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Parity In the ACC: League's championship game in Tampa could match Wake Forest and North Carolina
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Published: November 11, 2008
The good old days might not be over for good.
ACC expansion arrived in waves, drowning a traditional football order that often had Clemson or Maryland on top and North Carolina's Big Four schools clawing for a mere chance.
Florida State's arrival translated into dominance, driving the back-yard scrum into a boring rut. The big expansion wave -- Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech -- created a 12-team league and satisfied the silly NCAA membership minimum for a conference title game.
Outcomes didn't meet expectations, however. Fans and administrators figured on a Miami-FSU rematch nearly every year, but the Seminoles upset Virginia Tech in the inaugural and haven't returned. Miami hasn't gotten there yet, a disappointment for Florida tourism promoters.
The ACC moved the game from Jacksonville to Tampa this year, searching for a louder buzz. Those Wake Forest-Georgia Tech and Boston College-Virginia Tech classics didn't quite alter the Florida sports landscape. Attendance dropped each December, from 72,749 to 62,830 for the Deacons' first title in 36 years to 53,212 last season.
If certain games go certain ways, the 21st century could suddenly look like 1970 all over again, with Wake Forest playing North Carolina for the ACC championship.
Wake Forest (6-3 overall, 4-2 ACC) holds the tiebreaker over FSU (7-2, 4-2) in the Atlantic Division and therefore controls its destiny. Wins over N.C. State on the road and Boston College at home would ship the Deacons to the Tampa Bay Bucs' stadium for the conference title game Dec. 6.
Carolina (7-2, 3-2) needs help because it lost 20-17 to Virginia Tech, the Coastal Division co-leader. To stay alive, Carolina probably must win at Maryland, at home against N.C. State and at Duke.
Virginia Tech's biggest obstacle comes first, at Miami on Thursday night. The Hokies (6-3, 3-2) also will play Duke and Virginia at home. Co-leader Miami (6-3, 3-2) could run the table at Georgia Tech and at N.C. State but lose a tiebreaker to Carolina, which beat the Hurricanes.
Maryland (6-3, 3-2) remains an Atlantic Division contender with two losses, but the erratic Terps confront a tough schedule: Carolina and FSU at home, Boston College away. If you go deeper, into the three-loss subset, Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia still cling to hopes for cleansing turmoil elsewhere.
With three weeks left in the regular season, the ACC basically has eliminated three teams: summer favorite Clemson, Duke and N.C. State (which could still ruin the dreams of three contenders).
In other words, the race for the mythical national championship now seems more orderly and predictable than the ACC. Top-ranked Alabama and No. 2 Texas Tech apparently would win the computer shakeouts if they remain undefeated and thus advance to the Bowl Championship Series title game.
The Alabama-Florida victor in the Southeastern Conference championship should qualify.
Texas Tech can clinch the monstrous Big 12 South Division with a victory at Oklahoma in two weeks. Texas Tech knocked off Texas, which staked its No. 1 claim with a 45-35 win over Oklahoma. If the Sooners beat Texas Tech, throwing the Big 12 South into a three-way jam, the tiebreaker will come from a strange spot, the BCS computer rankings.
Computer analysts reading football programs predict that the Big 12 champ will qualify for the national title game, but anyone can construct a plausible scenario negating such an assumption. At the very least, a Missouri run through the Big 12 North and the league championship could revive Southern Cal. The Trojans then could win the crystal football symbolizing the BCS title after losing the Pac-10 to Oregon State, which hasn't played in the Rose Bowl game since 1964.
You don't need that many years on the time machine to revive the Wake Forest-Carolina title game, another highly mythical event. The Deacons beat Carolina 14-13 in Winston-Salem on Oct. 24, 1970, to seize the upper hand, and they held on as challengers South Carolina and Duke faded.
No ACC team earned a national ranking. Wake Forest and Duke finished 6-5 overall, and Carolina (8-4) received the only bowl bid, dropping the Peach to Arizona State.
Some things have changed radically, beginning with the bowl business. The ACC has nine potential deals cooking this season, from D.C.'s RFK Stadium to Boise to the likely Orange Bowl highlight.
Only No. 17 Carolina and No. 20 FSU cracked the latest AP poll, a reflection of extreme ACC parity. Wake Forest can return with a couple of wins and, just maybe, wind up playing the Tar Heels for the only time this fall, with everything on the line in Tampa.
Old school could become new school. What a concept.
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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