Q: Looking back at expansion, is there anything you would've done differently if you had it to do all over again?

A: I think we would pretty much do it the same way. ... I don't know that this league will be expanding again any time soon; 12 is, I think, the right number to have for this league, and we'll be at that number for the foreseeable future.

But I think -- and we said this at the time -- the only thing that would be done differently is no on-site visits to potential members of the conference. Those were probably something that in today's world aren't as necessary as when the bylaws were written that (included on-site visits) as a part of the process. When those rules were written, the world wasn't quite as small, so to speak, and you weren't as familiar with certain institutions at this level athletically. That's no longer a part of our bylaws in an expansion process, because we felt like, after the fact, those (on-site visits) weren't anything that was terribly necessary.

Q: The country is in the midst of a severe economic downturn. People who look on from afar probably think the ACC is impervious to something like that. How has the down economy affected the ACC, and are there any measures the conference will have to take this year to control costs?

A: We went through a budget process back in the winter and spring in which we stepped back and fully evaluated the conference budget. We're going into this year with budget reductions of a little over 6 percent for the year.

Our schools are all, without question, impacted. You've seen budget cuts across the campuses of every institution in the league to one degree or another. Certainly, athletics at those institutions is not immune to that. I think the sports world is cushioned to some degree, but I don't think it's immune. Adjustments have been made throughout the league to deal with this period of time and the economic impact that is there. ... I think our schools have looked at the upcoming year. They've stepped back to look at ticket prices, marketing strategies.

One of the great things about college athletics is the fact that a lot of the fan base, whether its current students or alumni, have very real and emotional ties to their institution and the teams that represent that institution. In times like these, that's really important.

Q: The ACC's seven-year, $258 million TV deal with ABC and ESPN expires after the 2010 season. This seems like it would be an awful time to negotiate a new deal. Is that the case?

A: We are having some discussions with our current rights holders, and that's where our focus is right now. We also are looking at other possibilities that might be out there at some point in time. But our focus right now is with Raycom and ESPN/ABC. Our current contracts are good ones and are guaranteed for this year and next year.

We will be going into a negotiation period contractually in the spring of 2010. You generally negotiate a year in advance. ... Television negotiations a lot of times are about circumstance and about timing. Sometimes your contracts run out at an opportune time, and sometimes they run out at a more challenging time.

The marketplace is always changing, too, in terms of distribution platforms and opportunities with new media that have not been there before. Sometimes it's new media that people haven't figured out how to monetize. We're trying to figure all of that out as we look ahead to new contracts. But we have excellent rights holders and television partners. There may be others out there who would be interested in jumping into the fray. You don't know what the competition might be that has an interest down the road. You don't know exactly what the economy will be a year from now. All of that can ultimately come into play.

Q: How is the ACC approaching those new media?

A: We're constantly trying to keep up with what it is and what the opportunities are for distribution. And if indeed that distribution opportunity is there, how is it monetized? And how could it be used to the benefit of the conference and our schools, both in terms of exposure and revenue?

Sometimes I look at some of the platforms that are there and I think back to a time when I was an assistant AD in this league in the late 1970s (at North Carolina) and sat in on the first meeting when ESPN came to visit with the conference. You would've had to have been quite a visionary that day in 1978 or '79 to fully understand what ESPN would become and what cable would become. I relate back to that in looking at today's streaming and what the future may bring on your computer and on your cell phone. How do you bring that into play with what currently exists in the marketplace? ... We just have to try to keep up with it. The learning curve is fairly steep, but that's part of the fun and part of the challenge.

Q: What about you personally? Are you good with technology? Are you on Facebook or Twitter?

A: No, I'm not. But I do think it's important to understand its use and its importance to our industry. I learn a lot. I listen a lot. And the league is on both of them.

Q: A conference championship football game was one of the driving forces behind expansion. Has that game been all you thought it would be?

A: In all aspects except one: Attendance on a consistent basis is not where we want it to be. The first year (Florida State vs. Virginia Tech) was outstanding. The years since have not met our expectations. But we've been very happy with every other aspect -- on the field, competitively, the divisional races, the fact that the winner automatically goes to the Orange Bowl if it's not in the national championship game, the television exposure and dollars are excellent. ... We just need to develop a consistency of attendance.

Next year we come to Charlotte for a two-year period. The game, so far, has to some degree proven to be what I call participant-sensitive. Matchups have a lot to do with attendance. We've had excellent games, but (attendance) is the only aspect of it we need to continue to work on and build on.

Q: Any surprises associated with the championship game?

A: We've had five of our schools already participate in a short period of time. I think that's a surprise to a lot of people. I think some people felt that Miami and Florida State would dominate that game right off the bat. Obviously, that has not happened. In a lot of ways, that's good for our conference because it gives more schools a taste of the championship game and the Orange Bowl. And that shows that any school in our league has the opportunity to play for a championship. I think that's healthy for our league in its infancy with 12 members.

Q: The cost of guarantee games has spiraled upward. Georgia will reportedly pay North Texas $975,000 to come play football in 2013. Is the rising cost of those games a concern in the ACC?

A: It is a concern from a scheduling standpoint and a concern for our schools. There seems to be more and more of that, and less and less of quality intersectional games that fans really want to see and are good for college football.

But that's really an institutional matter, and it differs from institution to institution in terms of their scheduling philosophy. You have to look at what's best for a particular program and where that program is competitively. But the cost of those games has gone up dramatically. I don't know that it's a red flag, but it's something that is of concern. There's not a lot we can do about it from a conference level ... but it makes it more difficult to schedule for some schools when the going rate for trying to have a balanced 12-game schedule comes into play.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com