Longtime ACC Network Host Mark Packer Retires

On Thursday night, longtime ACC Network TV host Mark Packer announced that he has informed ESPN that he has decided to retire.

“My agent alerted ESPN this morning that I have decided to retire,” Packer said in a tweet. “Given the difficult challenges of past 3 years on both a personal and professional level, the timing is right. I can’t wait to travel, write, teach & live again! Thank you for all the support.”

Since the ACC Network began in 2019, Packer has headlined the network’s biggest shows, including Packer and Durham alongside Wes Durham. Over the past few years, Packer has hosted ACC PM on the network.

Packer’s father, Billy Packer, was a famous announcer who called the NCAA Tournament Final Four for more than 30 years.

Billy passed away several years ago.

Pitt’s Jeff Capel Remembers Billy Packer: ‘He was the Voice of College Basketball’

The longtime voice of the NCAA Final Four, Packer had ACC roots, starring as a player at Wake Forest and leading the Demon Deacons to two ACC titles and a Final Four in his playing career. He then went on to serve as an assistant coach at Wake Forest before joining NBC and working there for 34 years as an analyst, calling high-profile games just the way that he saw them.

“For me, growing up, he was like the voice of college basketball,” Pitt head coach Jeff Capel said in 2023. “Growing up right there in North Carolina, watching those games when I was little, I lived and breathed ACC basketball when I was growing up. When I got to sixth grade, my dad became an assistant coach at Wake Forest and I got to learn more about Billy then because he played at Wake. Got to meet him.”