Clemson, the ACC, & Realignment (long)
Just some opinions and comments about Clemson, the ACC, and realignment from a Clemson fan (in no particular order) …..
• Welcome to Louisville and a belated welcome to Pitt and Syracuse. I go to one or two away football games each year and will definitely be coming to visit all three of you when we play at your place for the first time. Hopefully you will come to see us when you play at Clemson – I think you will have an enjoyable trip.
• I hate to see Maryland leave but hard to argue against their decision from a financial standpoint. One of the most exciting football games I have ever attended was the 1978 CU/MD game at Maryland (my senior year at CU). This was for the ACC championship and was a back and forth game with many exciting plays – a 99 yard TD run by MD (Atkins) and two long TD passes by CU (Dwight Clark & Jerry Butler). CU won 28-24.
• I would love for Clemson to join the SEC (never going to happen). I am not a big fan of joining the Big 12 but neither am I strongly opposed to this. Ultimately I believe this could happen due to the significant financial divide that appears to exist between the ACC & Big12/SEC/BIG. Short of joining the SEC, my preference would be for the ACC to get its collective football act together (along with a much improved TV contract). I am not sure how likely this is to happen. Contrary to several CU and FSU fans on this board, I believe that all of the ACC schools (present and future) do CARE about football. However, I am not sure that it is their first priority – for instance, I believe that UNC wants to win in football but let’s face it, they have been, are now, and will forever be a basketball first school. With their BB history, who can blame them.
• There has been a lot of talk about how the level of competition in the ACC is hurting teams like FSU and CU when they play teams from other conferences (ie SEC). First and foremost, let me say that FSU and CU are solely responsible for their level of play and not their conference. Having said that, I do think there is an element of truth to this idea of a weak conference not preparing teams to play. If you constantly play against less physical teams (ie more finesse teams), then you adjust your style and your mentality to play against those teams – it’s only natural. The main problem I see with CU is that football is still won in the trenches and we simply do not have the physical mentality and toughness to go toe-to-toe with the upper SEC teams – this lack of toughness is not caused by playing in the ACC but neither is toughness fostered by playing in the ACC (IMHO).
• The ACC cannot dictate or create “rivals”. For instance, try as they might, BC will NEVER be considered a rival by most CU fans. This doesn’t mean that BC can’t beat us or that they are a bad school, it just means that there is no “natural” excitement for this team as there is when we play USC, UGA, & FSU. (Notice two of these three are in the SEC).
• My personal preference for divisions would be:
Atlantic: CU, FSU, GT, NCSU, WF, Pitt, BC
Coastal: VT, UM, UL, UNC, Duke, SU, UVA
BTW ........ I will be pulling for all of the ACC teams (current and future) in their respective bowl games. Also, even though I am no ND fan, I will definitely be pulling for them to beat Bama (I hate the SEC - unless of course Clemson gets invited to join!! LOL).
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