The ACC's black eye

One of the dominant topics in ACC Land has centered on how the conference can improve its football reputation.

The obvious solutions, and ones that have been well documented here and elsewhere, are:

-- Get a freaking team into the BCS title game already (the last one was Florida State in 2000).

-- Get a freaking BCS at-large bid (the ACC is the only "power" conference that's yet to do it).

-- Win some of these marquee non-conference matchups.

The third solution has been chronicled a good bit as we inch closer to the start of the 2010 season. In case you missed it -- and there was a story over the weekend on it here -- there are some huge upcoming non-conference clashes with teams from the SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten.

North Carolina vs. LSU

Florida State at Oklahoma

Miami at Ohio State

Oh, and don't forget Virginia Tech vs. little 'ole Boise State

Or Clemson at Auburn

Clearly, these games will go a long way toward shaping the perception of the ACC as either a) an ascendant conference that's capable of hanging with and beating the big boys, or b) a collection of programs that can get it done in the NFL Draft, but cannot parlay it into on-field formidability.

I decided to take a deeper look into how the ACC has fared over the last five years not just against non-conference opposition, but non-conference opposition ranked in the Top 25.

The numbers are not pretty.

All told, the ACC has played a total of 51 games against non-conference teams ranked in the Top 25 at the time the games were played.

Thirty-six of those games, or 70.5 percent, have been losses.

Here's a look at the team-by-team breakdown (pun intended):

Boston College: 0-0 (the only team without a non-conference Top 25 opponent in five seasons; how about that strength of schedule, baby!)
Clemson: 2-3
Duke: 0-1
Florida State: 3-6
Georgia Tech: 2-5
Maryland: 2-3
Miami: 2-5
North Carolina: 0-5
N.C. State: 1-1
Virginia: 0-2
Virginia Tech: 3-3
Wake Forest: 0-2

Obvious problem: Florida State and Miami, the ACC's presumed showpieces when this expansion endeavor was hatched, combining for a 5-11 record.

Not-so-obvious problem: The percentage of ugly defeats in the loss column.

Of the 36 losses, 23 were by double-digits.

Twenty-three.

And a lot of those double-digit defeats were absolute maulings.

Tell me if some of these scores don't ring some painful bells up in Greensboro:

LSU 48, Virginia Tech 7
Florida 45, FSU 14
Florida 45, FSU 12
Florida 37, FSU 10
Alabama 34, Clemson 10
Southern Cal 52, Virginia 7
TCU 30, Virginia 14
South Florida 41, N.C. State 10
South Florida 37, North Carolina 10
Louisville 69, North Carolina 14
Oklahoma 51, Miami 13
Louisville 31, Miami 7
LSU 40, Miami 3
Cal 52, Maryland 13
Kansas 44, Duke 16

Of the ACC's 15 wins against non-conference opposition in the Top 25, just six have been by double digits:

FSU 54, BYU 28
FSU 33, WVU 21
Maryland 34, Rutgers 24
Miami 34, Texas A&M 17
Virginia Tech 35, Louisville 24
Virginia Tech 20, Cincinnati 7

So yeah, you might say the ACC has some work to do.

A few quick Monday links...

Good story by Pete Iacobelli of the AP on Mason Cloy.

Vic Koenning has an interesting take on one of his former pupils, Phillip Merling:

Koenning said he never regarded Merling as a poor practice player at Clemson. “If he didn’t work in practice, somebody else would have been in there.

“But we may have had an edge in that his uncle, Chris Rumph, was his position coach. He wasn’t going to let that happen.”

Koenning said Merling took the game seriously and recalled a game against Temple in Charlotte when that dedication manifested himself.

“One of the first plays of the game he busted an assignment and didn’t give full effort,” Koenning recalled. “He was supposed to have the contain on a reverse and he just wasn’t into it, and it went for a long gain. We took him out and kept him out the rest of the game.

“We rode home on the bus that night and must have gotten back at 3:30 or 4 in the morning. I gave him a ride home from there and we sat and talked ’til the sun came up. He really took it hard.”

In Knoxville, Mike Hamilton nixes Derek Dooley's idea for synthetic turf at Neyland Stadium.

Ted Miller of ESPN.com accompanied Pac-10 football coaches on their East Coast barnstorming tour.

And this story takes a look at how Butch Davis cleaned up Miami's program.

One of his first moves: Giving Luther Campbell the boot from the Hurricanes' sideline.


LW