On the eve of the seventh ACC championship game, commissioner John Swofford announced that the conference championship site will stay in Charlotte, North Carolina for two more years.
The ACC began playing its championship games in Charlotte last year after a brief stint in Tampa, Florida, and three years in Jacksonville, Florida. The two-year extension will make Charlotte the longest-running host for the ACC title in its short history.
Attendance has been hit or miss for the ACC championship game since 2005. The inaugural game and last year’s matchup -- both between Florida State and Virginia Tech -- were able to reach attendance numbers of over 70,000, but there have been times (most notably in 2008 and ’09) where attendance was embarrassingly low.
Personally, I love how the Pac-12 and Conference USA model their championship game site by making it another home game for the higher-seeded team. It’s an incentive for teams late in the season and it stands a better chance of getting a full stadium on game day.
The only conference who can pull off a neutral site championship game consistently is the SEC, although the Big 12 had a very nice setup in Dallas last year, too. It’ll be interesting to see how the Big Ten does tomorrow night.