If ACC wants to get noticed, it needs to step up against SEC
National publications take notice of major conference collisions. This one followed Alabama's win over Clemson.
It’s the start of college football season. Is this when the SEC big foots everybody again? Is this when the ACC screams from the Chapel Hill-tops that the conference went 6-4 against Cyclops in the regular season last year, yet continues to get ignored because – well, what happened at the end again?
We remember the first Saturday meeting of the conferences: Alabama 34, Clemson 10.
We remember the final bowl meeting of the conferences: LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3.
Single games don’t project entire seasons. But Virginia Tech plays Alabama Saturday at the Georgia Dome, and this would be a good time for an ACC school to do more than just clear its throat.
“I don’t necessarily think the game should be painted as the ACC’s chance to save face,” said Todd Blackledge, a closer observer of both conferences but an outsider as a former Penn State quarterback living in Ohio. “But I do think the ACC is better positioned to represent the ACC in this game than it was last year.”
That said, he added: “Right now the SEC is the best league in the country, and not by just a little. I know one thing the ACC has been trumpeting is having the most teams in post-season bowl games last year. They have balance and parity. But everybody is chasing the SEC, and it’s been that way for a few years. I don’t expect it to be any different this season.”
The ACC’s expansion to include Miami and Virginia Tech in 2004 and Boston College in 2005 strengthened the conference, but not nearly to the degree most expected. The decline of the Miami and Florida State programs have prevented the annual marquee ACC championship match-up conference officials had hoped for. Certainly, expansion has had zero impact on the national title picture.
It's possible that was ACC commissioner John Swofford inside the Tiger suit at the Georgia Dome last year. (Ben Gray/bgray@ajc.com)
For perception alone, the ACC needs this game. It’s a high-profile game – yes, higher profile than Duke’s win over Vandy last year. Even Georgia Tech, for how well the program did under Paul Johnson in year one and altered perceptions with its victory at Georgia, undid some of that progress with its showing against LSU, another SEC school, in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
We remember big games. We remember bowl games. The ACC sent 10 schools to bowls last year. That was more than any other conference. But it went only 4-6 in those games, and the bowl with the most cachet was Virginia Tech’s 20-7 yawner over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl.
The Hokies finished with the highest ranking of any ACC school – only 15th.
The SEC was in eight bowl games. It went 6-2. Florida won another BCS title. The last three national champions and four of the last six have come from the SEC (Florida, LSU). The ACC hasn’t so much as had a team in the title game since 2000 (Florida State lost to Oklahoma).
Here’s the definition of bad timing: Miami won the national championship in 2001 and lost in the title game in 2002. But it was as a Big East school. The Hurricanes’ slide coincided with their move to the ACC in 2004 (9-3, 9-3, 7-6, 5-7, 7-6).
Tech’s Johnson often has spoken about fans and media overlooking the ACC’s competitiveness head-to-head with the SEC (6-6 including bowls last year, 9-12 in the last two). But few share his balance-of-power view.
“I think there’s some merit to what Paul is saying,” said Blackledge, a former quarterback who won a national championship at Penn State and now is an ESPN broadcaster. “But Florida has won a couple of championships. LSU has won. The SEC is playing for championships. When they’re in the post-season they do well. You come away with a feeling of their overall strength.”
Virginia Tech should be able to hang with Alabama. Meanwhile, Clemson took a safe step down. It’s opening against Middle Tennessee State.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
155 comments Add your comment
Terry
August 30th, 2009
8:24 pm
and duke beat vandy. bc was not a top acc program last year. for crying out loud, matt ryan came from where and play for who,,,you dunce. oh and uga struggled with vandy last year at home. only up by 7 in the 4th qtr. this isn’t knocking vandy as they weren’t a bottom 4 sec team last year. but they did lose to duke. no one in the acc loses to duke. lol
CatsFly
August 30th, 2009
8:35 pm
Where is the UNC team going? Are they senior-laden, or will they be better in 2010? When Mack Brown was at UNC, I believe they were as good as any SEC team. Am I mistaken?
TheSouth
August 30th, 2009
8:37 pm
There are no dominate teams in the ACC. If you ranked the teams from both conferences from top to bottom and they played each other, the SEC would win the most games.
For the record, an opinion is like an asshole, everybody has one.
45ACP
August 30th, 2009
8:38 pm
ACC-SEC, P-L-E-A-S-E let the season start. All this talk and we have not had a single snap. I know we are all ready for some football.
