The ACC Plods Along

A friend and I were talking about a nightmare scenario in the ACC.

A Maryland team with a 4-4 record could conceivably win the Atlantic Division and take a 5-7 overall mark to the title game.

Let’s say that plays out and then they get lucky on that first Saturday in December. You could have a 6-7 team overall win the ACC and have the rights to a BCS bowl bid.

The Terps went 1-3 against their non-conference schedule, barely earning their lone win in that stretch with an overtime win over FCS member James Madison.

They bowed-up and beat Clemson a couple of weeks ago. They lost to Wake over the weekend but they play Virginia at home this week. The Cavs are improved but beatable. Among their remaining games they play at Duke and at N.C. State, each could go either way, and also get Boston College at home.

With the others in the division looking vulnerable it’s a safe bet that a 5-3 conference record could win the title. However, who knows? Wake Forest could be one Riley Skinner injury away from being an entirely different team. Clemson has shown an inability to be consistent on offense and could enter a free fall if it loses to Wake this weekend. Boston College has a 4-2 overall record that includes wins against Northeastern and Kent and the Eagles have also struggled on offense. N.C. State and Florida State have yet to win a conference game and each has defensive issues. So, anything’s possible.

What this speaks to is the larger point: What happened to the mega-ACC everyone envisioned when the league expanded to 12 teams in 2005?

I’ve always been of the belief that as a football league it’s one that has such a diverse make-up of schools, one that was further pluralized by the addition of three teams located on different points along the east coast.

If you draw a circle around the top six teams in the other BCS conferences you’ll likely find many common traits. Each is similar as a school with similar enrollments and commitments to football. They generally have a heavy recruiting presence in their respective states----likely carrying that state’s name----and each go to a far away hot bed for talent (Florida, Texas, California) with relatively even results.

But in the ACC, your four conference road trips can take you to four stadiums that are different in size by the tens of thousands. You can play a state school one week, a private school the next, a school that cares more about basketball that football the following week, and one that cares about hockey as much as anything else along the way, too.

Some ACC schools have success recruiting in the state of Florida. Many don’t even venture there with any great effort.

Is this the primary reason that the league currently is in grave jeopardy of not even coming close to having enough teams even reach .500 overall to fulfill its nine bowl slots for the season? Probably not.

However, it’s likely a contributing factor that those in the league’s front office will have to ponder.