The idea of building an ACC Hall of Fame in Greensboro seems to be as popular around here as the ACC itself. But so far everyone is too busy patting each other on the back for thinking of it to reach for the check.

The Atlantic Coast Conference museum for Greensboro is such a no-brainer that even I came up with it a couple of years ago in this column. Fortunately, the concept has now been put forth by people who can actually do something about it, including Greensboro Coliseum director Matt Brown and former UNC basketball player and Greensboro City Council member Dick Grubar, who worked with several local groups to develop the proposal announced with such fanfare in late January.

The ACC Hall of Fame makes sense given the geography of the league, and the history of the conference and its centerpiece basketball tournament. It would tighten the bond between the ACC headquarters and its Greensboro home, and give people another reason to get off the interstate here, spend some money, and then leave, which is the very definition of a perfect guest.

But we're still $23 million away from making it happen. Elected officials are being cagey about potential public funding, as they should be until some lead dog emerges to start pulling this project forward. It's obvious who the big dogs are, and I think we should follow the sound of barking. Big time college sports are big time because they make big money. The ACC is an amateur athletic organization, but it's also a huge business, and the businesses that profit from the league need to step up now. Go get $15 million in corporate money, and the rest will fall in your laps.

As we look for the dough, allow me to point back to what I wrote in that column from February 2003: The most logical corporate backer is right here in Greensboro. "Jefferson-Pilot, a local company with significant broadcasting and advertising ties to the league ... can provide funds for the project and influence with the ACC. This is JP's chance to ... provid(e) critical corporate leadership for its hometown -- while leveraging its own well-established marketing strategy."

JP has been sponsoring the ACC for decades -- those of us of a certain age can pause here to sing the "Sail with the Pilot" jingle from the old commercials -- and its television unit is a major channel for the league's lucrative sports programming. It's a natural fit. If JP isn't interested, this project may be in trouble before it really starts. I would also include North Carolina's big banks and the various fast-food and beverage companies that stop play after every four minutes of basketball to peddle their wares. And I might add Nike, since it is willing to pay millions to plaster that swoosh on anything related to sports.

One difference between the official plan presented to the Greensboro City Council and the scenario I presented in early 2003 is that my pitch was for putting the thing at the blighted intersection of South Elm and Lee streets. I happily concede that the proposed location by the coliseum makes more sense, and since the city now seems to be moving toward a reclamation project of some sort at my favorite brownfield site, we may get to have and eat that particular morsel of cake.

Another difference in the new plan is that the proposed museum is called not a Hall of Fame but a Hall of Champions. I'm sure the names are seen as interchangeable, but they are not, and I think the difference matters. Champion is a word with a literal meaning, and if it's not taken literally, and we say anyone who was great was a champion, then we are devaluing accomplishment and dumbing down the culture and doing all the things "The Incredibles" told us not to do.

Champions are great. I would pay to see Thurl Bailey's jersey and the screws that held James Worthy's leg together, but sports is about the agony of defeat, too. A Hall of Champions would need a Wing of Also-Rans to truly represent the majesty of athletic competition. The excellent 1974 Maryland basketball team, which could not go to the NCAA tournament under the rules at that time, needs to be in the hall. So do all the great players from bad teams who have given fans something to cheer about over the years. "Hall of Fame" sums things up so much more neatly.

But all of that is getting ahead of ourselves. I'm as excited about this museum as anyone -- as a sports fan and as a Greensboro fan. For the moment, though, I'll fall back on a famous line from one of the great movies about sports, "Jerry Maguire": Show me the money.