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When John Swofford imagined a new world of ACC football 15 years ago, he imagined a world in which Miami and Florida State would define the league. It is one of the more surprising plot twists of college football in the 21st century that we are 19 years in, and Miami-FSU has still not decided a single ACC football championship.
The failure of the Miami-Florida State rivalry is the number one reason ACC football has not realized its potential this century (with the sole exception of a majestic 2016 campaign in which the ACC was clearly the best conference in America). Everyone can see that.
Though Clemson is bringing national championship prestige and glory to the ACC, it all seems diminished by the reality – it is what it is – that the Tigers aren’t playing a heavyweight opponent from the ACC Coastal in Charlotte each year. Miami was Clemson’s opponent in 2017, but that was men against boys.
Swofford had hoped that a team with superpower status — Clemson today, Florida State five years ago – would meet another superpower in Charlotte each December. Miami was that most logical option. It never has panned out.
Yet, as ACC fans continue to shake their heads at the failure of Miami-Florida State to take off in the ACC era of that rivalry, it can’t be ignored or forgotten that Virginia Tech is part of this story, too.
In their first year as ACC members, Virginia Tech and Miami climbed over Florida State and played the late-season game which decided the 2004 ACC champion. This wasn’t a set-aside conference championship game in Charlotte — that wouldn’t begin until the next year (2005) — but it was a late-season, winner-take-all game.
Virginia Tech won and advanced to the Sugar Bowl to play Auburn. Miami watched its dynasty begin to crumble. One year later, a Peach Bowl blowout suffered at the hands of LSU would drive a stake through The U as we had known it.
If Miami-Florida State was the rivalry the ACC and Swofford counted on the most in 2004, Miami-Virginia Tech was probably second.
Virginia Tech played Florida State for the national title in the 1999 season. It made prestigious bowl games on multiple other occasions in the mid-1990s. Virginia Tech had become more than just a good regional success story. The Hokies had become a national program, with Michael Vick thrusting the school squarely into the mass-media spotlight.
Moreover, of the three schools we have discussed in this piece — Miami, Florida State, Virginia Tech — the Hokies have been more consistently good this century than the other two. Florida State won a national title, yes, but FSU had a very strong five-year run from 2012 through 2016. Virginia Tech won a division or conference title (if not both) in a majority of 13 seasons from 2004 through 2016.
Florida State at its best (2013 and 2014) was a juggernaut, acquiring a level of might Virginia Tech has never attained as an ACC member. Yet, Virginia Tech has been better for a longer period of time as an ACC member this century.
If you examined the ACC after its triumphant 2016 season, you would have reasonably concluded that Virginia Tech was going to remain a central presence in the conference.
Oops.
This brings us to the present moment.
On Saturday, Virginia Tech and Miami might play the least consequential game of their runs as ACC schools. Yes, the game matters for bowl eligibility, but since when is the goal to be bowl-eligible in either Blacksburg or Coral Gables? Coaches at Virginia Tech and Miami aren’t paid to go 6-6 or 7-5. They aren’t paid to avoid losing seasons.
They are paid to win 10 games and collect division titles, challenging Clemson (formerly Florida State) in Charlotte in early December.
The reality that neither program appears anywhere close to contending for the ACC Coastal this year, and that Miami is a double-digit favorite in spite of a terrible start to its season, shows how far Miami-VT has fallen.
It isn’t just Miami-Florida State which has failed to live up to its own promise and hurt the ACC in the process. Miami-Virginia Tech — to a lesser but still significant degree — has failed as well.
Saturday will offer a reminder of that.
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