Fans of Florida State, Clemson or Virginia Tech don’t usually pound their chances over accomplishments of other schools who happen to play in the same conference. The good news is that at least for the time being, they shouldn’t have to listen to others do it either.
That’s because as a football league, the Atlantic Coast Conference has arrived. During bowl season, the ACC went 8-3 with two New Year’s Six wins and Clemson sits just one victory away from being the second team in four years from the ACC to claim a national championship.
While fans of ACC schools have rarely been one to boast about their conference’s dominance, one could make the argument that it was because they couldn’t. Upon the fall of Florida State’s dominance after 14 straight top 5 finishes, the ACC was the laughing stock of the major conferences.
From 2000-11, the conference regularly saw its schools defeated at the hands of others in the non-conference. During that stretch, the ACC also went 1-12 in BCS bowls.
The biggest conference-pride boasters have traditionally been SEC fans. The Southeastern Conference has the nation’s premier power in Alabama and has had a school claim a national championship in eight of the last 10 years entering the year which included seven straight from 2006-12.
This year, the Big Ten had a tendency to beat their chests a little more. The 14-team conference has four of the top eight teams in the current AP Poll — all of whom played in New Year’s Six bowls.
Against the ACC this season however, the SEC went just 4-9 with one game left to play for the national championship. The Big Ten went just 2-6 against the ACC with both wins coming from Northwestern. The six wins for the ACC were highlighted by FSU’s 33-32 win over Michigan in the Orange Bowl, Clemson’s 31-0 thrashing of Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl and Pittsburgh holding off eventual Big Ten champion Penn State 42-39 early in the season.
As far as Florida State is concerned, the Seminoles have never had a problem matching up with Power 5 opponents — at least not since Jimbo Fisher became head coach in 2010. Under Fisher, the Seminoles are 14-4 against non-conference Power 5 opponents (including Notre Dame) and 9-1 against the SEC.
While 2016 has the makings of a banner year for ACC football, the conference has been trending upward for several now. The conference is 16-9 against Power 5 opponents this season and an FBS-best 8-3 in bowl games, but over the last five years, the ACC has more major bowl victories than any other conference.
Although teams in the ACC are just starting to prove their worth among the nation’s best, the conference as a whole hasn’t been void of talent in a long time. Since 2005, only the SEC has had more players taken in the NFL Draft.
That talent is finally starting to translate to results on the field. As a football conference, the ACC has arrived. The only question now is whether or not it has staying power.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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