(12-17-2015 05:57 PM)jaminandjachin Wrote: The ACC sucks really only comes from the FSU contingent and occasionally one of the GT fellas. Everyone else seems to be very pro ACC.
I think MOST FSU folks fall like me...want the ACC to be good, while not exactly liking the ACC (largely because it hasn't been good). I'm pro-ACC in that I want the ACC to win every OOC and bowl game. I guess I could be labelled anti-ACC for calling a spade a spade about the quality of football.
Some dwell on the negative more than I do, although I could. But there are others here that carry that mantle. I think some folks down on the ACC are so down that they don't recognize progress. I note progress when I see it.
That said, what makes FSU fans bonkers is when ACC folks try to whitewash the very, very bad performance of the ACC up until about 3-4 years ago.
The truth is that the ACC has been horrid for the better part of of it's history, barring FSU's success. I don't care a year here or there that some metric rated it 2nd or 3rd, you can go back decades and no conference has had fewer top ten teams at the end of the year. It's not even close, and if you take out FSU, it's truly embarrassing. This conference has been criminally pathetic in football, both by design, by luck, and by stupidity.
When complaints about the substandard football in this conference over decade+ stretches are met with "it's cyclical!" it's infuriating. What cycle? The conference has never been "up", never, and the implication that we just wait around for our turn again, rather than make fundamental changes in attitude and tactics, is at the source of the worst disconnect between football school fans and everyone else (except maybe with those few that just flat out admit that football isn't very important to them).
Now, all that said...ACC football is currently at it's high water mark the last three years. That's simply not debatable. Not only do you have the two most viable football schools performing, but you've actually had other programs step up the last couple years to be a national factor, something this conference has virtually never seen other than maybe two years in the last thirty.
Everyone seems to be investing in facilities and understand their importance. The coaching changes look like tremendous upgrades over what we've see ACC schools do in the past. Some or most will fail, but that's ok, hiring proven head coaches is sound compared to recent hires (and yes I know Jimbo and Dabo).
The important thing is that this needs to be the new normal. As good as the ACC has been, it just means that it's basically right in the mix with the Pac, B12, and B1G. It's not hard to make a case that the ACC was still number 5 this year, but the differences between 2-4 are too negligible to be relevant. That is a significant change.
The past three years needs to be more or less the norm, not the absolute high point, and that's why vigilance is needed, and FSU and other football fans aren't going to let up the pressure to make good hires (and fires), smart schedules, football investments, and yes more money anywhere we can get it. We're not going away on that after a few solid years.
Overall, while I'm extremely concerned with the financials and the hindering affects of lower payouts, I'm otherwise fairly bullish on ACC football more so than any other point in 25 years, besides the short-lived and unfulfilled promise that followed the announcement of the Miami/VT expansion.
