Explain your choice

North Carolina.  It spawned John Swofford.  Easy choice.

I have thought a great deal about this and I did something similar on the ESPN board a few years ago and got blasted for my choice, but I have to say Virginia Tech.

They have been the best, most consistant team in the ACC since coming over from the Big East and just about every good team they play against OOC they lose to them and have even been upset by the likes of East Carolina and James Madison further embarrassing the conference.

Their best wins were against mediocre Nebraska (2x) teams, Big East champ Cincinnatti in the Orange bowl and mediocre Tennessee in the Chick Fil-A bowl.

Odds are that any upper tier ACC team without VT could have done just as good if not better with their OOC schedule and bowl games.

I picked VT because they have been in charge and have failed the most on the big stage….

Clemson is now on Notice and so is FSU…..

Miami was a thought because they are supposed to be one of the top teams and can even get out of first gear

This might be the homer in me talking, but of all the current 12 members in the ACC, I would put FSU somewhere in the middle.

FSU still carries big tv ratings, according to an article from a few months ago FSU was 2nd only to USC nationally.

FSU still has some big OOC wins which includes a 4 game bowl win streak, 2 in a row against UF and 2 solid wins vs BYU just in the last 4 seasons with the only bad (but not too bad) lose to USF.

Basketball plays a little part in the tv contract which FSU has done their fair share to help the conference reputation.

I will find fault for FSU’s music test scandal that resulted in forfieture of wins for 2 seasons, reduced scholarships and suspension of players that caused a loss to Kentucky.

Also enabling Bobby Bowden hiring his son for the OC position.

I think State and Carolina are as much to blame as anyone.  We should both do better than what we have done in the past.

I agree but we don’t claim to be football schools. Miami was the dominant program when they joined and they fell off the map. I voted for them.

It’s Florida State and Miami. They bring the eyeballs when they’re playing like Florida State and Miami should be playing, but they’ve been stuck in mediocrity for 6 or 7 years.

Clemtgrs - 13 June 2012 10:21 PM

North Carolina.  It spawned John Swofford.  Easy choice.

Getting waxed in showcase games like Alabama and WVU was John Swofford’s fault. That did wonders for the football reputation of the ACC.

Thanks John Swofford.

Can we ship you to the Big 12? I am happy to keep Clemson but you would be better off in West Texas.

SoPinesHeel - 14 June 2012 10:35 AM

Clemtgrs - 13 June 2012 10:21 PM

North Carolina.  It spawned John Swofford.  Easy choice.

Getting waxed in showcase games like Alabama and WVU was John Swofford’s fault. That did wonders for the football reputation of the ACC.

Thanks John Swofford.

Can we ship you to the Big 12? I am happy to keep Clemson but you would be better off in West Texas.

I knew if I put the bait in the water it would get a bite….

Sorry, I’m a package deal with Clemson.  So….what showcase games has UNC played and how have they helped the conference in football since that’s the only thing that matters for a TV contract?  I’d love to know.

They were asked to play against LSU in the chick-fil-a game, and despite losing 16 players before the game and having to piece together a defense, had 2 shots in the end zone to win. Much better show than yall put up. Oh and beat yall that year too!

I’m going to rank the ACC teams in MY order:

1 VT - already explained

2 Miami - fallen apart ever since coming over to the ACC, made a questionable hire with Randy Shannon and now in big-big trouble with the NCAA.

3 Clemson - spent far too long wading in mediocrity going back to the early 90s. Lost most of their bowl games since 2005, blown out against top opponents and lost 3 in a row to their rival USC.

4 UNC - had the potential to build a strong football program for many years, but only recently made the commitment. The NCAA and the criminal investigations inside the University has been a major black eye.

5 GT - they have mostly been a above average-good team in the ACC for as long as I can remember and with that you’re expected to carry the responsibility of representing well OOC which they have not. They have lost to their rivals UGA 9/10 times and are even on a 7 game bowl losing skid.

6 UVA - they are the flagship school in their state and have access to a bunch of talent. They seem to be on the right track now with the hiring of Mike London, but under former head coach Al Groh they’ve had inexplicable losses to bad teams like William&Mary; and Wyoming and no good OOC wins of note recently.

7 Duke - regarded for many years as the worse team in any BCS conference with many 0-1 win seasons and losses to FCS opponents. They seem to be making strides under David Cutcliffe, but their reputation is going to hang over their head for a long time. The only saving them from further humiliation is that nothing is ever expected out of them for football and are disregarded as the perennially designated bottom dweller which every conference has.

8 FSU - expected to be elite and carry the conference in most years, but rather have been mediocre-above average recently. They have not beatin an elite team in years and contributed to the ACC’s poor BCS bowl record. As previously mentioned, they still have some saving qualities particulary the last 4 years where they are riding a 4 game bowl winning streak and 2 in a row against UF.

9 Boston College - Up until the last 3 years I thought they did enough to be the least at fault. They’ve had a nice winning streak going in their bowl games and against Notre Dame. Now they’ve lost 3 in a row in their bowl games and 3 in a row to Notre Dame and had a very poor year last year. Can someone please find them an offense?

10 NC State - They are sorta in limbo with the football school / basketball school label, not too much is expected of them. They’ve had some nice wins in recent years against Big East opponents, but at the same time it would have been nice if they were able to secure a few more of those close losses to Rutgers, South Carolina and East Carolina.

11 Maryland - I think they just about did about as best as they possibly could do under Ralph Freidgen with a good bowl record including several solid regular season wins against Navy, California, WVU and a few others. Perhaps the only thing I hold against them is the back to back losses to Mid-Tenn-State in 2007-2008. We’ll see if Randy Edsall can get Maryland back on the right track in the coming seasons before we write him off as a bad hire.

12 Wake Forest - of all the members in the ACC, the least is expected of them which may be the reason they have surprised some of their opponents. They’ve got some solid OOC wins in recent years including Ole Miss (2x), Stanford and winning 3 of their last 5 bowl games. They are not completely without fault, but at the same time nobody other than a handful of Wake fans care if they win or lose.

Very reasonable…thanks for the thoughts.

Garret, overall I think you are in pretty good shape but your homer glasses are letting FSU off the hook…

Miami, Clemson, VT and FSU are the expected top football program.  In this poll, I placed VT 1st but the top 4 have not pulled their weight when needed.

I don’t care what order, but these 4 schools are part of the problem.  I think Clemson and FSU are catching up quickly.  VT should be about the same and Miami is going to be down for a while

Isn’t Virginia Tech 1-27 agains’t top five teams ?
Someone explain how they are ranked where they were last year.

Once FSU starts winning the ACC, all the other schools will be pushed down into the bowl tiers where they can match up their talent level with the other team.