irish red homebrew
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RE: ESPN announcer quotes that are anti-ACC
(12-28-2015 10:44 AM)ken d Wrote: (12-28-2015 09:14 AM)irish red homebrew Wrote: The ACC is stronger the past 4 years in perception because of having title contenders.
ClemVegas is right in one aspect about the 2000s; the ACC was more competitive for within-conference matchups. Unfortunately, they whiffed in high-profile ooc matchups. Clemson owned their SEC rival during the 200s (it was part of an 8 of 10 run against USC), but it did not help perceptions because USC was not a powerhouse. The conference's bowle performance during the BCS can be pointed to as damning evidence as well. The only team to consistently perform during that time was VT; they pretty much owned the ACC for a while with consistent play within conference. Unfortunately, they struggled in high-profile ooc games as well.
The up-and-down nature of the programs in the 2000s led to ESPN creating that stupid ACC Wheel of Destiny crap. Holtz and May loved making fun of the conference with that thing.
As a conference, we need for FSU and Clemson to remain as they are, and have Miami and VT to wake up again. GT can have a season like they did last year every few years (not a knock, just a recognition of the institutional hurdles they face).
[b]Mostly, though, we need teams to quit losing so many of the ooc matchups against teams they should beat[/b], or at least should be competitive with. UL should not have lost to Auburn, and Syracuse cannot lose to USF. Duke cannot lose to ILL., and so on. The reason why is that you guys are talented enough to knock off a Clemson (UL games have been close each time, and Syracuse plays us tougher than they get credit for). When one of those teams do beat us, it will hurt both programs when a bad ooc loss is on the record. UNC this year is another example of that; there is no way you should have lost to SCAR. I think that is the game that would have kept you out of the playoff if you had won the ACC.
Or, picture that over the last two years, the ACC is 7-1 against the SEC for rivalry week. We will not get credit for that because of conference losses against LSU (to be fair, not a bad loss, Cuse played well), AU, USC. The conference also dropped games it should have won to the Big 10 (NW and ILL).
Not every team needs to be a powerhouse. Miami and VT returning to power along with UNC, GT and UL, will create a situation where we will eat our own. We just need smarter scheduling (winnable against ooc) along with avoiding always dropping the ooc matchups in the middle-of-the-conference games.
The ACC lost 20 games OOC this year, and that sounds like a lot. Let's not lose sight of the fact that our teams lost to some teams that had pretty good years. 15 of those losses were to teams that won 8 or more games. 9 of them were to teams that won 10 or more games. 8 were to teams playing in NY6 bowls. Only two of those losses were to teams that failed to qualify for a bowl (South Carolina and ECU). One of those we should have won.
The ACC's losses were to teams that averaged an 8.7 - 3.7 record. Half of those losses were sustained by ACC teams that only accounted for a combined 7 league wins. I'd love to win more, but I'm not going to apologize for this year's performance. It wasn't that bad.
P5 (and ND) record was 6 wins (Kentucky, NEB, Purdue, FL, ND, SCAR) and 14 losses (Aub, LSU, IND, ND x 5, SCAR, Iowa, NW, OSU, UCLA, ND, UGA, )
G5 record was 14 wins (CMU, NIU, ILL, Akron, FAU, Tulane, Army, Tulane USF Troy EKY, Wofford, App St, Akron) and 5 losses(Houston, USF, Cincinatti, ECU, BSU)
ACC was 16-0 versus whatever you call these schools (Samford, Rhode Island, Elon, Maine, Howard, NCAT, Delaware, Youngstown St, Bethune-Cookman, NCCU, Furman, Alcorn ST, TX ST, Chatanooga, Old Dominion, and South Alabama).
So the ACC won roughly 1/3 of P5 matchups, and were only able to win 2/3 of G5 matchups. That is not good, no matter how you look at it.
ND is a tough out for any team they play, but so what? Those games will be there every year, so you cannot discount them.
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