Nice try ACC, you sold us a bill of goods, and we foolishly accepted it.
Two teams in the preseason Top-10, with a promise that Miami was back, Florida State turning the corner. For years it’s been all about how much better the SEC and Big Ten were and that ACC football was simply something to do until November.
Clemson’s offense is still adjusting to life without Trevor Lawrence, but still the Tigers have major credibility in college football. And for the rest of the conference, well, let’s just say the more things change, the more they stay the same.
And it didn’t take long for ACC football to rear its ugly head.
Clemson lost to SEC opponent Georgia right out the gate in week one. The Tigers kept it close , but the flagship program of the conference did lose to the second- or third-best squad from the backyard bully conference.
North Carolina, the proposed league’s next super team, looked inept in its season opener at unranked Virginia Tech, a loss that didn’t look good then and still doesn’t.
Miami, turning the corner, the league proclaimed. OK. The Hurricanes got bludgeoned by Alabama in game one, followed that up with a completely underwhelming win over Appalachian State. The corner that Miami turned was a brick wall named Michigan State, with the ‘Canes getting clobbered by the Spartans.
As for the other Sunshine State team, on the edge of returning to prominence FSU, the edge was more like the ledge, and the Seminoles fell to the street Saturday, losing to a more talented Wake Forest squad, 35-14.
And it wasn’t that close.
But enough bashing FSU and Miami. Pittsburgh scored 41 points on Saturday, and lost to MAC foe Western Michigan, 44-41. Virginia puts up 39 points against UNC and loses by 20, surrendering nearly 700 yards of total offense, in a contest that resembled more of a video game than big-time college football.
If the conference is ever going to overcome the belief that it’s purely a one-trick pony, that trick being basketball, then some other teams have to step up.
For a decade, Clemson has been the only football program separating the ACC from the AAC. While the Tigers are struggling, they still are the one program that’s keeping the conference relevant.
The conference can say what they want, but until Miami and FSU return to being “The U” and “the ‘Noles,” then it probably doesn’t matter what the rest of the league does.
Until that happens, it is just “much ado about nothing” regarding ACC football.
Story by Scott German
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