ACC replaces Big East as BCS' Big Least

[TyBull]

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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/COLUMNISTS01/612300428/1002/SPORTS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

If you're making a list of official FedEx Orange Bowl activities, don't forget to kick sand on Wake Forest and the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Demon Deacons are expecting you.

"Louisville is going to roll over us, just like Georgia Tech was going to roll over us, Florida State was going to roll over us, Ole Miss was going to roll over us," said Alphonso Smith, a cornerback who intercepted three passes for Wake this season. "Everybody was supposed to roll over us. Even Duke.

"You've got to remember we were picked to finish last in our division. It's hard to say something bad about us we haven't heard."

My feelings are hurt. Obviously Smith has not read my column. Let me take another shot:

The stunning appearance of Tim Duncan University as the University of Louisville's opponent in the Orange Bowl Jan. 2 is Exhibit A of how deserving the ACC is of consideration as the worst of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences.

It's a league that won 4 of 17 non-conference games against teams from other BCS leagues or Notre Dame. It's a league that failed to place a team in the top 13 of the latest BCS standings. It is a quarterback-challenged league without a single team that ranked in the top 20 nationally in passing offense.

It's time the world stopped bashing the Big East and started looking at how uninspiring the football was in Michael Jordan's conference.

"That's the kind of talk that irritates us," Smith said. "We don't like it when people bash our league. Just because Wake Forest won the ACC doesn't make it a bad league."

"We don't think the league was weak," Wake Forest center Steve Justice said. "It was a really competitive league. Some teams that had been down moved up this year. It wasn't down. It was balanced."

Super no more

Let me say this: Eight ACC teams are playing in bowl games. So are five Big East teams. Big East teams won their first two games. ACC teams split their first two, including Clemson's gruesome loss to Kentucky yesterday in the Music City Bowl.

The Chinstrap Nation is going to analyze results from both leagues for evidence of their relative strengths. I believe the ACC has considerably more work to do to silence its skeptics.

This is why: By now, the ACC was supposed to be another Super Conference.

The ACC, remember, is the league that made the bold move on the Big East several years ago, recruiting Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College. The Big East nearly lost its place in the BCS. For the ACC, the days of Florida State domination were supposed to end.

Those days have ended. But the Seminoles were not supposed to be replaced by Wake Forest in this game.

"What happened to the ACC is that its two marquee teams, its two bell cows, Miami and Florida State, are in a down cycle," said ESPN football analyst Todd Blackledge. "The teams that were supposed to carry the league didn't do it."

Interconference ineptitude

It's deeper than that. ACC teams lost five of eight games to teams from the Big East. Four of the losses were by 17 or more. They were 1-5 against Southeastern Conference teams. They were 3-3 against -- gasp -- Conference USA.

If you want to understand why the Wake Forest players shrug at those numbers, I can explain that, too.

The Demon Deacons won three of the four games ACC teams won against teams from other BCS conferences.

"We're used to being doubted and then coming through," Smith said.

They can count on the doubting. All of the ACC can.

Reach Rick Bozich at (502) 582-4650 or rbozich@courier-journal.com. Comment on this column, and read his blog and previous columns, at www.courier-journal.com/bozich.

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[E.T.]

Love a southern FL paper down there bashing the ACC when Miami is having a down year also  

[windbane]

clemson losing to kentucky was a huge upset.  boston college is now losing to navy.  i want both of those teams to lose but if the ACC loses that one too, it's not looking very good for them.  UL should beat Wake, too, but Wake has won a lot of games they were not favored in this year, so we'll see.

[AndytheBull]

I'm happy BC is losing Clemson lost, but the two more important ones for the Big East vs. acc debate is WVU beat Georgia Tech and Louisville beat Wake for the head to head score.  

And I hope Miami loses to Nevada.  

[DontPushMe]

Lets not be ignorant here, the acc will be fine, they are obviously having a down year, and it may continue next year, but this year they showed their depth. If WVU and UL had down years at the same time do you really think teams like Cuse or UCONN could step up and be ranked? I dont. Miami and FSU will get better, VT still had a good year, and they have some other promising schools, they'll be fine.

Dont get me wrong i love seeing them do bad, but I dont expect it to continue

[Economics_Nerd82]

BC just beat Navy on a game winning FG. One more for the ACC.

[BullsWinBucsWin]

Navy gift-wrapped that one for BC.  They should not have won that game.

[bulls96go]

true!

turnaround is a beeyacht ;D ;D ;D

[Ricky the Bull]

Love a southern FL paper down there bashing the ACC when Miami is having a down year also  

That's from the Louisville paper.

[E.T.]

Thanx RTB, I saw:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.