Duke, UNC players won't be in attendance at ACC Media Day

UNC joins Duke as the two teams not to send players to the annual ACC Media Day in October

The 2017 ACC Basketball Media Day is just a month away as we get ready for the upcoming season.

Teams will head to Charlotte, North Carolina to participate in the event called “ACC’s Operation Basketball” giving fans a look at players and coaches as they prepare for the new season.

But this year, there will be some changes.

Both Duke and North Carolina won’t be sending any players to the event like in years past thanks to a new rule.

Schools from Power Five conferences passed new rules that would limit athletes’ time that is devoted to athletic-related activity including media requirements.

With the changes, both Duke and UNC won’t have players in attendance.

Duke sports information director Cory Walton revealed why the Blue Devils players won’t be in attendance, via Syracuse.com:

“In order to both comply with the new rules governing student-athletes’ hours and maximize our practice opportunities, we have decided that we will not have student-athletes attend Operation Basketball.”

UNC’s  Steve Kirschner went on to confirm to Syracuse.com that the Tar Heels would not send any representatives this year.

In year’s past, the team sent two players each year including Joel Berry and Isaiah Hicks in 2016.

It’s a big story for the ACC as their two premier programs won’t have representatives at the unofficial beginning to the season. This decision is not ideal as it could impact the national landscape of media days as well.

The ACC is one of the biggest conferences in the country and to not have its two biggest brands at a media day is not a good sign.

While no other schools in the conference have announced they won’t send players, it’s possible they change that.

Syracuse’s director of athletic communications, Pete Moore, went on to say that if enough schools don’t bring players, the Orange won’t either.

This is something certainly worth monitoring both this year and the future. If other schools decide not to bring players, media days could die out.

CBS Sports Gary Parrish sees this as a problem moving forward and the rule would likely be amended.

We can only wait and see.