The powers of the ACC have once again disappointed. Aside from the 7-1 start by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the rest of the conferences top teams have fallen into mediocrity that has once again humored the college football fan. Teams that were slated to have a good season have fallen short. The lower teams of the conference are getting wins on the top teams. And to top it off the conference has suffered some bad out of conference losses.
This season was supposed to be the season for the ACC powers to come back of age. Four teams were ranked inside the AP Top 25 to start the season. Miami-FL was not part of those, but got into the Top 25 quickly after beating fellow ACC team Florida State. Since the opening weekend until today, only Georgia Tech and Miami-FL have lost less than two games. Virginia Tech once as high as #4 has lost three times. North Carolina was ranked inside the Top 20, and have slid into the basement of the ACC, and are still there despite they’re 20-17 win over Virginia Tech last night. Florida State has been real unpredictable this season, and are off to their worst start since Bobby Bowden’s first season.
Inside conference play, it has been the teams with the worse records beating the teams with the best records. Clemson lost earlier this season to Maryland, which is the Terps only conference win. Clemson then turned around and knocked off Miami-FL last week when the ‘Canes were #10. Last night it was North Carolina beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, the Heels first ACC win of the year. N.C. State was 3-1 in out of conference play, but once in ACC play have been beat by Wake Forest, Duke, and Boston College. If you want to be a great team, you have to prove it by at least winning the conference games that you expect to win.
The out of conference losses have humored the college football fan’s opinion on the ACC even further. TCU beat Clemson and Virginia, both on the road. Not to mention Virginia’s opening week 26-14 loss to FCS William & Mary. While Florida State ended BYU’s BCS hopes early, they also got knocked off by Big East foe South Florida, and the Bulls were starting a freshman at quarterback. Maryland lost to Middle Tennessee State, Duke lost to Richmond, Wake Forest got knocked off by Navy, embarrasing losses by a conference that is trying to prove it belongs with the nations elite.
Virginia Tech’s loss to North Carolina has proven that maybe just one team is deserved this season of some accolades. But, even then with the way the ACC has played this season, it would not surprise me if the Yellow Jackets fell once again. And if that day comes, once again the ACC would have proven the college football world that they’ll never return to the top of the nation’s conferences.