This time of year is so special. God help me I love it.
Yellow Fuzz
August 30th, 2009
8:39 pm
Can’t speak for the rest of the ACC, but I can speak for the respect Tech has received from uga these last 9 months. 45-42. Can’t wait to “pound the hound” again in November! 45-22
Willie M's Revenge
August 30th, 2009
8:45 pm
UGA would not fare well in the ACC? Let’s not let facts get in the way of the North Ave agenda… Richt vs. ACC: 11 – 1
GT: 7-1
Clemson: 2-0
VT: 1-0
FSU: 1-0
Not exactly the bottom feeders of the ACC.
45ACP
August 30th, 2009
8:49 pm
Yellow Fuzz, control yourself. The season has not started yet.
Watch a replay of last years game if you have to man.
thomas
August 30th, 2009
8:50 pm
but the puppy dogs aren’t in anoter conference suck it up take your beating and keep making excuses it takes a lame person to bark like a dog
NRBQ
August 30th, 2009
8:54 pm
Willie M:
Don’t puncture their delusions. It’s too much fun reading the 1000-word treatises in which they try and convince themselves of an alternate reality.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
8:55 pm
.182
Yes catduty,you are mistaken.N Carolina has never been “that” good,in FB anyway.Any conf in the NCAA puts out good players ever now and then,just not teams and thats what wins ball games.
Jeff
August 30th, 2009
9:00 pm
OK, ACC fan. This might be hard for all of you to follow, but see if you can manage: Florida is in the SEC! There, I said it.
Long, complicated, convoluted analysis about how the ACC would be better if Florida were not in the SEC; or, if you switched Florida with an ACC team are irrelevant. You know why? Say it with me: because Florida is in the SEC!
Try arguing something that is in some way tethered to reality. For example, I’ve heard that there’s a galactic university of massive, highly-skilled, football playing space monkeys. I’ve also heard that said space monkeys wish to join the ACC. Rumor has it that the space monkeys will tip the balance of conference power to the ACC were they to join.
GM
August 30th, 2009
9:01 pm
Good observation Willie M, point taken. However, I don’t really care which conference is better, and I’ll concede that the SEC is “better” than the ACC. I care about my team, and how they do against the teams they play, like beating UGA. I want my conference to do well, but my team winning and beating UGA last year was more important to me than comparing conference statistics. So what if the SEC is better than the ACC? It only serves to give you Dawg fans something to soothe your wounds, and Schultzie something to write about waiting for the season to start. You still lost to us irrelevant nerds from North Ave with the small stadium. You can’t hide from that fact.
Yellow Fuzz
August 30th, 2009
9:06 pm
the Fugly puppy dogs are going to start out 0-3, then win 5 and TECH is going to beat them down (pound the hound) in Atlanta and send them to the Watkinsville bowl for New Years Day.
Bank on it!
Willie M's Revenge
August 30th, 2009
9:13 pm
GM… trust me, the Tech loss still stings (no pun intended)… was arguing against early observations from others… looking forward to late November and improved tackling…
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:14 pm
Can’t do it fuzzy,those gold helmets look way to good with that blue field in the background.Besides the airs real nice in Idaho
JJ
August 30th, 2009
9:15 pm
The SEC isn’t “playing for championships” – Florida and LSU have. The rest of the SEC have not played for a championship in a long time.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:18 pm
You know I really do not dislike GT,only when they play dim Dawgs.
Don’t dislike the ACC either.Facts are just facts,ACC fallen into a deep dark hole and they can’t get up.
Dear JJ
August 30th, 2009
9:22 pm
The SEC has won 5 out of the last 10 titles – Tenn, LSU & UF. Please share with us any other conference that has matched this (3 teams) during the last decade? In 2007/08 – LSU & UGA finished 1 & 2, don’t recall anothr conf pulling this feat either. Please share your knowledge, Beano.
45ACP
August 30th, 2009
9:24 pm
Is “pound the hound” like “bop the bee”?
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:29 pm
Willie M
Nice logic. So I guess richt would do poorly in the big east since ga is 0-2 against them this decade right? Don’t try and use ga’s dominance over gt this decade as proof they would win the acc every year. especially win you have trouble beating kentucky and vandy the past 3 seasons.
Clay
August 30th, 2009
9:31 pm
One 3 point win in 8 years of trying sure has you guys fired up. It’s a shame Georgia Tech has to beg people to buy tickets and beg their (few) fans to ask retailers to carry Tech gear. Do you have any idea how big of a joke Georgia Tech is when you get no play in your own city?
