Quote Originally Posted by Maroon Baboon View Post
Since 1980, the teams that make up the current ACC have won 9 national championships. All of them were before 2003 expansion. And the ACC BCS bowl record is a complete joke.
The ACC still produces a lot of NFL talent. Schools like FSU, Miami, and Clemson seem to be always in the top 10-15 in recruting annually, yet they underachieve on the field or maybe their recruits were overrated. The football culture of the ACC doesn't compare to those of the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 12 and probably never will. Half the ACC schools will always put basketball first. Schools like NC State, UNC, BC, and UVa put forth an effort to run competitive football programs but interest usually fades once they have a few mediocre seasons. They seem to change coaches and strategy at least twice a decade. Duke and Wake have glorified FCS sized football stadiums. Appalachian State probably draws as many fans, if not more, than those 2 schools. Miami's and Maryland's football fan bases are an embarrassment to the ACC. Maybe because they are in NFL towns? Now the ACC will add another similar fan base in Pitt. Syracuse, like BC, is a larger private school that seems limited on what they can put on the field.

The ACC's BCS Bowl record is an embarrassment. Clemson didn't help the cause by getting blown out by the Big East champ. Sometimes it appears that the ACC doesn't take the post season bowls as seriously as the other conferences. That again could be because of the ACC's mediocre football culture. Even the ACC's best coach, Frank Beamer, acknowledged that he didn't prepare the team as well as they should have for post season bowls until recently (after the Kansas loss?). Is it a coincidence that the 2 weakest BCS conferences are located on the East Coast? The best ACC football schools besides Tech are located in SEC country. College football is just a bigger part of life in the South. The ACC has very good "potential" with schools like Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, TECH, UVa, Maryland, and Pittsburgh but only a few of those programs have lived up to expectations lately.