GREENSBORO, N.C. – Whatever individual storylines came out of Day One of the ACC’s media gathering here in Greensboro, they all pretty much fell under the same general theme: How strong (or weak) is the ACC as a football conference?
When Commissioner John Swofford put together plans for ACC expansion more than five years ago, grabbing Miami, Virginia Tech and later Boston College out of the Big East, his vision wasn’t just to create a cash-generating conference championship game. Swofford wanted to solidify the ACC, long known for its basketball tradition, as one of the top football conferences in the nation.
So when you read about the prevalence of quarterbacks at yesterday’s media day or the supposed Heisman-level talents of backs Jonathan Dwyer and C.J. Spiller, what you are reading is a referendum of sorts on the league’s overall performance.
Returning starting quarterbacks signal stability for a program at the game’s most valuable position. Talented skill players on a national scale reflect, well, talent.
As all these topics are being explored, the underlying theme of the 2009 ACC Football Kickoff (and probably of the 2008 and 2007 versions as well) is a conference struggling to establish itself among the nation’s best.
Competitiveness and depth are two things, but a two or even three-loss team making it to the conference title game consistently doesn’t reflect well when compared to the Big 12 and SEC.
Here’s Swofford when asked about the subject in his presser yesterday:
“In my unbiased opinion, I think our football, top to bottom, is a great, great group. I think you see that in the competitiveness within the league. I think you see it with some of our records against outside competition and you see it in the depth, making 10 bowl games for instance.”
“If you really step back and take a look at the conferences a year ago, top to bottom, we may have well been the deepest conference in the country a year ago. What we didn’t have is a team or two that was involved in the national championship race, down the stretch. And I think that has a lot to do with how our conference is perceived competitively.”
The ten bowl games concept was thrown out a lot yesterday. But while it does show depth, some of that depth comes in the form of mediocre teams with five or even six regular season losses.
The grand conference expansion experiment has seemingly worked on the financial side of things (though Swofford has a tough task ahead of him in competing with the SEC’s mammoth new TV deal). But when is it going to start working on the field?
The theory is Virginia Tech might have an outside shot at the national title picture this season but it’s unlikely. We’ll see where the media picked the rest of the ACC when the poll is announced at 2 p.m.
I’ll leave you with my picks:
ATLANTIC:
1. Clemson
2. Florida State
3. North Carolina State
4. Maryland
5. Wake Forest
6. Boston College
COASTAL:
1. Virginia Tech
2. Georgia Tech
3. Miami
4. North Carolina
5. Duke
6. Virgnia
Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at sportsdbk@gmail.com.