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By Marc Hudgens
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist Marc Hudgens talks about the College Football Hall of Fame moving to Atlanta.
Talk about a huge coup for the city of Atlanta. It recently stole the College Football Hall of Fame from college football’s traditional Mecca (South Bend, Ind.), which just so happens to be the home of every southern football fan’s most beloved team, Notre Dame.
Surprising on the face of it all when looking at the move itself, but it really shouldn’t be to most southern football fans considering the strides the Atlanta Sports Council has made in recent years. Not only have they been a big factor in the raging success of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which pits the No. 2 ACC team versus the No. 5 or so SEC team, not to mention the SEC Championship Game, plus beginning last year with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game as the sport’s marquee opener, they’ve really ushered in college football the way it should be with all the pomp and spectacle it commands.
But when I read about the Hall of Fame moving to Atlanta, I immediately thought, “you know Stokan had his hand in this.”
Not a shot at all at the ASC. None in the least. This is great for the sport in general because it helps highlight the well-known fact that the southern United States’ variety of college football is what drives the sport’s national engine. Largely because of the massive success of the SEC, no doubt. So it makes sense the National Football Foundation, which runs the Hall, made the move.
(New series in the fall line-up -- “Everyone Loves The SEC”, simulcast on CBS and ABC and ESPN. Check your local listings.)
The Fighting Irish’s poor performances in recent years, highlighted by a long string of BCS bowl losses, have surely fueled the transition.
Standing back and taking in what all the ASC has accomplished in relatively little time, it’s clear the Council, led by president Gary Stokan, is becoming a huge force in big-time college football. It’s hard to think that Stokan’s power and clout is not skyrocketing as a result and football fans, especially the southerners, are reaping the payoff.
Stokan clearly isn’t your run-of-the-mill corporate suit either. He was once an assistant basketball coach at the University of North Carolina after playing hoops for the N.C. State Wolfpack, so the guy’s still got sport in his blood. Which explains his success -- he still thinks like a player and a coach, not like a typical office-coffee exec. He understands what it takes to succeed in sports, and he’s definitely doing that, just off-court. Because it appears that all big-time college football in Atlanta goes through his office.
With the increasing power of the ASC, it would not surprise that the next move for the Council is to make the Chick-fil-A Bowl a BCS bowl. Sounds crazy for sure. But if it happens....
They would just have to change the name back to the Peach Bowl for it to really sell to fans. Perhaps Stokan and his enormous influential leverage, coupled with his competitive background, would bring back that lost tradition. Because he’s the only one who could pull that off.
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Stories written by SouthernPigskin.com columnists are done independently. Views do not always coincide with those of the remainder of the staff or the ownership of SouthernPigskin.com.
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