ACC Football: A Gamble That Didn't Pay Off

From inception in 1953 to 1971, the ACC rocked along as a very natural league. In '71 South Carolina dropped out over contrived SAT issues. After years of being a strange seven-team league the decision was made to add former SEC power Georgia Tech.

This gave the ACC a media base from Atlanta to Washington/Baltimore, and everything seemed hunky-dory.

The decision to add independent Florida State, often perceived as an outlaw school with no connection to the ACC, added football muscle. But the Seminoles' domination of the league in the '90s made the ACC look, well, Mickey Mouse.

By the turn of the century the idea of a 12-team superleague was in the works. The ACC would add Syracuse to give them the New York media, Boston College to give them the New England exposure, and make a natural partner for two former Big East clubs.

And to top it off, Miami, king of college football in the 1980s and early '90s, would be added. You remember this era of Hurricanes, 4 national championships in 9 seasons, waltzing around the home town of the opponent in full Army battle gear and fatigues (see photo above). The very sight of them made most teams run in fear.

Now Florida St had its arch rival and someone who could beat the Seminoles on a regular basis in their own conference. Miami to Boston media coverage. Duke basketball would now pass the Beatles in worldwide popularity and take aim at Elvis.

This would be the media capital of the world.

But then, Virginia Tech threatened the state of Virginia concerning its desire to get into the ACC. Jefferson's school had to back the Gobblers. Syracuse was out, VPI was in. And we don't mean the VIPs.

No New York media, we have old time gospel hour and bluegrass instead. Not only that, but Virginia Tech football has equaled the old outlaw status of Florida State while things in Tallahassee have gone downhill in this century.

In fact, Florida State's football program can now be described as "quaint."

But Miami will win the national championship every year, and the ACC will be filthy rich from a latter day Huey Long promotional gimmick of "share the wealth" as all the schools share in the revenue generated.

But when Miami lost a strange home game to Tennessee in 2003, Hurricane Kellen Winslow, Jr. complained loudly that he "was a soldier." But, he wasn't.

And suddenly Miami wasn't Miami anymore. If FSU is quaint, then Miami is old-timey, just another school whose glory days in football were back in the previous century, before Bill Clinton became president.

So there it is, the story of the demise of Atlantic Coast Conference football. A little greedy on the money end, a little illogical on the logistics of who is in the conference, and it has spelled misery for all involved.