AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2006 > October > 18
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
ACC split causes confusion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I think Clemson coach Tommy Bowden was joking. He was speaking on the weekly ACC coaches teleconference with reporters on Wednesday when somebody asked him to comment on the Atlantic Division being 6-1 against the Coastal Division this season. “Which one are we in?” Bowden asked.
The fact remains that the ACC’s division breakdown remains a mystery to many people, and it’s likely to stay that way. Hard-core fans have learned which teams are on which side, but fans who follow other conferences most of the time aren’t going to remember who’s Coastal and who’s Atlantic any more than they could remember who was Red, White and Blue in the old Conference USA format.
Things would be so much simpler if the ACC had broken in two along north-south lines. At least then everyone would assume that Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Clemson were in the south and Boston College, Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech were in the north. The North Carolina schools would still be hard to keep track of, it’s true, but at least there’d be some idea who’s who. The easiest way to get from the status quo to a north-south format would be to have FSU and Clemson swap divisions with Virginia and Virginia Tech and leave the other schools the same. The bad news for Tech: It’s new division would be tougher than its current one the majority of the time.
Clemson, by the way, is in the Atlantic Division. Tech is the only Coastal team that has beaten an Atlantic team (Maryland).
