Everyone knows the ACC has been a Hokie world since the conference expanded, so was no surprise to see Virginia Tech atop the wins list in the latest installment of our "TI Trends" series.
Over the last five seasons, here's what the overall and ACC records look like:
Overall
1. Virginia Tech 52-15
2. Boston College 47-19
3. Georgia Tech 43-23
4. Clemson 41-24
5. Florida State 38-27
6. Miami 37-26
7. Wake Forest 37-26
8. Maryland 30-32
9. Virginia 29-32
10. North Carolina 28-33
11. N.C. State 26-35
12. Duke 11-48
ACC
1. VT 31-9
2. GT 28-12
3. BC 26-14
4. Clemson 24-16
5. FSU 21-19
5. WF 21-19
7. Miami 20-20
8. Virginia 18-22
9. UNC 17-23
10. Maryland 16-24
11. N.C. State 14-26
12. Duke 4-36
This does not include 2004, the year Virginia Tech and Miami began ACC play (and the year before Boston College joined).
Add in the Hokies' 7-1 ACC record that season, and the advantage becomes more pronounced.
As far as Clemson goes, I thought it was extremely telling to see exactly where the Tigers' 16 ACC regular-season losses have come from over the five-year stretch:
Four from Georgia Tech (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009)
Three from Boston College (2005, 2006, 2007)
Two from Virginia Tech (2006, 2007).
So nine of the 16 defeats have come to the teams that rank above Clemson in victories.
Add in another loss to Georgia Tech in 2004 (single coverage on Calvin Johnson, anyone?), and another in last year's ACC title game, and the Tigers have suffered a heaping amount of heartache at the expense of the Bees.
Seven losses in eight tries. Who'd have envisioned that after the 39-3 beatdown Clemson laid on Georgia Tech in 2003 in Atlanta? Or after the 31-7 annihilation at Death Valley in 2006?
Something else no one predicted: A 20-20 ACC record compiled by Miami over a five-season stretch. Unreal.
Two other revealing Clemson stats that emerged in the research:
-- Clemson has been favored 39 times against BCS competition over the last five seasons, and the only team that's been favored more is Virginia Tech (40 times).
Yet the Tigers have won just 56.4 percent of those games. Virginia Tech, by comparison, has won 77.5 percent.
-- Clemson has posted a 13-7 ACC home record over the five-season stretch. Not a bad record, but certainly not what you'd expect given Death Valley's reputation as one of the tougher places to play. Georgia Tech and Boston College have compiled better home records (16-4 and 15-5, respectively).
The losses have come to Boston College (twice), Maryland (twice), Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Miami.
Through the course of this series, I'm betting Clemson will fare well in most of the statistical categories compared to the ACC's other 11 teams. That statistical consistency and solid standing will produce the question: Why hasn't this team won an ACC title, or more division titles?
I think the aforementioned two trends -- too many losses as the favorite, inability to win more at home -- go a long way toward explaining why there hasn't been more success.
Here are the details on the favorites vs. BCS competition:
Most games as favorite:
1. VT 40
2. Clemson 39
3. GT 38
4. FSU 37
4. Miami 37
6. BC 29
7. WF 27
8. UNC 21
9. Virginia 15
10. N.C. State 11
11. Maryland 10
12. Duke 3
Winning percentage
1. VT 77.5
2. UVA 73.3
3. WF 70.3
4. GT 68.4
5. BC 65.5
6. Miami 56.7
7. Clemson 56.4
8. FSU 54
9. UNC 52.3
10. Maryland 40
11. N.C. State 27.2
12. Duke ... eh, who cares?
And the home records in ACC games:
1. VT 16-4
1. Georgia Tech 16-4
3. Boston College 15-5
4. Clemson 13-7
4. Wake Forest 13-7
6. FSU 11-9
6. Virginia 11-9
6. Miami 11-9
6. UNC 11-9
10. Maryland 10-10
11. N.C. State 9-11
12. Duke 2-18
On to some links...
You might've heard that the Big Ten could be expanding at some point.
So far, there hasn't been much good journalism from a reporting standpoint. The best reporting has been of the explanatory variety, largely examining exactly how the Big Ten Network became such a juggernaut.
