Terrible day for the ACC

[4decadedukie]

ACC football has recently been criticized (and with some frequency) for being noncompetitive among its BCS peers, despite the relatively recent addition of Miami, BC and VPI to our Conference. I have been reluctant to accept this as analytically valid -- and I suspect there may be a cyclic nature to such things -- however today's results against major conferences opponents can only be characterized as simply awful:
- Georgia Tech upset by Kansas
- Virginia Tech shocked by JMU
- FSU annihilated by OU
- Miami soundly defeated by OSU
- and the likelihood that UVa will be crushed by USC

Is this a true trend? If so, is it significant?

[Taco]

Yeah. I can't be the only one who's still crabby about the loss of double round robin basketball scheduling. I plan to retain my unproductive "I-told-you-so" bitter attitude so long as the ACC as a conference continues to stink it up on the gridiron. Naturally I pull for the Devils to become the class of the conference, and I'll admit a soft spot for the 'pack, but otherwise ACC football can collectively soak its head.

Now, if anyone has seen any spilt milk or dead horses, I have some crying and beating to dispense.

[DukeHoo]

UVA is still even with USC and are simply outplaying the Trojans at the moment. They've blown two major chances to score though (which will probably come back to haunt them).

[A-Tex Devil]

Would be funny if UVa saved us. Va Tech's loss was unspeakable, but Ga Tech's loss isn't much better. KU is one of the 10 worst BCS conference teams this year easy.

[Sixthman]

ACC football has recently been criticized (and with some frequency) for being noncompetitive among its BCS peers, despite the relatively recent addition of Miami, BC and VPI to our Conference. I have been reluctant to accept this as analytically valid -- and I suspect there may be a cyclic nature to such things -- however today's results against major conferences opponents can only be characterized as simply awful:
- Georgia Tech upset by Kansas
- Virginia Tech shocked by JMU
- FSU annihilated by OU
- Miami soundly defeated by OSU
- and the likelihood that UVa will be crushed by USC

Is this a true trend? If so, is it significant?

The two Tech loses are shocking, but there was no reason to expect FSU or Miami to be ready to compete with OU or Ohio State. I imagine part of what happened to the Hokies was not pulling it back together after Boise. Beamer will probably get them back on track, but these losses leave them out of any national discussion. I don't think anyone could have imagined KU hanging with Georgia Tech, let alone beating them. I didn't catch the game, but it looks like the story is lack of defense. I still think the ACC as a whole is stronger this year, but the expected contenders for being nationally competitive seem like pretenders. UNC might have been the best hope. Before the Wake game, I thought Duke had to beat Wake to have a winning season. It now looks like there are a lot of vulnerable teams on the schedule, giving us the chance to win one or or two as underdogs.

[dukebluelemur]

Is it too late to un-expand?

[Kewlswim]

Is it too late to un-expand?

I second the motion!!

GO DUKE!

[4decadedukie]

Is it too late to un-expand?

Wouldn't that be GREAT . . . return to an EIGHT team ACC (FSU can join the other Big East "thugs," although I really do not consider BC in that category). Now all we need is someone to finance the incremental losses each year.
:(

[Bob Green]

Through two weeks, the ACC is 0-5 against BCS teams:

LSU 30, UNC 24
Kansas 28, Georgia Tech 25
Oklahoma 47, Florida State 17
Ohio State 36, Miami 24
USC 17, Virginia 14

We have three opportunities to win against a BCS opponent in Week 3:

Alabama @ Duke
Maryland @ West Virginia
Wake Forest @ Stanford

[Bob Green]

We have three opportunities to win against a BCS opponent in Week 3:

Alabama @ Duke
Maryland @ West Virginia
Wake Forest @ Stanford

Actually we have four opportunities in Week 3. I forgot Clemson @ Auburn.

[CLW]

Actually we have four opportunities in Week 3. I forgot Clemson @ Auburn.

Clemson might be the only ACC team with even a shot next week but it looks like the 0 for will continue next week.

[COYS]

Clemson might be the only ACC team with even a shot next week but it looks like the 0 for will continue next week.

Except for only the most shocking upset of the last few years when the fans storm WW and destroy 'Bama's hope for a repeat.

[Slackerb]

Did everyone forget about NC State beating UCF yesterday? Not so horrible game.

[Bob Green]

Did everyone forget about NC State beating UCF yesterday? Not so horrible game.

