Interesting article about how one writer sees ACC.
Big East is in similar situation this year, lacking a team that is consistent and domineering.

Actually, a close conference race where there are a lot of upsets is interesting in it's own way.

Key for both conferences and non-BCS school(s) this year will again be how they perform in high profile BCS matchup.

However, [/font]it is funny that a league with once mighty UM, FSU and VT continues to underachieve.[font=Times New Roman]

I think the BE and ACC are in similar positions this year. The difference is we are coming off of two great years and our champ has beaten the SEC, ACC, and B12 champs in our last three BCS matchups. We've proven that we belong with the big boys. The ACC on the other hand hasn't won a BCS game in 8 or 9 years and I think there are legitimate concerns about the quality of their conference.

If we're matched in the Orange Bowl... The BEast against the ACC... I bet we win again...

I sure we wish we could get PSU, VA Tech, BC and Memphis to join us and split!

Change the Hokie traitors for the Viriginia Cavaliers. I bet they'd be more amenable to a move. And swap Maryland for BC too. Make the traitors sweat...

I would just trade Maryland and UVA for Memphis and BC.

Virginia Tech prefers the ACC. Fine. Let 'em stay there...

I thought we had already established that Rivals is full of morons?

Look who's #2 in the Sagarin Rankings by conference:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbc08.htm

Over 75% of the ACC has had head coach changes in the last 4 years. And it's paying off. There are no more doormats in the conference. It will be interesting to see how GT, UNC, and Miami progress. All three teams are overwhelmingly Fr and So. GT is, to the best of my knowledge, the youngest team that has been ranked this year. Tech plays 20 true Fr or RS Fr. We're on the way back.

The only bad thing is that the divisions are horribly unbalanced. Just about as bad as the Big 12 is not balanced.

Coastal: UNC, GT, Miami, VT, UVA, Dook (don't laugh, they don't suck anymore)
Those first three teams will be a nighmare to play in another year or two. Beamer must be blessed by the Pope given how many games he wins where his team has been completely outplayed. Cutcliffe took Dook from doormat to possibly bowling in one season. They beat Vandy. They were a precious few from beating Northwestern. The lone suck is Groh up at Virginia. He'll be the next coach to go.

Atlantic: WF, NCST, BC, FSU, UMD, Clemson
Fridge can never find a good QB in Maryland. NCST is woeful. WF is coming back down to Earth. FSU isn't even close to how they were in the 90's. Clemson will need time to de-Tommy their program.

Wow, I never would have guessed ACC was #2. Good points GT

Sagarin is an idiot. He has James Madison ranked the 41st best team in the country: Linky. That's despite the fact that they got pimp-slapped by Duke.

So did Vandy, Navy and Virginia. Hey, props to Duke this year. It's almost a week until Thanksgiving and they're not eliminated from bowl eligibility yet.

How appropriate that a Maryland fan would suddenly show up. Sagarin has James Madison ranked 14 spots ahead of Maryland.

So beating a bunch of FCS teams makes you better then an over .500 ACC team? I guess the ACC really does suck.

rferry Wrote:So did Vandy, Navy and Virginia. Hey, props to Duke this year. It's almost a week until Thanksgiving and they're not eliminated from bowl eligibility yet.

Duke beat a two 6-4 and a 5-5 team. Yay.

The ironic thing is, 5 years after the raid, the ACC is the forgotten conference. ESPN just had their "Notable games" with national implications. From out of the Big 12 it's #2 Texas Tech at #5 Oklahoma, Big Ten #15 Michigan State at #8 Penn State, from the SEC they said the #4 Florida vs #1 Alabama game in the upcoming SEC conference title game, they even mentioned #7 Utah at #14 BYU. Oh, and they mentioned #20 Pittsburgh at #19 Cincinnati. They also mentioned #23 Oregon State at Oregon and USC battling for the conference title. They said the biggest game for the ACC was Boston College and Wake Forest. Not exactly the rise to power Swofford was expecting.

All ranking are purely subjective. No conferences play enough games against other conferences to give any judge. One or two games here and there, usually very early in the season, give one no clue as to the real strength of anything...

I hate the entire system. It's all based on speculation and popularity. It's setup to allow for mistakes, injustice, and controversy. After all, that stuff gets ratings...

zibby Wrote:Sagarin is an idiot. He has James Madison ranked the 41st best team in the country: Linky. That's despite the fact that they got pimp-slapped by Duke.

It's completely mathmatical. And the Sagarin suffers from the same drawbacks all formulas do: Until they have sufficient input they won't have accurate results.

That means for the Sagarin it's not accurate until mid-way through the season. Also, it's not accurate for intra-division rankings.

And I already told you... Dook is nothing to laugh at anymore.

The mathmatical formula is only as good as the mathmatician who derived the formula, which is very similar to what I've always said about computer rankings...

You can't have it both ways, gts. If you believe the ACC is the second-best conference, you also have to believe James Madison is better than a team with a chance to win a division in the ACC.

Either you believe that, or you have to believe Sagarin is completely out of touch with reality.

zibby Wrote:You can't have it both ways, gts. If you believe the ACC is the second-best conference, you also have to believe James Madison is better than a team with a chance to win a division in the ACC.

Either you believe that, or you have to believe Sagarin is completely out of touch with reality.

FBS teams play other FBS teams ALOT of times. FCS teams don't play FBS teams that much. Usually each FCS team has ONE FBS opponent. The data sets for analysis by the formula there are completely different.

The Sagarin is accurate when comparing FBS teams and conferences to other FBS teams and conferences.

The Sagarin is accurate when comparing FCS teams and conference to other FCS teams and conferences.

The Sagarin is not accurate when comparing FCS teams and conferences to FBS teams and conferences.

I'm not talking out of my ass here -- my senior computer science project is a formula ranking of college football teams and conferences. There simply is insufficient data to compare FBS and FCS in a meaningful way. So I don't bother doing so.

It smells like a fart to me GTS, which means you're talking out of your ass...

If you really want to be precise, there is insufficient data to compare conferences. Not enough teams play each other between the various conferences, and the dates of most OOC games happen long before many teams hit their stride. It's all subjective, and I hate the entire ranking process. I always have...