Eleven ACC teams have division title hopes

ACC

CLEMSON - It's the first week of November, and 11 ACC teams still have legitimate hope of winning their divisions. Read More

Winning becomes contagious for Virginia

ACC

CLEMSON - Virginia wideout Kevin Ogletree has a simple explanation for his team's completely unforeseen about-face. "Winning is contagious," Ogletree told reporters. Not long ago, losing seemed like a contagious and incurable disease in Charlottesville, Va. Read More

Terrapins own keys to roller-coaster ride

ACC NOTES

CLEMSON - Tommy Bowden engineered the biggest roller-coaster ride in the ACC during his 9 1/2-year tenure at Clemson. Bowden is gone, but he's passed the keys to Maryland's Ralph Friedgen. And the Terrapins' ride might be even more unpredictable than Clemson's was under Bowden. Read More

Bobby Bowden: Tommy saw writing on the wall

CLEMSON - Whether Tommy Bowden resigned or was fired has sparked vigorous debate since the coach and Clemson parted ways Monday morning. Bowden's father, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, said Wednesday that it's all semantics anyway because his son knew the pink slip was coming. Bobby Bowden said Tommy Bowden called him Monday morning after his first meeting with athletic director Terry Don Phillips. The coach and Phillips had a meeting later in the morning, and Bowden offered his resignation. "He didn't say, 'I might get the ax.' He said, 'I'm going to get the ax,' " the elder Bowden recalled. Read More

Duke drawing more attention

CLEMSON - It's been a while since we've written about Duke in this space - meaning, Duke football - and one reader has given us a Devil of a time about it. She sent an e-mail after Duke's 31-7 win over James Madison in the opener, wondering why we didn't make note of it. Read More

Time for Florida State's Bowden to hang it up

ACC Notes

CLEMSON - No easy way to put this, because picking on Bobby Bowden feels kind of like cutting in front of a senior citizen at the local dinner buffet. We know the 78-year-old Bowden is in a heated race with Penn State's Joe Paterno for all-time wins among major college coaches (Paterno, 81, leads 376-375 at the moment). Read More

FSU gears for Wake test

CLEMSON — Saturday's game between Wake Forest and Florida State is big because we'll get a good read on the Seminoles, who've dusted Western Carolina and Chattanooga by an aggregate score of 115-7. But this game is just as intriguing for what it'll tell us about the Demon Deacons. Read More

Johnson's Jackets serving notice

CLEMSON — Perhaps this season's most fascinating story is unfolding under our noses, right here in the weak old ACC. It's a little baffling that Paul Johnson's audacious experiment at Georgia Tech hasn't received more attention. Read More

ACC seeks positives after awful opening week

CLEMSON — You've got to look awfully hard to find the silver lining in a positively awful opening weekend for the ACC. When the most impressive victories are over Baylor (Wake Forest), Delaware (Maryland) and Jacksonville State (Georgia Tech), the conference has some, uh, issues. Read More

New season ticket policy 'better than anticipated'

CLEMSON — When Clemson unveiled a significant restructuring of its football seating last summer, it did so with care, caution and no small amount of concern. Change typically doesn't go over well among the Tigers' fan base, and that's part of the reason Clemson officials paid marketing giant IMG to help introduce a new season-ticket policy that takes effect this season at Memorial Stadium. Read More

North Carolina's Hansbrough tops ACC first team

CLEMSON — The deadline for All-Atlantic Coast Conference voting was Sunday at 9 p.m., and your humble correspondent missed it. Thanks to dreaded e-mail problems, the deadline came and went without the ballot being sent. ... Read More

Weird year may leave door open for ACC bubble teams

CLEMSON — Lots of numbers, statistics and trends get thrown around this time of year as pundits speculate about at-large selections to the NCAA Tournament. But this year more than ever, historical precedent should not take precedence. Everything is relative, mainly because everything is watered down in college basketball. ... Read More

Deacons expose vulnerability of Duke's defense

CLEMSON — Several compelling developments sprang from Wake Forest's 86-73 upset of Duke on Sunday night. First, it injected some drama into the race for the regular season conference title. The No. 5 Blue Devils had rolled to a 10-0 ACC record heading into that game in Winston-Salem, winning each of their games by nine points or more. ... Read More

Lower-tier ACC teams looking to make run at NCAAs

CLEMSON — Two years ago, the Atlantic Coast Conference put just four teams in the NCAA Tournament. That occurrence was viewed in some circles as an aberration, particularly after the conference sent seven teams last year. But with all 12 teams at or past the halfway point of t... Read More

Parity reigns thus far in Atlantic Coast Conference

CLEMSON — Before the season, most Atlantic Coast Conference observers had no clue how to predict the conference race beyond North Carolina and Duke. It's safe to say the indecision was legit. With all 12 teams having played five or more conference games thus far, it's hard to tell much difference between third place (3-2 Boston College) and last place (1-4 Virginia). ... Read More