As a member of Conference USA, UCF is not a BCS school. Discussions in this thread have been about ACC games against BCS competition.

[pfrduke]

Through two weeks, the ACC is 0-5 against BCS teams:

LSU 30, UNC 24
Kansas 28, Georgia Tech 25
Oklahoma 47, Florida State 17
Ohio State 36, Miami 24
USC 17, Virginia 14

We have three opportunities to win against a BCS opponent in Week 3:

Alabama @ Duke
Maryland @ West Virginia
Wake Forest @ Stanford


Actually we have four opportunities in Week 3. I forgot Clemson @ Auburn.

Maybe we should just make this a weekly post-mortem. No such wins in the four games you identified. Clemson was game, leading most of the way before giving it up in OT on a missed 31-yd FG (after a false start negated a made 26-yd FG). Duke and Wake proved that last week was no accident, giving up 62 and 68 (and counting, as of this posting). And Maryland lost 31-17 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score. Guh.

[Greg_Newton]

Maybe we should just make this a weekly post-mortem. No such wins in the four games you identified. Clemson was game, leading most of the way before giving it up in OT on a missed 31-yd FG (after a false start negated a made 26-yd FG). Duke and Wake proved that last week was no accident, giving up 62 and 68 (and counting, as of this posting). And Maryland lost 31-17 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score. Guh.

The fact that Duke and Wake have given up 232 combined points in their last two games is truly astonishing. I honestly wonder if two ACC teams have ever given up that many combined points in consecutive weeks.

At least none of the league games will be unwinnable... we're not going to see another Bama, that's for sure.

[Bob Green]

Maybe we should just make this a weekly post-mortem. No such wins in the four games you identified.

The game I forgot to list was State's Thursday night match-up against Cincinnati which State won 30-19 giving the ACC its only win over a BCS team so far this season.

Next week: Miami @ Pittsburgh and UNC @ Rutgers

[sagegrouse]

The game I forgot to list was State's Thursday night match-up against Cincinnati which State won 30-19 giving the ACC its only win over a BCS team so far this season.

Next week: Miami @ Pittsburgh and UNC @ Rutgers

Thank goodness for the Big East!

sagegrouse

[Olympic Fan]

I don't get it.

The TV networks exercised their six-day day window last week, meaning that they didn't have to pick their TV games until today.

Here's the deal -- they have two 3:30 slots (an ABC regional and ESPNU) and two noon slots (ESPN and the ACC network). They had already released three games (including Duke-Army), meaning that they have four games to pick among:

N.C. State at Georgia Tech
Virginia Tech at Boston College
Wake Forest at Florida State
UNC at Rutgers

Which is the best game -- the one that should be on ABC at 3:30?

Wouldn't you say 3-0 N.C. State -- which is not only unbeaten, but has the ACC's only BCS win -- at 2-1 Georgia Tech, coming off a road victory at UNC?

Well maybe Virginia Tech, the league's preason favorite, opening its ACC slate against unbeaten Boston College. Tech is a great story after their rough start for two and a half games and theur second-half rally against ECU.

Instead, ABC picked Wake Forest -- coming off a 68-24 loss to Stanford -- going to 2-1 Florida State. The absolutely awful UNC at Rutgers game got the other 3:30 slot.

At least State-Georgia Tech, the best ACC game of the day, got the ESPN game. But that means Va Tech at BC is relegated to the ACC Network.

The ACC record after the third weekend:

18-11 against non-conference foes. But don't get too excited. That breaks down to:

10-1 against FCS teams
7-1 against non-BCS teams in the FBS
1-9 against BCS opponents

The best wins, other that State's victory over a Cincinnati team that was one of the favorites in the Big East, would be FSU's victory over BYU and either Maryland's victory over Navy or Va Tech's victory over ECU.

One oddity. Before the season, we all thought the Coastal Division was loaded -- with four ranked teams. But after three weeks, the Atlantic Division is 12-3 overall and the Coastal is 6-9 (which includes one division game, so it is reallty 5-8 against outsiders).

The ACC's last two unbeatens (NC State and Bostion College) are in the Atlantic.

One last note -- I was looking at the ACC preseason predictions and noticed something odd. In the five previous seasons since joining the ACC, Boston College has finished higher than predicted -- EVERY SINGLE YEAR. The voters picked them third in the Atlantic this season ... does that mean theyv are destined to finish second or above?: