When everyone else was zigging on North Carolina, Mark Packer zagged.
The ACC Network personality isn’t falling in line with the rest of sports media bemoaning about how a team with a 1-12 record in Quad 1 play could get an at-large bid. Well, it happened. And as the Tar Heels prepare for a date with San Diego State in the First Four in Dayton, the ACC Network personality wants his colleagues in the media to get over themselves.
“This is for all the national tears,” Packer said on Monday’s ACC PM of the new UNC-themed tissue box bestowed before him. “All the whining. All the crying. All the b*tching. All the moaning. And I don’t know if I can say that (on-air) and I just did. I don’t care. This is our budget for 2025 since the University of North Carolina did make the dance.”
Mark Packer is handing out tissues to everyone who is crying about North Carolina making the men’s NCAA tournament 😂 pic.twitter.com/5tj7izeCqn
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) March 17, 2025
He then proceeded to pull out tissues — one for Joe Lunardi, one for Stephen A. Smith, one for Jerry Palm and one for Jon Rothstein. And another for the state of West Virginia.
“This is for all you guys,” Packer said. “North Carolina is in. Did it look like they were going to be in? Probably not. But, again, this is why I always say I don’t worry about what Lunardi’s saying, or any other bracketologist. There’s a thing called a committee.”
One of which North Carolina’s athletic director is the chair.
But that doesn’t seem to phase Packer, who claimed that the Tar Heels now have the perfect chance to silence their doubters, many of who he mentioned above.
“North Carolina has a chance to basically look at every hater in America, and there was a bunch of them, and go, ‘Told ya so,'” he said.
“North Carolina has a chance to basically look at every hater in America, and there was a bunch of them, and go, ‘Told ya so.'”@MarkPacker says the Heels have the perfect chance to silence the doubters 🍿 pic.twitter.com/plxyjY6bxf
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) March 17, 2025
And if the Tar Heels do just that, expect Packer to be the first one to grab the mic and say, “I told you so.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.