CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Lets rewind five years, shall we? Conference realignment destabilized the college football foundation we had come to know. Talk about 16-team superconferences started dominating the discussion, and soon, survival-of-the-fittest scenarios began unfolding.The ACC? Many thought the future looked bleak, especially after Florida State and the Big 12 became publicly tangled in a public relations mess that dominated spring meetings in 2012. A few months later, Maryland decided to join the Big Ten and left the ACC reeling.What is a commissioner to do? If you are John Swofford, you swat away any doomsday talk and make your league stronger. Since 2012, he has gotten Notre Dame to join in all sports but football, but secured an annual five-game football scheduling agreement and included the Irish in future bowl partnerships; he swapped Maryland for Louisville, a huge upgrade across the board; he got league schools to raise the exit fee to $50 million; and he got them all to sign a grant-of-rights agreement.But wait. Theres more.On the opening day of ACC Kickoff on Thursday, Swofford and ESPN announced a long-awaited deal with ESPN for an ACC linear and digital network, along with a grant-of-rights extension through 2036 -- essentially stabilizing and securing the conference for the foreseeable future. John Swofford made all the right moves, Duke athletic director Kevin White said. In my behind-the-barn expression, the dart board is no longer jumping. We know where the dart board is. Were pretty frozen.The ACC has made a remarkable shift over a very short time. Swofford has secured his leagues future for the next 20 years, all while completely outmaneuvering the Big 12 -- a conference whose future appears murkiest. The Big 12 spent all summer discussing future expansion and wondering about the prospects for its own television network.Now the conference is talking about expansion again, Oklahoma president David Boren said as a direct result of the ACCs network news. But any thought about trying to poach an ACC team is not based in reality.If Florida State or any other team considers leaving over the next 20 years, it would have to pay the ACC a $50 million exit fee plus leave behind its television rights until the grant of rights expires. Thats a whole lot of cash to leave on the table to join a league that looks the most unstable and least secure among the Power 5 conferences.The future ACC Network, years in the making, finally puts the ACC on par with the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12, which all have their own networks. Having more television exposure is nice, but this is about the money a television network brings in -- money the ACC hopes will allow for even more substantial upgrades to its football product.We could debate which makes the ACC stronger -- a network or the grant-of-rights extension. They are both big, but the grant of rights should be considered the biggest news to emerge out of this week. With the Big 12 still hemming and hawing about whether to add more teams, extending the grant of rights basically locks ACC schools into place -- and that is the type of stability the league didnt have five years ago.Given all these developments, the natural expectation should be for the ACC to now make the necessary steps to be more than just a top-heavy football league. After the conference went 13 years between championship game appearances, two ACC schools have played for a title in two of the past three years. Florida State and Clemson continue to carry the flag, but programs like Miami, Louisville, North Carolina and Virginia Tech -- just to name four -- have a responsibility to the league to prove they are top-25 teams capable of contending for championships.These are exciting times for the ACC. Playing as a stable, unified conference with a network on the way should be only just the beginning. They also provide quite a legacy for the man who has engineered it all.I feel great about where it is because were where we should be, Swofford said. It feels good to be there. The last 10 to 15 years in college athletics theres been a lot of instability, theres been a lot of rumors, a lot of people who were saying things without any basis about who might be where and why this would happen, and there were all kinds of reasons why a lot of those things would not have happened.But I think what this does is totally take the ACC out of any kind of conversation of that nature, and thats a huge plus for the league and for the individual institutions and a huge plus for our ability to truly reach our potential as a league. I think thats already started. Yeesy Boost 350 Rebajas . It is a cliché dragged out by fans and pundits regularly when discussions take place around which teams are better than others. Yeezy Boost 350 V2 España . - Connor McDavid scored 53 seconds into overtime as the Erie Otters came from behind to defeat the visiting Guelph Storm 4-3 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. http://www.yeezyespana.com/yeezy-boost-350-v2-espana.html . It is a cliché dragged out by fans and pundits regularly when discussions take place around which teams are better than others. Yeezy 700 Baratas . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Yeezy Boost 350 España .J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the season after having surgery on his left knee. FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Quarterback Tom Brady, who has attempted to keep a low public and media profile since his decision not to pursue a Deflategate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, made a surprise appearance Monday night at the New England Patriots Hall of Fame induction of his former teammate, running back Kevin Faulk.Brady showed up at the end of the ceremony and unzipped his jacket onstage to reveal that he was wearing Faulks old No. 33 jersey.He then addressed the crowd of several thousand fans for about two minutes.Thank you, guys, for supporting him. Thank you, guys, for supporting us. We have the best fans in the world, Brady said to a raucous applause, as the crowd began chanting Brady! Brady! Brady!At that point, Brady said, No, this is for Kevin!The connection bbetween the two players who played 12 seasons together is well-documented, as the 40-year-old Faulk had worn Bradys No.dddddddddddd 12 jersey while announcing the Patriots third-round draft choice at the 2016 NFL draft.Brady concluded his remarks by saying, Kevin, we love you. Youre an amazing person, an amazing teammate. As great as a player as Kevin was, hes a better friend.Brady, who turns 39 on Wednesday, had joked during his remarks, saying, Its such a special night. But whats not very special about tonight is when the guys that are going into the Hall of Fame are your age.After the ceremony, Faulk said he was speechless at Bradys gesture. ' ' '