With Georgia Tech loss, ACC struggling for attention again
This was the sad scene in Jacksonville at the 2007 ACC title game. Attendance was announced as 53,212.
The ACC wanted to be the SEC. It wanted the money, the clout, the conference championship game, the TV contracts and pollsters to give mid-level ACC teams the benefit of the doubt because, well, they were in the ACC.
But once again, the ACC looks like a souffle that keeps collapsing.
Georgia Tech lost to Georgia Saturday. Clemson lost to South Carolina. So both halves of next week’s ACC championship game in Tampa lost to mid-level SEC teams that are headed to third-tier bowl games. That’s not how a conference gets money or clout or a big TV contract or the benefit of the doubt.
Meanwhile, the SEC title game matches No. 1 Florida vs. No. 2 Alabama.
While Tech coach Paul Johnson tries to figure out how to motivate his players after Saturday’s lost to the Dogs, ACC commissioner John Swofford needs to figure out how to spin this almost annual disaster into a positive. Good luck with that.
The conference has never received the marquee Miami-Florida State match-up it was hoping for when it expanded and split into two strangely divided geographic divisions (Atlantic and Coastal). Here’s the ACC’s brief championship game history:
♦ 2005: The first game has been the high point. It was a good game (FSU beat Virginia Tech, 27-22), was well attended in Jacksonville (72,749) and TV ratings that exceeded the SEC and Big 12 title games.
♦ 2006: Tech and Wake Forest were the surprise finalists and played a dreadful, touchdown-less game (won by Wake, 9-6). That year, just as this year, the Jackets were coming off a season-ending loss to Georgia. Announced attendance on Jacksonville dropped 10,000 (62,850).
♦ 2007: Two teams from the distant north (Boston College and Virginia Tech) caused attendance to continue to plummet. The No. 5 Hokies won, 30-16, so at least it gave the conference a highly ranked team going into the bowls. But then Virginia Tech was upset by Kansas in the Orange Bowl.
♦ 2008: The game was moved to Tampa. But it was the repeat matchup the ACC couldn’t afford. This time, B.C. and VaTech drew only 27,360 — which means half of the tickets distributed/sold weren’t even used. The Hokies won, 30-12. Not that anybody noticed.
♦ 2009: This week’s losses and the economy likely will hurt attendance. Regardless, the game would’ve garnered a lot more attention if Tech and Clemson were coming off victories.
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468 comments Add your comment
The Real Reality
November 30th, 2009
2:36 am
REALITY, let’s get our facts straight
1. UGA won the game … and despite it being a big deal, the score won’t be engraved anywhere, except correct in the Bulldog media guide next season.
2. GA Tech is going to their conference championship game … that no more than 27,000 people bothered to show up for last year.
3. GA Tech is going to a major bowl, if you consider the Gator Bowl a major bowl. UGA is going to the Chick-Fil-A bowl to trounce another ACC team.
4. GA Tech has 10 wins this season–and has topped out at that number. UGA will salvage its season with eight.
5. GA Tech is ranked nationally with a 10-2 record and CPJ is being dissed on ESPN as being an idiot of a coach. UGA will be on everyone’s radar once the defense gets a new coach.
6. CPJ is in his second year with great success using players recruited for a pro-style offense–and unfortunately, can’t get those pro-style athletes to complete a pass when it matters most.
7. CMR had a tough season with another rash of injuries, an inexplicable fetish with QB Joe Cox and a lame duck defense coordinator–and he still managed to knock off the Jackets in Tech’s best season in 20 years.
8. The SEC has two dominate teams in AL and FL. Unlike the ACC, which has no one’s coattails to ride.
9. The ACC has great parity with a few teams slightly ahead of the rest.
10. SEC fans are most definitely fanatical–and most definitely annoying when they rain on your premature coronation as the best team in the state – I refer you to the posts on this blog from Tech fans as evidence of such annoyance.
Those are the real facts.
Alan
November 30th, 2009
7:18 am
These haters on this blog are the main reason I hated GT losing Sat nite – another opportunity for these bandwagon fans, MOST OF WHOM DID NOT ATTEND UGAY, to spew their venom. It makes me worry about, among many other larger reasons, the future of this country. Where is all this hatred coming from? You’d think some of these people could muster some perspective and realize that none of this matters at all. But true to their past behavior and their mentality, they can only muster enough consciousness to say Tech sucks, Tech suck, Tech sucks.
I’d rather my school’s football team (YES I ATTENDED AND GRADUATED FROM TECH, LIKE MOST TECH FANS) lose than be like the fans of the largest university in the state, some of whose football players major in Housing(?), and who have taken Household Kitchen Technology as part of their coursework (are these truly university-level courses?) Of course these types of schools are going to have better athletes – they are football factories that churn out mindless idiots at an alarming rate, and will continue to do so because their mindless idiot fans believe that football is all that matters.
Meanwhile, us Tech graduates will continue to design, build and manage all of the things (like roads, buildings, computers, automobiles, airplanes, space shuttles, satellites, etc.) that make it possible for people to live their lives and go to their football games and spew their hate.
SWFLJacket
November 30th, 2009
2:17 pm
Before the game I said “To Hell with Ugay”, and after the game I still say “To Hell with Ugay”
Hope you get Duke in your bowl game and pull a “typical” Ugay game like Kentucky again.
