I watched the South Carolina v NC State game last night. It was an ugly game. Both teams had early season jitters, and neither offense got into a rhythm. The game was close all along, and NC State was one dropped Russell Wilson pass in the end zone away from taking it.
Throughout the entire game, I mean the entire game, the announcers made it out to be a miss-match because it was an SEC school playing an ACC school. At one point, one of the announcers actually said [paraphrased], “I noticed in the pregame that SC looked much more athletic. They have those SEC bodies versus the ACC bodies at NC State.” They even brought up a stat that the SEC leads in all-time play against ACC teams two hundred something to one hundred something.
Irrelevant! This is a new season. The entire dynamic of D-I football has changed over the past ten years, and the playing field has been leveled on a conference-by-conference basis. The ACC has added powerhouse football programs, including Miami, VA Tech, and Boston College. The ACC finished last year strong as a conference, and they became the first conference in history to send ten teams to bowl games. The last time I checked, the ACC was a D-I conference with four AP Top 25 teams.
So tell me how, in a 7-3 game in the 4th quarter, was NC State overwhelmed by the SEC? I wish Jay Smith had caught that game winner. The announcers could have eaten crow. We should all root for VA Tech tomorrow to beat Alabama tomorrow night. ‘Bama is favored by a TD in the spread. The game is in the Georgia Dome, so there will be no excuses over where it’s played. It’s a banner game for the ACC to earn some respect this season.
My favorite part about this post is its Terpiness. Goterps.
EH, it’s about the conference. Go Terps goes without saying. But the out of conference play of other ACC schools has a great effect on what sort of ceiling the Terps have this year, what bowl game they might end up in, etc. Of course, I’d love to see the Terps beat Cal again this year. But that VA Tech vs Alabama game has a much higher profile for the ACC. The conference needs big wins on the national stage to regain the favor of pollsters and rise up in the BCS.
I guess the conference is going to have to get some respect the old-fashioned way — win some games.
True true. We could start with a UMD win against Cal. I can’t believe the spread is 21 points. Talk about disrespect. This is a team we beat by eight points last year!