ACC Pride In Clemson's Hands

No conference took a bigger hit on "Monster Saturday" than the ACC. Heading into the season the ACC had four teams (#10 Virginia Tech, #12 Miami (FL), #15 Georgia Tech, #17 Florida State) with legitimate hopes at playing in BCS bowl games, possibly National Title Consideration. Those teams are a combined 3-5 after two weeks with the three wins coming against Florida A&M, South Carolina State and Samford. Miami and FSU had marquee match ups against other title contenders Ohio State and Oklahoma, respectively, and lost by a combined 42 points. Ouch! Georgia Tech who is the defending ACC Champion was playing a Kansas team riding a seven game losing streak including an opening week 6-3 loss to FCS North Dakota State. Kansas 28, Tech 25. Ouch!

Amazingly, none of those were the most embarrassing loss of the weekend of the ACC's title contenders. Virginia Tech, after an opening week loss to an allegedly strong Boise State team, bounced back with a stunning loss to FCS opponent James Madison 21-16.

The Hokies aren't the only BCS conference team with a loss to an FCS oppponent this season. Ole Miss? Below average team with QB issues. Minnesota? Bad Big Ten team with lots of issues. Kansas? Bad Big-12 team with a new head coach. Virginia Tech? Established coaching staff, veteran Heisman contender at QB, two All-ACC running backs, one of the best defensive coordinators in college football... HOW?

The rest of the conference did nothing to make up for their money-maker's ineptitude. The team everyone thought was ready to take a big step forward in 2010 was North Carolina who has now been dismantled by two NCAA investigations ridding Butch Davis' squad of many of their best players. Wake Forrest picked up the first conference win with a back and forth offensive scrimmage against perennial doormat Duke. Boston College is sitting at 2-0 after very uninspiring wins over Weber State and Kent State. Maryland nearly lost to Navy before beating up on Morgan State (Who??). Virginia picked up a win over Richmond before losing to a very pedestrian looking Southern Cal team. NC State blew past Western Carolina before pulling out a seven point win at UCF.

So, basically, NC State's seven point win against a mid-major is the best victory by any team in the conference this year. I hear people knock the SEC's out of conference schedules and we defend it by pointing to the slobber-knocking that goes on during in-conference play. I have never seen so many FCS opponents on team's schedule as the first two weeks of play in the ACC. And with the top of the conference looking pretty average, it is probably safe to say that the ACC is the worst BCS conference in America, and possibly worse than some of the mid-major conference.

Now, it all comes down to Clemson, and they will get their stage. Last year's Atlantic division champion didn't get much preseason hype with the loss of C.J. Spiller, Jacoby Ford and Ricky Sapp to the NFL and the expected departure of QB Kyle Parker to the Colorado Rockies. Parker passed on an $800,000 signing bonus to play football this fall and Clemson believes they have the pieces in place to make a run at a conference title (looking more feasible now). But, will they be able to do something no one else in their conference has been able to do thus far this season and beat a ranked opponent?

ESPN's College GameDay will be on hand in Auburn to watch the battle of the Tigers as Clemson tries to salvage whatever dignity might be left for the ACC. So far this year Clemson has done about as much as their other 2-0 conference members having picked up their wins over North Texas and FCS foe Presbyterian. Certainly there will be a lot of pride on the line for Clemson and also the opportunity to become the conference's top team. Fans of FSU, Miami or Georgia Tech likely don't often cheer for Clemson, but they better root hard for them next Saturday because they're the ACC's last hope.