Onus is on ACC to perform in high-stakes nonconference games

By design, college football fans will be hard-pressed to avoid the ACC this weekend.

Now it’s up to the often-overlooked conference’s teams to profit from the spotlight.

The league that wants respect from the College Football Playoff selection committee can particularly prove its worth in multiple nonconference games this weekend, starting with Georgia Tech-Colorado on Thursday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Two other main dishes will be served Saturday and Sunday — Clemson at No. 11 LSU and No. 24 Louisville vs. No. 9 Ole Miss in Nashville, Tennessee, respectively.

“So, this weekend, those games will matter,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a phone interview Thursday morning.

The quote came from a question I asked Phillips about the importance of the two ACC-SEC games, not just in terms of the outcome, but in establishing a perception of the ACC’s competitiveness.

Phillips gave a 403-word answer in which he touted the performance of the league’s teams last year, North Carolina’s win Saturday over TCU in Ireland and the rigor of the nonconference schedules of the ACC’s 17 football-playing teams.

For instance, ACC teams had the most postseason wins over power-conference opponents of any league with seven. Also, the league is playing 25 games against power-conference opponents and Notre Dame, which is also the most of any league in the country.

Ever personable, Phillips was my thorough tour guide of the ACC talking points. Really, though, the only words that were necessary regarding my question were these four:

Those games will matter.

In November, when ACC defenders are trying to make the case for why a third (or a second) conference team should make the 12-team CFP field, they can point to how challenging a schedule the league’s teams played.

But if Ole Miss and LSU throttle Louisville and Clemson — or, for that matter, if No. 20 Tennessee handles Tech on Sept. 12 at Bobby Dodd — it will be easier to dismiss the arguments, fair or not.

Schedule strength only goes so far. Actually winning the tough games quite arguably matters more.

In the past five seasons, the ACC has played 23 games against an SEC opponent ranked in the AP Top 25 during the regular season, when perceptions were still being created before CFP fields were set.

The SEC was 20-3 in those games, according to Stathead. (In fairness, the ACC was 6-2 in regular-season games in which its teams were ranked and the SEC opponent was not.)

But it doesn’t get any better when the fights were judged to be fairer. In the 11-game subset where both conferences’ teams were ranked, the SEC was 10-1.

That’s the hill that the ACC has to climb.

If the SEC’s premier teams continue to have their way, it’s not like the results are going to be negated by Boston College showing Rutgers who’s the boss.

If Louisville makes it to the ACC championship game with a 10-2 record, but one of its losses is a neutral-site loss to Ole Miss, it would likely put the Cardinals in position to have to win the league championship to make it into the CFP.

But the opportunity is significant. Defeating ranked opponents from the conference of “It Just Means More” would put ACC teams in position to be ranked (or ranked higher) and stay in the national spotlight for as long as they keep winning.

Said Phillips, “We’re coming off a fantastic year, one of our strongest in history, and we’re well-positioned to have another really significant year in football.”

The commissioner has been successful in creating a larger stage for his league and improving its nonconference schedule.

Tech will kick off a Labor Day weekend in which ACC teams will play in games with little or no significant viewing competition on four of the five days. Tech-Colorado will be followed by Miami-Stanford on Friday night, Louisville-Ole Miss on Sunday night and SMU-Florida State on Labor Day night.

“That’s precisely what we’re trying to do,” Phillips said. “It allows you to showcase your programs and your players and your coaches and your schools and the conference.”

Phillips requested Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert to move the season opener against the Buffaloes, originally scheduled for Saturday, to Thursday night.