The ACC spent a lot of time pounding their chest at their recent football media days. When an Alabama newspaper makes these statements about the ACC Football :
Here’s a fun fact if you’re an ACC fan: Ten of the 14 SEC programs have lost their last game against an ACC opponent…
Old-fashioned Southern conference bragging rights will be on the line, but with a twist. The ACC owns them. The SEC’s desperately trying to win them back.
Then you know times are good for the ACC, but I’m going to give you 5 reasons why it’s not going last. What has happened here on our humble ACC blog? Have we gone anti-ACC? Nope, just pumping the breaks looking at both sides, but after this article I’ll tell you in our next piece why the ACC is going to stay at or near the top.
The SEC won’t stay down
No two conferences are more intertwined that ACC and SEC. The conferences share 4 states, many teams have long histories with each other, and the conferences on average play each other 7-8 times a year. Last year they faced off 14 times. From 2006-2012 the SEC won 7 straight national titles by 4 different teams. It was the dominant football conference, but there is no question the SEC has declined in recent years. This was due to poor coaching hires, and a drop in QB performance. The SEC recruits to well to stay down for long. They eat and breath football. Their fans will demand improvement, and that’s bad thing for the ACC.
It’s a two team league (Clemson and FSU)
Critics of the ACC still look at the conference as a two team league (Clemson and FSU). What if both fall off? Who will step in their place? So far in the last 4 years only Georgia Tech in 2014 has finished the year in the top 10. Until someone does it then it hasn’t happened, and we’re still waiting for another team to make a run at the playoffs.
2016 bowl season was fluke
Prior to the 9-3 2016 bowl season, the ACC was 13-19 in bowl the 3 previous seasons. If we’re using bowl records to help conference strength, then what happened in 2013, 2014 and 2015? That wasn’t long ago.
That big ole revenue gap
The ACC Network is coming, I personally think it will be a success, but at some point, football given the financial gap with the Big 10 and SEC is going to start mattering when it comes to retaining coaches and keeping up with facilities. The ACC’s recent run has been at a financial disadvantage. That’s not sustainable.
Fighting History – reverting back to the mean.
Go back to the 1950s the ACC has never had a winning decade against the SEC, and has losing historical records against the Pac 12, Big 12, and Big 10. The ACC has been trying since 1953 to have sustained football success. Every time the ACC had a short break out football-wise, they quickly fell back. The late 1990s and early 2000s, had Georgia Tech winning 3 in a row against Georgia, FSU playing an elite level, and UNC was very good. The ACC fell back. In the early 90s, the ACC won 2 national titles in 4 years (1990 – Georgia Tech, 1993 – FSU) and it fell back. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Everything the ACC is attempting to do is uncharted territory.
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