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ACC gloss fadescomebowl time


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ACC gloss fadescomebowl time

January 4, 2007 12:50 am

IF IT SEEMS LIKE centuries since an Atlantic Coast Con- ference team won a really big bowl game, you're almost right.

It was seven years ago today--Jan. 4, 2000, to cap the 1999 season--that Florida State won the national title. The Seminoles beat Virginia Tech (a Big East member at the time) 46-29 in the Sugar Bowl.

Since then, the ACC champion is 0-7 in bowl games, thanks to Wake Forest's gallant 24-13 loss to Louisville in Tuesday night's Orange Bowl. FSU is 0-4 is BCS games, and Maryland, Virginia Tech and Wake are each 0-1.

Four years ago, commissioner John Swofford decided he wanted the ACC to become a power football conference. The results have been so bad, even Matt Millen could laugh.

Not only has the ACC not won a BCS game, it hasn't even gotten a single BCS at-large bid. That $17 million payoff was Swofford's main goal when he seduced Tech, Miami and Boston College away from the Big East.

The ACC then placed Miami and Florida State in opposite divisions with the clear intent of having the two traditional powers meet in the conference championship game--in nearby Jacksonville, no less--more seasons than not.

Think about it; every other conference's divisions are geographical; the ACC named its halves "Atlantic" and "Coastal." That was a convenient way to give both Miami and FSU a shot.

Well, look what's happened. Miami has yet to reach the title game. FSU made it last year--and won (with four losses). Both teams went 6-6 during turmoil-filled 2006 regular seasons that cost coaches their jobs and were relegated to minor bowls.

This year's championship game matched Wake and Georgia Tech, two scrappy, overachieving teams with negative Q-ratings. Think it's coincidence that Jacksonville wants out as host city?

The folks in Greensboro like to point out that their conference got eight bowl bids for the second straight season; only the Southeastern Conference (nine) had more this year. True enough. But the ACC's bowl record this year is a modest 4-4, and it gets worse when you take a closer look.

The league's two division winners (Wake and Georgia Tech) both lost their bowls. Virginia Tech, arguably the ACC's best team over the second half of the season, blew a 21-3 halftime lead and fell to Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Boston College needed a Navy fumble and a field goal at the gun to win the third-tier Meineke Bowl.

The ACC's most impressive bowl performance came from Maryland, which routed a mediocre Purdue team in the Champs Bowl after collapsing badly late in November.

Miami and FSU salvaged some ACC pride with bowl victories, but suffice it to say that Boise and San Francisco weren't in their preseason plans.

The man with the biggest smile has to be Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese. His league--which was rumored to be losing its automatic BCS bid after the defections--is 4-0 in bowls (with Cincinnati still to play Western Michigan) and has clinched the best record of any conference.

Among those four wins were Louisville's victory over Wake in the Orange Bowl and West Virginia's come-from-behind triumph over Georgia Tech in the Gator Bowl. The Big East went 7-3 against the ACC this season. In next week's final polls, there will be three Big East teams (Louisville, WVU and Rutgers) in the top 15 and none from the ACC.

The ACC may have quantity, but it certainly lacks quality. Miami and FSU won't stay down for long, but neither are they the juggernauts they once were.

Virginia Tech, Maryland, Clemson and Virginia expect most of their starters back next season, and new coaches at North Carolina (Butch Davis) and N.C. State (Tom O'Brien) should improve on those programs' recent history of underachievement. Wake will be strong as long as Jim Grobe is there, but duplicating this season's magic won't be easy.

Still, it's hard to imagine any ACC team in next year's preseason top 10--or any squad remotely good enough to earn a BCS at-large bid. It just proves what we've suspected all along: The ACC isn't a football conference.

It's a women's basketball conference.

To reach STEVE DeSHAZO: 540/374-5443

Email: sdeshazo@freelancestar.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.

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wow! ;D ;D

truth is some times hard to see!

but the crap ACC can't hide ;D ;D

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