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ACC football seems to be climbing up to mediocrity
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Published: October 2, 2008
Liquid credit and other notes:
The ACC was a dog, and then it was a pony, and now it's a dark horse straining to make a back-stretch comeback in college football's status sweepstakes.
Those early suggestions of ACC mediocrity could yet prove true. Wake Forest blew a shot at the top 10, and a long shot at the BCS title game, during that six-turnover blowup against Navy. It's hard to fathom any other ACC team making a run for anything more glorious than a somewhat major bowl bid awaiting the playoff champion under U.S. contract law.
Clemson, the preseason favorite despite a decade of contrary evidence, looked like a deer in headlights against Alabama and a deer in junkyard quicksand against Maryland. Virginia Tech, still the Coastal Division pick, crumpled against East Carolina yet won 35-30 at Nebraska. That victory moved the ACC record against the other five BCS leagues to 8-7.
Granted, it's a quiet 8-7. The highlights: 4-0 against the Big 12 (Virginia Tech over Nebraska, Wake Forest over Baylor, Miami over Texas A&M, Florida State over Colorado) and 2-3 against industry leader SEC. The losses were all routs (‘Bama over Clemson by 24, Florida over Miami by 23, South Carolina over N.C. State by 34), but Wake Forest won 30-28 against Mississippi (which upset Florida), and Georgia Tech beat Mississippi State (which stunned Southeastern Louisiana for its only win).
The sum of these disparate parts? The math is hard to figure right now, but the Sagarin Ratings digested all the early computer data and ranked the ACC fourth, ahead of the Pacific 10 and Big East. That doesn't square with the head-on results against the Big 12, but the ACC hasn't played Big 12 powers. The ACC also suffers from the soft early-play lists of FSU (No. 133 in schedule strength after the Western Carolina-Chattanooga run) and Boston College (No. 143 with Kent State and Rhode Island aboard).
This week's showdown: North Carolina is a slight favorite at home against No. 24 Connecticut. Carolina and BC will play Notre Dame. Vanderbilt (4-0) will play Wake Forest and Duke. The final week's rivalry games will turn up South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Odds and ends
□ Powerball doesn't live here. There are no winning numbers. But there are winning answers in the Conference USA quiz. Question No. 1: Can you name all the C-USA members, by their football divisions? Question No. 2: Can you name the home city of the C-USA? Answers later.
□ When Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim seized the early lead at the Tour Championship, some media geniuses and golfers joined an odd chorus: "He could be the guy to challenge Tiger." It's a tired refrain from people with lethally short attention spans. Remember Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els?
Tiger Woods dominates golf, period. Padraig Harrington has won three recent majors, but Woods competed in just one of them. Kim has won two PGA tournaments. He finished seventh in money ($4.4 million) and displayed the most promise of any 23-year-old, but he didn't make Tiger fret over hypothetical rivalries. In fact, Kim displayed more maturity than the drooling admirers, saying that he's not ready to overtake Woods.
□ Josh Hamilton, Raleigh's own, led the American League in runs batted in with 130, one more than Minnesota's Justin Morneau. Hamilton, a Texas Rangers outfielder who played 90 games for Cincinnati in 2007, completed his first full schedule with 32 homers, nine steals in 10 attempts, 190 hits, a .304 batting average and 331 total bases (which tied Miguel Cabrera for the league lead). He announced that he was heading home to work on his deficiencies.
□ CUSA answers. East Division: East Carolina, Marshall, Southern Miss, Central Florida, Alabama-Birmingham, Memphis. West: Rice, Tulsa, Houston, Texas-El Paso, Tulane, Southern Methodist. The home office is in Irving, Texas, of all places. How 'bout them Cowboys?
Next week: the Mountain West. Maybe.…
■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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