This piece, published by Missouri's hometown newspaper, is probably the best I've seen on the topic.
It was more than the promise of a paycheck that brought Mike Hall to the Big Ten three years ago. A victory on ESPN’s reality show “Dream Job” landed the Missouri broadcast student a job at the cable network, which later turned into an anchor chair at ESPNU.
But in 2007, the Big Ten was about to launch something new, something bold: a 24-hour cable network devoted to nothing but the 11 schools that make up the conference. The network’s home would be Chicago, not far from Hall’s native Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Leaving the royalty of sports television for the rookie station might have seemed like career suicide, but Hall was a believer in Jim Delany. The Big Ten Network was the Big Ten commissioner’s baby. And nobody puts Delany’s baby in the corner.
“The thing I don’t think a ton of people get is Jim Delany doesn’t make a move unless it’s a home run,” Hall said. “He didn’t add a team to the conference until he had Penn State” in 1990. “And that was a home run. He decided to use instant replay for officials before any other commissioner did. Then he started his own network before anyone else thought it was possible.”
Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News talks with past SEC commissioners Roy Kramer and Harvey Schiller.
The most interesting thing in this piece is that Schiller says Texas' entry to the SEC was actually not a virtual done deal in the late 1980s.
Two decades ago, Arkan sas wanted to bring Texas into the SEC, "but I don't think it was close to hap pening," Schiller said. "I think once dialogue started, it was clear you had to take Texas A&M and Texas be cause they're traditional rivals."
Weird.
Just a few weeks ago, as we pointed out in a link to this column, Schiller told Alabama columnist Paul Finebaum that the Longhorns were all but signed, sealed and delivered before the Texas A&M obstacle entered the picture.
"The one that made the most sense was Texas," Schiller said. "I spent some time with DeLoss Dodds (the Texas athletic director) and he really wanted to join the conference."
Done deal. Everything agreed to but the name on the dotted line.
Is Schiller now backtracking? Or did Finebaum take a quote and run with it? Hard to tell.
In the Greensboro newspaper, the biggest actual news to come out of this week's ACC meetings was:
-- To brand every uniform in every sport with an ACC logo -- something most teams already do;
-- To change the league portion of the women's basketball schedules from 14 to 16 games beginning with the 2011-12 season -- a move that matches the current men's basketball schedule.
In The State, a Sakerlina assistant whines about fans whining on message boards.
In Athens, Georgia basketball coach Mike Fox is all atwitter about his players' Twitter habits.
Fox said Wednesday night that he wants his players -– several of whom had become prolific tweeters -– to focus on improving the team and to avoid the “distraction” of communicating minutiae about themselves to the world in 140-character snippets.
“I want our players to focus on our team,” Fox said. “I told them, ‘Right now, I don’t want to hear a bunch of Twitter tweets and stuff like that.’ . . . The off-season is about getting better. We need to get better.”
Looks like the Pac-10 is taking a proactive approach to this expansion thing.
The Pac-10 has hired Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to explore expansion opportunities and advise the conference on its next media rights deal.
The Hollywood-based firm also will help the conference reposition its brand to highlight its nexus to the entertainment (Los Angeles) and technology (Silicon Valley) markets of the U.S.
The three mandates are interrelated and increase the likelihood that the Pac-10 will launch its own cable channel when its current media deals expire after the 2011-12 school year.
And more on expansion:
The Big Ten is likely to expand to 16 teams and four divisions, with details to be finalized by 2011, two sources close to the process told The Detroit News on Tuesday.
The sources, who asked not to be identified because plans aren't official, acknowledge Missouri and Nebraska are among the prime targets to join the Big Ten, although no formal invitations have been extended.
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut -- all currently in the Big East -- and even an Atlantic Coast Conference member such as Maryland, are considered possibilities to shift to the Big Ten.
Guessing Notre Dame fans aren't happy about this revelation into exactly how much cash their school paid Charlie Weis.
Weis earned $2,927,090 from July 2008 to June 2009, according to federal tax documents the Tribune obtained Wednesday.
LW
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