Power Trip

I've cooled off enough to write sensibly about this but I'm still fuming from what happened during the NC State/Florida State game Saturday. If you don't know what happened game referee, Karl Hess, walked over and motioned at two fans sitting behind the scorers table. Hess then takes it upon himself to eject the fans from the game.

Those "fans" were Wolfpack greats, Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani, who played for the Pack in 1989 and have their jerseys hanging in the rafters. This has created a firestorm from all ACC basketball fans and neither Hess nor the ACC have provided any real response to the incident. John Clougherty, the Director of Officials for the conference, released this statement as his apparent "response" to what happened:

"Under Rule 10, when circumstances warrant, an official has the authority to request home game management to eject fans when the behavior, in the officials' judgement, is extreme or excessive. It's unfortunate in this instance that ACC protocol of communicating directly with the home game management was not followed, and instead, a building security officer was solicited. We will re-communicate this policy with all officials to ensure proper protocol is followed." 

I'm appalled by what happened. I had thought about going to the game but I'm glad I didn't because I lost my cool big time. I was even more upset over this than the game itself. Traditionally, if there are raucous home team fans, the referees will give a warning to the home bench. If, after the warning, the behavior continues or gets worst, the referees will assess a technical foul to the home bench. I have never seen something like what Karl Hess did before in my entire life! To be honest, I've never liked Hess in the first place. He's always come across as an egotistical jerk to me for a long time and his actions in this game just solidified my opinion of him.

Now, on to the ACC itself. John Swofford, John Clougherty, and the rest of the conference "big wigs" should all be ashamed of how these events played out. In my opinion, the ACC showed a tremendous lack of leadership, integrity, and character while handling this situation. I think the conference, in order to "redeem" themselves in a sense, should force Hess to make a public apology for his actions and then suspend him. The ACC is in a downward spiral and, with incidents like this, it's quickly becoming the worst conference in America!

UPDATE: The ACC released a so-called "public reprimand" of Karl Hess Monday via their website. You can read it here but it's not really worth your time. Still no punishment, still no answers, and still the same opinion of the ACC!