GT Big Boss, class of 2003
November 30th, 2009
2:17 pm
Calvin, Seattle Jacket, and Reality:
I am a die hard Yellow Jacket fan, and have been one all my 30 years of life. I’ve never seen so many UGAY fans gloat about beating GT. Yes we lost, but at least we don’t have to wait 3 weeks to find out what sorry ass bowl game will accept us. Let’s see:
GT won 10 games, UGAY won 7, should be 6-6, but it’s cool.
GT is going to Tampa for the ACC title, in hopes of playing in the Orange Bowl in MIAMI. Where is UGAY going? only time will tell if any bowl will take a wounded dawg. Wait, I know of one, THE TOILET BOWL. LMAO
GT is still in the top 10 with 2 losses. Where’s UGAY?? no where near.
GT has had a winning record every year since 1992. UGAY had to beat us to get over the .500 hump with the losses to Kentucky and Tennessee, adding to the misery of getting bitch slapped by LSU, Florida, and Oklahoma State.
GT will not lose any underclassmen to the draft, I hope. Jonathan Dwyer, Bebe Thomas, and Derrick Morgan need to stay one more year for unfinished business (The revenge on the smelly Dawgs, and a run for the national title next year.) UGAY already will lose a quarterback, a top notch receiver in AJ Green, and half the defense will be gone.
So all my fellow Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket fans, don’t sweat the loss to UGAY because we have better things to do with our precious time, like PACKING FOR TAMPA AND MIAMI!!!
THWG
ACC!! BAWHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!
November 30th, 2009
3:17 pm
The laughing stock of college football!! I love it!!!!
back under the rocks they go!!!
November 30th, 2009
3:49 pm
Loved seeing all those brand new car tags on the sides of the roads going home Saturday night!!!
DawgFan
November 30th, 2009
3:54 pm
GT Big: BTW, AJ Green can’t leave next year. He is a true sophomore. We are returning 17 players next year, including Ealey and King which I KNOW you don’t want to see again.
DawgFan
November 30th, 2009
3:56 pm
Oh and GT Big: We may have been bitch slapped by those teams, so what does that make Tech? Losing to UGA. LOL. Who cares if the whole Tech team comes back, we will still bitch slap you again next year. You are in a sorry conference, with sorry players. Nuff said.
TRUTH HURTS
November 30th, 2009
4:07 pm
Johnson is the most overrated coach in the nation. Tech is hating life now since they’ve locked themselves to him for years to come
Choke artists!!!
November 30th, 2009
4:11 pm
Same old Tech!!!!! hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
JIMBO
November 30th, 2009
5:46 pm
Ok buttsniffers, here’s the real reason for the supposed win by UGA-LY. They cheated. That’s right, they cheated. Just like back in 78 when the MFer’s broke Eddie Lee Ivery’s leg, the only way they could win this one was sucker punches and 3 man twisters like the one on Josh. Way to go, show your character, cheat for a win, GO TO HELL UGA!
BOOGIES THE MAN FROM HARTWELL GA
November 30th, 2009
7:18 pm
Enter your comments here
Techno is for hot man on man
November 30th, 2009
7:57 pm
If y’all are so great why is traffic so crappy in ATL?
DawgVoiceofReason
December 1st, 2009
10:53 am
Seattle Jacket,
On November 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm, you said the following, ” Man the intelligence level of some dogs amazes me even still.” I can understand why you would say that when addressing those who are superior to you, such as most of the Dawg Nation.
You also said:
“I appologize to the true Proud Dawg Nation who are true football fans, and are not trash talking little punks that give all of you a bad name. We have them, too. I wish they all would be banned from this forum.”
In case you haven’t noticed, YOU are one of the “trash talking little punks” you refer to. I agree with your last sentiment, that you should be banned.
You are not as bright as you think you are. Your posts give you away.
DawgVoiceofReason
December 1st, 2009
11:09 am
GT Big Boss, class of 2003,
You’re right, we lost to some of the best teams in the country and we lost to some teams we probably should have beaten. But even in a down year, we still beat your best team in the last 19 years. You also show your lack of intelligence, as did many of your fellow poster, by bragging and boasting about games you haven’t won yet. You did that with UGA and now you’re doing it again, talking about packing for the Orange Bowl. And A.J. Green will be back next year. He’s only a Sophomore. If you went to Tech, the standards for engineers must not be as high as you guys like to brag about.
Gimmick Offense
December 1st, 2009
11:15 am
(((((((30-24)))))))) HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
You are using the term Championship VERY loosely!
BOOGIES THE MAN FROM HARTWELL GA
December 2nd, 2009
4:42 pm
CPJ= HAT
UGA89
December 8th, 2009
2:06 pm
matthew
November 29th, 2009
4:22 pm
Tech fans are such douchebags. No, Tech wouldn’t win 9 times out of 10 – they haven’t. And nobody cares about the All Crap Conference “championship” and no one really gives a crap about the Orange Bowl.
And need I remind you, don’t count your eggs before they hatch. C.J. Spiller is going to run it down your throat… so you won’t have to worry about an Orange Bowl bid… think Gator bowl. And you’ll lose that one as well.
- – - – -
wrong a$$ clown!!