UGA had the better season last year. UGA had the better record and they won their New Year’s Day bowl game. How did Tech do in their non-New Year’s Day bowl game? Yeah, not real well. UGA returns more talent and that is why the national media and the nation’s coaches have UGA ranked ahead of Tech going into this year.
I guess If I were in your shoes, I’d be all fired up over a 3 point win as well–after all, you won’t be due for another win until 2016 or so.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:33 pm
6 top 10’s (2 top 5) in the last 10 years.
Has an ACC team even come close to that in the last decade? anyone?
Dawgs and the SEC standard bearer’s (LSU,Fla) are light years ahead of anything the ACC has
Yellow Fuzz
August 30th, 2009
9:33 pm
45ACP,
Pound the hound is what Florida does to you each and every year and what Alabama did to you in the first half the first half and what TECH did to you in the 2nd half last year
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:36 pm
Vandy and Kentucky would be top tier teams in the ACC or Neverhasbeen East
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:36 pm
JJ
Well you went to 12 teams when? 91? Most conferences weren’t there til a few years later. But lets play pretend that miami and vt joined the acc when the sec expanded. well then you’d have gt’s in 90, miami in 91 and 2001, and fsu in 93 and 99.
southgadawg88
August 30th, 2009
9:37 pm
kind of like being 1-7 against UGA and 1-5 against VA make you feel?
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:37 pm
Fuzzy we do have room for improvment,I’ll give u that
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:40 pm
clay uga had the better season? huh? you were preseason number 1. i hope most dawg fans are shaking their heads at that asinine comment. plus you lost to gt. gt was predicted to win 6 games. they won 9.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:41 pm
Amazing what joining the acc can do to really good program’s.
Like steping into a hole of quicksand,slowly sinking and you can’t get out.
Willie M's Revenge
August 30th, 2009
9:42 pm
Ah, Terry, you got me… indeed UGA would be helpless in the Big East, touche. The Richt vs. ACC stat was presented to combat the argument brought about by one of your ACC buddies. I believe the statment made was “UGA would be a modern day FSU w/ 8 wins” Bottom line is… I am comfortable with where the program is and expect the 10-win seasons to continue. Hopefully, a National Championship is in the future. It is nice to know that year in and year out, Richt has placed UGA in a position to compete at the highest level.
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:42 pm
yeah vandy would have been at the top. riiiiight. they lost to duke you idiot. duke had a 30+ game losing streak in the conference. vandy hung with your dawgs in athens. sorry but the proof is not on your side. facts are facts. without florida, the sec is the acc.
Nostrildahmus
August 30th, 2009
9:47 pm
Who is that no named loser that has never played a down eating our hedges on the main page?
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:47 pm
willie…obviously ga would be there with wv the past 8 years winning the big east. it was just a way of pointing out the fact that you can’t look at one game a year and say they would win the conf every year. i think the point made that fsu and ga are very similar and IF ga was in the acc this decade, they would likely have 2-3 titles like fsu. there is something called a matchup. playing nc state when they had rivers as qb and holt as a receiver would give you fits as it did fsu. explain how gt beats auburn twice, and then gt loses to ga and auburn beats ga those years? bottom line is the acc is better than anyone gives them credit top to bottom. they just lack a big team like the sec has with fla. i would put the acc 2nd behind the sec over the past couple of years. it does mean something when you get 10 teams in bowl games.
Dear Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:47 pm
Please continue your research – that horrible Vandy team beat BC in a bowl last year. As for your SEC expansion excuse – the three teams that have won 5 titles in ten years have been in the league for QUITE a few years – UT, LSU and UF were not part of the expansion of 1991 (smart guy you are). As far as the expansion of 1991, yes SC and Ark has contirbuted SOOOO much to the SEC.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
9:48 pm
Coach J’s such a nice guy and with them being Vandy and all I think he just decided to give em a little love and slip one their way
GM
August 30th, 2009
9:49 pm
All the trash talking of the ACC just makes your loss to Tech look that much worse. The SEC is better? So what?
Terry
August 30th, 2009
9:49 pm
Willie..i don’t know fsu’s record off the top of my head, but they may have won only 8 games twice. and i think you would have an 8 win reg season in the acc once this decade if you swapped places with an acc team. like i said, it’s matchups. some teams match up better with others.
