Does The ACC Deserve a BCS Bid?

"The story is a sad one told many times/the story of my life and trying times."- R.E.M., "How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us"

That's the first thing that comes to mind when reimagining the whole ACC/Big East switcheroo of a few years back. To recap, ACC commissioner John Swofford, stuck off the realness of having a Florida State/Miami conference championship game in sold-out Alltel Stadium year in, year out, raids the Big East for Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech (due to near-extortive tactics by Virginia government) to pad out its roster to twelve teams. It's also worth noting that Syracuse was originally tabbed to jump ship.

On the one hand, it struck a chord with people who were looking to prove that the conference could be a legitimate stronghold, since the past couple of decades had proven the ACC to be Florida State and a bunch of teams that would usually get a Bowden smackdown when they thought they could snatch the crown (the exceptions being the 1995 UVA team that tied for the conference championship and 2001 Maryland, which still lost to FSU). But the other way of looking at it was that the ACC is first and foremost a basketball conference, and this expansion would wreak havoc on scheduling. Frankly, it's a shame that some kids just entering college might have to wait years before they see their squad go to the Dean Dome or have Duke come to their house (truly a great experience no matter how good they happen to be at the time). Moreover, there were questions about how these schools fit in to the profile of the ACC, generally considered the province of academically esteemed, mid-sized flagship universities and smaller, prestigious private schools that all tend to have well-balanced athletics. I'll leave it at that.
To this point, it looks like the nays have it. Though conference records in bowl games can be very misleading, the ACC went 2-6 in this year's slate, including Virginia Tech losing to what was either the 3rd or even 4th best team in the Big XII, depending on who you ask. The only wins were BC (the ACC runner-up) beating a Michigan State team missing several key players on defense and ranked 8th in the Big Ten and Wake Forest's technical "upset" of the 25th ranked UConn Huskies, a team that I would argue is one of the country's most overrated (not to mention it was damn near a home game for the Demon Deacons).

On the other side of the ledger, you have Virginia's meltdown in Jacksonville, Georgia Tech giving up 571 total yards to Fresno State (with their DC as interim coach), Maryland getting outlasted by Oregon State, Clemson dropping to Auburn in OT and a decimated Florida State giving a valiant effort but ultimately getting beat up by Kentucky. What's worse- it's tough to see any of these teams coming back with a top 15 ranking next year, to say the least. With the possible exception of Clemson, every team near the top suffers big losses; VT's defense gets gutted, the Matt Ryan era comes to a close at BC, Virginia brings back 14 starters and gets a couple a key returns from injuries, but they'll be without Chris Long and 2/5ths of their O-line with an early-season schedule that includes home games against USC and East Carolina and a trip to Storrs (OOC games on the road ... not Al Groh's area of expertise).

I'm not going to suggest that the conference is at the level of the WAC or Mountain West just yet. After all, things can be cyclical, and there's reason to believe that Virginia Tech will bounce back like they always do, or Clemson can finally get it together with Willy Korn and C.J. Spiller or that Butch Davis can turn things around quickly; then again, let's not forget how totally awesome those first classes were for Chuck Amato and Al Groh.

But let's face it, although West Virginia destroyed Oklahoma and has proven itself to be a BCS monster, they've likely hired their Larry Coker and the Big East didn't quite turn out to have the juggernaut year everyone expected ... so at least the ACC can still see themselves as perhaps stronger, particularly with the results of this past season in interconference play. Cincinnati could get something together if they can hold on to their coach (who will be Jim Grobe x 12 when it comes to discussing candidates for offseason openings), same with Rutgers, who still has something to work with even if they backslid a bit this year. As for Louisville, lord only knows and UConn's ceiling appears to be BC at best.