Monday, September 1, 2008

The pathetic ACC

Why is the Atlantic Coast Conference a part of the BCS? The football teams in this conference haven’t won a BCS bowl game since 1999, and to start off this season, was 2-4 against FBS opponents this past weekend. The most glaring was #9 Clemson getting trounced by #24 Alabama (score: 34-10), a team that many believe will finish either third or fourth in the SEC’s West Division. If this is the ACC’s best team (who benefited from a series of getting great recruiting classes), a so-called traditional powerhouse, why does the ACC still get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl berth? At the level that the ACC is performing, it is clearly the worst among the BCS conferences, and is even far below the Mountain West Conference and about on par with Conference USA. Although it is clear that the ACC doesn’t deserve it's BCS berth, it will get it this year at the expense of more deserving schools like Utah and East Carolina (a school who beat the ACC’s other pre-season favorite, #17 Virginia Tech 27-22). By the way, for gee-whiz information, the Mountain West and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) are a combined 2-1 in BCS bowl games since 2004. It’s about time that teams from the West (and elsewhere) get some love from the BCS, as far better access to bowl games and possible chances at playing for a national championship.