It was a great day for ACC football this past Saturday, as the conference went 11-0 in non-conference games, including the most notable result of the day, Virginia Tech’s 35-21 win at Ohio State. Here’s the Notebook Nine on the ACC, the nine notable items about the league after two weeks and moving forward…
ACC football finally made its mark in 2013, a year highlighted by Florida State’s dominating regular season and thrilling win over Auburn to claim the national championship. But the season was also marked by Clemson knocking off Ohio State in the Orange Bowl, the feel-good story of Duke, and solid bowl performances from North Carolina, Syracuse and Pitt.
The drama is heightened by the fact that none of the teams control their own destiny. Here are the four, with their conference record and remaining ACC games…
TheSportsNotebook’s college football coverage will be back later this week with a look at the four marquee games. For now, let’s whet our appetites with a look at the most notable games on the undercard, going conference-by-conference. Here are focus will start with the ACC’s key Coastal Division game on Thursday, along with several matchups likely to be important as teams scramble for bowl eligibility.
TheSportsNotebook.com’s college football coverage has updated its BCS bowl projections following Week 4, with a special look at the chances of Fresno State rising out of the Mountain West. Here’s a look at the ACC…
The Clemson-N.C. State and UNC-Georgia Tech games set the tone for both the conference, and the TV viewing agenda for the country, kicking off both Thursday and then the early time slot on Saturday as they do.
Week 2 marked the second straight week in college football that the ACC made a statement at the expense of the SEC. Last week it was Clemson beating Georgia. This time around it was Miami beating Florida, as the Hurricanes knocked off the Gators 21-16, and with the win Miami sent the message that they expect to be in the group with Clemson and Florida State vying for the ACC crown, Orange Bowl bid, and with a little luck, maybe more.
It was back in 2005 that ACC football split into divisions and created its championship game. Remember that when those divisional splits were created, the league did so with the express purpose of setting up Miami and Florida State to play in the title game. Hence, they split the two powers apart, even though it didn’t match up geographically. The history hasn’t played out quite like anyone expected.
Then there’s three solid contenders in Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia Tech, any one of whom can make it to Charlotte for the championship game on December 7. After that we move to the bottom three of Pitt, Duke and Virginia. All of these teams can make a bowl game, and frankly could even make a run at the top, but they would be a significant dark horse shot to pull off the latter.
The ACC Atlantic Division is divided into two very distinct tiers of teams. Clemson and Florida State are the heavyweights, and it would be a shock if the division winner were anyone else. The Tigers and Seminoles are also good enough to be the co-favorites for the conference overall, and to be the conversation as […]
The ACC football race is one of the most intriguing in the major conferences—perhaps no other league has as many varied outcomes that can realistically happen in November. This conference still has a longshot chance at getting a team in a national title game and earning an at-large spot in one of the BCS bowls. That’s one extreme. The other is that probation and a weak division could give them an incredibly weak champion to send to the Orange Bowl, where the league goes if its champ isn’t in the top two nationally. There are five teams with a realistic chance at the conference championship. Let’s break them down….
College football Week 2 gets started tonight, although the Thursday & Friday games of Pitt-Cincinnati and Utah-Utah State aren’t reason to get that excited. There are some good games on the Saturday undercard though, so let’s run through a list of games that might not fall in the category of games that make you clear three hours on the schedule to watch, but are certainly worthy of clearing 10-15 minutes to check in on the results of…