ACC Football Season Officially Over

With Georgia Tech losing ANOTHER BCS game for the ACC tonight to Iowa, another bowl season has wrapped up for the conference. It was yet another fairly disappointing year as the ACC still cannot get over that hurdle and make the jump to becoming a very good/elite football conference.

The only real quality win for the ACC came from Virginia Tech, as they dismantled Tennessee in the Chick-Fil-A bowl on New Years Eve. Thank you Virginia Tech for being the one constant in this conference. Even if you are not usually quite good enough to be a national title contender, you are always solid and represent the conference well. Without you the past five years this conference would have been no better than the MAC or Sun Belt.

You could make a case for FSU also getting a quality win for the conference (beating West Virginia in the Gator Bowl in Bobby Bowden's last game) but FSU has more talent than WVU, even if their record didn't show it this year. But I would give this at least half a point on the quality win scale (from 0 to 1).

The worst loss has to go to Georgia Tech. They are the ACC champs, 10-2 on the year going into the Orange Bowl, and a favorite in the game. This was a prime chance for them, as well as the conference as a whole, to make a statement. Iowa was the second place team in a WEAK Big 10 this year and should have no business beating the ACC champs. However, they actually dominated the game and the score should not have been as close as it was. This is two years in a row that GT has looked awful in a bowl game when their opponent has a month to prepare for their option offense. Not a good sign for Paul Johnson and the Yellow Jacket fans.

Overall, the ACC went 3-4 in bowls this season. While not the worst year they have ever had, it certainly doesn't help the national perception of this conference in football. FSU looks to be on the rise (a rash of 5* recruits have committed since Fisher took over after the bowl), Clemson should continue to be good, VT is always there, and GT looks like it will be a force in the conference. For the national perception to change any though the ACC needs to have a national title contender in the conference and two or three other teams hovering around the 10 win mark. Until that happens (and the ACC wins some big bowl games for goodness sake) it will still be looked at as a second rate football conference, behind the SEC, Big XII, PAC 10, and Big 10.