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By Joe Overby
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist Joe Overby looks to a possible Clemson, Georgia Tech ACC Championship Game.
So, maybe that Labor Day Night game got the league too excited for a return-to-glory Florida State-Miami ACC Championship Game.
But a Georgia Tech-Clemson title match -- which appears to be most likely pairing at this point -- may be exactly what the league needs, both for the sake of the championship game itself and for the ACC's to command more respect nationally.
It's no secret that the ACC has struggled to fill the stands for its championship, which was supposed to the league's showcase game, but has largely been a dud.
However, Clemson -- which won six league titles between 1981-91, but has not taken the crown since 1991 -- would put some butts in the seats.
With the exception of maybe Virginia Tech, the Tigers have the most passionate and die-hard fan base in the ACC.
And with Clemson on the brink of challenging for its first league championship in 18 years, you can bet the Tiger faithful would flock to Tampa in orange-and-purple droves
The Yellow Jackets may not have as large of a fan base to fill the stands with an equal amount of Old Gold and White, but the ACC is very much hanging its hat on Georgia Tech at this point.
The ACC, in many ways, "needs" Georgia Tech to keep winning and enter the championship game 11-1.
Even though they are the highest-ranked one-loss team at this point, the Yellow Jackets are a long shot for a BCS National Championship berth.
But a 12-1 ACC champion Tech team in the Orange Bowl would go a long way towards giving the league more respect nationwide.
In fact, the league hasn't had a one-loss team in a BCS bowl since Maryland entered the Orange Bowl 10-1 in 2001.
And just imagine this, if the Tigers and Jackets win out: An 11-1 Tech, ranked in the top six or seven in the country, facing its closest conference rival, a 9-3 Clemson team, burning for the chance to return to its former perch in the ACC.
Oh, and did you watch that Clemson-Tech game earlier this season? Or, say, any Tech-Clemson game in the last 15 years?
Imagine that kind of intensity and last-second theatrics with the league championship at stake.
Certainly would be a nice change of pace from the last three championship games, which included two straight Boston College-Virginia Tech snoozers and that dreadful field-goal fest in the mud between the Yellow Jackets and Wake Forest.
The ACC won't get its wish-list revival of 1990s throwback FSU-Miami this season, and maybe not anytime soon.
But this consolation prize, if it happens, could be pretty fun.
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