The biggest game this week involves two ACC teams, and no, it won’t be staged in Cameron Indoor Stadium or the Dean Dome. The basketball conference that had assumed irrelevance as a football entity is breaking good in the sport that reaps the biggest money and commands the most eyeballs, and not a moment too soon.
When No. 3 Clemson meets No. 5 Florida State in Death Valley on Saturday night, it will mark the first collision of top five ACC teams since Nov. 5, 2005. How long ago was 2005? Paul Johnson was in the process of leading Navy to the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl. But even that historical snippet doesn’t offer the full picture of how long the ACC wandered in the football wilderness.
Not since Jan. 4, 2000, has an ACC team won the BCS title. (Florida State, as led by Peter Warrick and Chris Weinke.) Not since Jan. 3, 2001, has an ACC team played for the BCS title. (Also Florida State, in its final game with Mark Richt as offensive coordinator.) Not since 2001 has an ACC team finished above sixth in the final rankings of either major poll, and in five of those years no ACC rep cracked the top 10.
Since Florida State took the 2000 national title, ACC teams are 2-12 in BCS bowls, the victories coming against Cincinnati and Northern Illinois. On Jan. 4, 2012, Clemson lost to West Virginia 70-33 in the Orange Bowl, a night that stands as the sorry symbol for the lost decade of ACC football.
As of Nov. 24, 2012, nothing had improved. Four ACC teams — Georgia Tech, Clemson, Florida State and Wake Forest — lost to four SEC teams by the aggregate score of 161-74, with three of those games played in ACC stadiums. But Clemson toppled LSU in a rousing Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve, and the 2013 season began with the Tigers beating No. 5 Georgia and Miami beating No. 9 Florida. At long last, change!
Four ACC teams are ranked this week, with three in the top 10. (This doesn’t count Louisville, which is also in the top 10 and will join the league in 2014.) For the first time in more than a decade, the basketball league has stamped itself as a football factor.
Of the Clemson game, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said this week: “It’s something we’ve been wanting. The other conferences have had those games, and now it’s up here and you get to bring some notoriety to this conference.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, speaking on the ACC teleconference: “Listen, our league has been good, and there’s been a lot of good football played. There’s been a lot of parity. (But) we haven’t produced a dominant team, the 12-0, 13-1, 11-1 team like some other conferences have always had. At the end of the year, we need to have a couple of teams vying for the BCS bids … It’s good to see us starting to develop some of those teams that have separated a little bit.”
We can’t yet know if Clemson or Florida State will go the distance. The final Saturday in November won’t be a walkover for either: South Carolina has won four in a row over the Tigers and Florida six of its past eight against the Seminoles, and both games will be played in an SEC stadium. But we can know this much: For once, the weekend’s biggest football game doesn’t involve anyone from the high-falutin’ SEC. This week’s big game is an ACC-only affair.
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