ACC needs to bolster its resume

ACC COLUMN

GREENSBORO, GA. — When the ACC opted to expand from nine to 12 teams, this probably wasn’t the five-year plan it drew up.

The ACC Football Kickoff begins today at posh Reynolds Plantation on the shores of Lake Oconee. It’s a chance for the media to schmooze with coaches, players and confer­ence officials, play some golf, and maybe work a little.

It’s not the kind of atmosphere that lends itself to much antagonism or skepticism, but there should be some tough questions asked about where the ACC stands as a football conference going into the fifth year of this grand plan.

Having added Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College, the ACC is awash in money thanks to a fat tele­vision contract and the addition of a championship game.

But being loaded only helps so much when your on-field success has been an undeniable failure in the context of what was envisioned when the ACC opted to expand five summers ago.

Commissioner John Swofford and the rest of the conference brass pic­tured the ACC’s name being spoken in the same breath as the juggernaut SEC. Instead, the conference has found itself in a struggle to outclass the Big East — which just so hap­pens to be the conference it raided for its three newest members.

The ACC’s most prominent foot­ball failures: The conference still has not pro­duced an at-large bid to the Bowl Championship Series in the format’s 10-year existence.

The ACC’s champion has lost eight straight bowl games since Florida State beat Virginia Tech to win the 1999 national title.

Seven years and counting without a representative in the BCS title game.

Since 2000, ACC teams have dropped 37 of 41 games against non-conference opponents ranked in the Top 10.

The struggles have led to coaching turnover, which has affected con­tinuity. Six of the ACC’s 12 teams have replaced their head coaches in the last three years.

So what’s the culprit? Start with the descent of Florida State and Miami, two teams that were expected to meet regularly in the conference’s title game.

Combined, the Seminoles and Hurricanes are just four games over .500 in conference play since 2004. Florida State is 18-14, and Miami is 16-16.

Last year, the Hurricanes finished 5-7 for their first losing season since 1997. The Seminoles have gone 7-6 the past two years and haven’t posted a winning conference record since 2005.

Virginia Tech has been the ACC’s closest thing to an elite team the past four seasons, amassing a 27-5 conference record while collecting two league crowns and making two appearances in the ACC title game in its three-year existence.

But the Hokies haven’t fared well when matched against the best teams from other conferences. Hard to forget the 48-7 thrashing they suf­fered at LSU early last season.

And then there was the dis­heartening loss to Kansas in the Orange Bowl.

At halftime of the 2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl, Virginia Tech was up 18 on Georgia and the ACC seemed certain to gain some credibility. Then the Bulldogs rallied and won 31-24.

Clemson is considered by many to be the class of the ACC this year as Virginia Tech tries to replace a load of key players. The Tigers will likely be picked to win the conference crown in the media poll conducted at the three-day event in Greens­boro.

Clemson’s offense is loaded with skill players, and its de­fense is expected to be solid again in 2008. But the Tigers’ superiority in the ACC might be more a reflection of the conference’s overall weakness than Clemson’s strength.

The ACC does not lack for talent, as evidenced by its re­cent success in the NFL Draft. In the past three years of the draft, the ACC leads all other conferences in first-round picks with 25. The SEC is in second with 21, followed by 18 for the Big Ten.

Three months ago, the ACC led all conferences with seven first-rounders.

But a look at the positions of the drafted players reveals the ACC’s glaring lack of top­flight quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.

When Boston College’s Matt Ryan was taken No. 3 by the Atlanta Falcons, he became the ACC’s first quarterback selected in the first round since N.C. State’s Philip Riv­ers in 2004.

Since 1985, Ryan and Rivers are the ACC’s only quarterbacks taken in the first round. By comparison, the SEC has had seven first­rounders at the position since 1998 — including four No. 1 picks.

In the past five drafts, the ACC has had 31 first-round selections. Just one, Calvin Johnson last year, has been a receiver or running back.

The SEC has totaled 37 first­round picks over the same pe­riod, and 11 have been receiv­ers or running backs. Add to that the five quarterbacks tak­en in the first round over that stretch, and 16 of the SEC’s 37 first-round picks have been offensive skill players.

When you compare that to the ACC’s three skill players taken in 31 selections, there’s really no mystery why the conference has fallen so far short of expectations that accompanied expansion.

Reach Larry Williams at lwilliams@postandcourier.com and check out the new Clem­son blog at www.charleston.