45ACP
August 30th, 2009
9:50 pm
One in a row is not a row.
Yes Tech won last year. 1 win in the last 8 years.
ONE WIN IN EIGHT YEARS!
Does that warrant trash talking?
For some desperate people I guess it does.
Bryan G.
August 30th, 2009
9:55 pm
Jeff,
Will do. You deserve the week off, big guy.
Tech sucks
August 30th, 2009
10:02 pm
lol Tech. 1 year (semi-) wonders. They are going to epic fail this year.
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
10:05 pm
I went to see GT play WVU in the Gator Bowl a couple of years ago (40 min from my house)with some friends from WV.Wore my best UGA shirt and a GT hat,talk about a contradiction,right in the middle of the WV section.I’m just glad those mountain boys didn’t chunk my neighbor and I out the ass end of the stadium.Like I said,I don’t hate GT but one game a year
jacketbacker
August 30th, 2009
10:24 pm
…and ugag still LOST to Tech!!
Camden Mark
August 30th, 2009
10:29 pm
I’ve been around a long time and losing to GT is like stubing a toe,it happens once ina blue moon or so.
MiamiVice
August 30th, 2009
10:47 pm
Gotta laugh at the Tech fans. They actually think a three point win over Georgia last year was a blowout. How about giving up 407 yards passing are you convieniently forgetting that? What about your 38-3 loss to LSU last year …now thats a blowout.How about your 51-7 loss to the Dawgs a few years ago…thats a blowout.How about losing eight straight games to your rival…..thats an embarrasment.Tech wins nine games and they order rings and act like they won the NC…Georgia wins ten games and the years a dissapointment…..that sums up the difference in the two programs.Come see when you grow up Tech fans….your team will lose 5-6 games this year…better get used to being humble because your gonna have to eat a lot of crow this year!
Frank Wren
August 30th, 2009
10:48 pm
Mountain West
1.000 (2-0)
Southeastern
.706 (12-5)
Pacific-10
.692 (9-4)
Big East
.545 (6-5)
WAC
.500 (1-1)
Big 12
.438 (7-9)
Big Ten
.421 (8-11)
Atlantic Coast
.182 (2-9)
Independents
.000 (0-3
Case closed !!
King Nick Saban
August 30th, 2009
10:48 pm
Bama 36 v tech 3
Man, it is great to be on top again!
Georgia Treck
August 30th, 2009
10:55 pm
Once in eight years…
GT GRAD
August 30th, 2009
10:56 pm
So many SEC fans (& most of the media pundits) claim the ACC is weak……….this makes the SEC look over-rated and somewhat pitiful when an ACC team wins against one of the SUPERPOWERFULMAGESTICTOUGHUNBEATABLESTELLAR SEC teams! The SEC looks even worse when the ACC wins more than they lose against the SEC.
It is funny when you think about it a little bit!
Bring on the games & Go GT!!
The Truth Hurts
August 30th, 2009
10:58 pm
Yes, and look how good Clemson turned out to be in the ACC! It’s not like they lost and then went on to success. Duh.
And watching GTech beat UGA’s defense like a drum….wait, in the SEC, don’t they play “defense”….you can’t quote LSU’s win at the end of the season and not quote UGA’s loss at home to GTech. There’s no transitive property in college football. This argument is inanely simple-minded and not unexpected, given the desire for page impressions.
Florida is a top two program in the country! They have the best or second best state from which to recruit and nobody will top FSU’s run of 14 years in the top 4. I’m not even an FSU fan. Was Vandy, Auburn, Mississippi St, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, or UGA really that good?? To the homers who never went to the schools…yes…but to people who have seen plenty of college football outside the south…it’s never as good as thought and never as bad as thought. It’s the nature of the cyclical beast…right now UF is at the top…that won’t last forever. They deserve credit and have earned it. But, in time, that will change, and then the rest of the columnists will be writing about another conference but suffering from a lack of page impressions.
Because the SEC is what drives ratings…in talk radio, in newspapers (or what’s left of them)…here’s hoping they stay relevant so that JIm Bob and his cousins have something to call in to Buck Belue and talk about…349 days of the year.
GT GRAD
August 30th, 2009
11:01 pm
The ONLY two thing the FRANK WREN post proves is that the SEC has solid teams at the VERY top and that the Mountain West MUST ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT A SHADOW OF ANY DOUBT be the #1 Best Conference in America!!
HA HA HA