When it comes to college football, everyone and their grandmother knows that the SEC reigns supreme. Ever since the BCS National Championship was established in 1999, the SEC has cemented their dominance in D1 football by winning seven championships. Over time, college football fans have reached a general consensus, recognizing the SEC as the superior conference over other contending conferences such as the Big 10, Big 12, Pac-10 or our very own ACC.
Because of SEC’s perennial success, many analysts and fans often speculate on where the other conferences measure up. If you’re a person who is well informed on the general history of the BCS series, it’s safe to say that the ACC should be nowhere near the top of any sane individual’s list.
In this past decade, the Atlantic Coast Conference has sadly but surely been on the decline. Just recently, Virginia Tech, the current ACC champion, reinforced the already established negative perception of the ACC among college football fans when the No. 4 ranked Stanford Cardinals obliterated them in the Orange Bowl to a score of 40-12. The Hokies’ other two losses stemmed from a No. 3 ranked Boise State and a mediocre James Madison University. It’s almost ludicrous to consider the ACC to have any form of legitimacy when the best team in it happens to breeze through the conference undefeated but somehow manages to fall flat on their face in non-conference play.
It is, however, unfair to only bash Virginia Tech when other teams within the conference had opportunities to rectify its standing within the college football community but were ultimately embarrassed in non-conference play. In the last season alone, various other ACC powerhouses came up short against high ranked non-conference teams. Florida State losing to a No. 10 ranked Oklahoma by a margin of 30 points, Miami losing to a No. 2 ranked Buckeyes to a score of 36-24 and Maryland losing to a top 20 ranked West Virginia squad are all notable examples. For the record, the ACC as a whole has lost 31 straight games against nationally ranked top 5 teams.
The ACC’s lingering absence from winning or even reaching the BCS championship has also been a burden on their reputation. This has not only plagued the conference but has also contributed to their irrelevance in BCS discourse and rankings. Just try to recall the last time an ACC unit won the BCS bowl game. Hint — It was the same year Phillip Rivers was awarded ACC rookie of the year while taking snaps at this very institution. If eleven years ago doesn’t sound like a long time to you, then it needs to. Since 2000, the Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, and the all mighty SEC have managed to capture the BCS title. So, why hasn’t the ACC been able to follow suit?
Despite the ACC’s shortcomings, the amount of quality players that have reached the NFL from this conference is irrefutable. Calvin the “Megatron” Johnson, Mike Vick, Vernon Davis and none other than Neon Deion Sanders are all just some examples from a long list of players who have excelled in the NFL coming out of the ACC. In terms of BCS standards, the ACC may very well be irrelevant but it is without a doubt top tier in producing major league talent.
