ACC Sponsorship

For over 26 years (1986-present), Food Lion has been a partner of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). In addition to participation in both the Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments, Food Lion also teams up with the ACC to give back to the community through such initiatives as Operation Outreach and Hoops for Kids.

Operation Outreach is a six-week newspaper based program that uses ACC Men’s Basketball articles as instructional tools to reach more than 25,000 students in over 600 classrooms. A typical Operation Outreach curriculum focuses on everything from language arts to geography and social studies.

Hoops for Kids is a FREE basketball skills clinic for kids 8 to 12 years of age during the ACC tournament. This family friendly event also provides each one of the 1,000 participants with a free Food Lion boxed lunch.

Food Lion further focuses on children and families with sponsorship of ACC Mascot Night during the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, giving fans the opportunity to interact with the mascots from each of the 12 ACC institutions and chances to win prizes including Food Lion gift cards. As the Official Supermarket of the ACC, Food Lion is proud to support student athletes through this long-term partnership.

The History of the Atlantic Coast Conference

The Atlantic Coast Conference was formed on May 8, 1953 at the Sedgefield Inn near Greensboro, N.C. following the withdrawal of seven schools from the Southern Conference during its annual spring meeting. On June 14, 1953, these seven charter members—North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina State, Clemson, Maryland and South Carolina—met in Raleigh, N.C. to adopt a set of bylaws.

On December 4, 1953, conference officials once again met to officially admit the University of Virginia. The first and only, withdrawal of a school from the ACC came on June 30, 1971 when the University of South Carolina tendered its resignation.

Additional expansions to the ACC included Georgia Tech (admitted April 3, 1978), Florida State (admitted July 1, 1991), the University of Miami and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (both admitted July 1, 2004). Boston College became the league’s 12th member on July 1, 2005.

For more information,view the official ACC website.