The ACC season kicks off in just about a week, and by now every fan has read more than their share of season previews. The written words of Bruce Feldman, Phil Steele, Athlon, Lindy's, and Street and Smith's have become the gospel of college football fans.
Depth charts, matchups, and schemes are swirling around the brain, and the words "Hot Seat" and "Breakout Year" are burned into our retinas. Preseason All-ACC picks, freshmen to watch, and divisional champs have been droned on about so frequently that we can all recite them in our sleep.
With only a week to go, let's take a step back and check out the gameday atmosphere of the ACC and the best of what our 12 member institutions have to offer as we get set to experience another fall of ACC football.
Best Stadium: North Carolina
Most folks don't look to Chapel Hill when they think of the best college football stadiums. Most folks also confuse the idea of the best with the biggest.
Kenan Stadium is a simple 60,000-seat horseshoe that is nestled right into the heart of the UNC campus, surrounded by pine trees with a view of the legendary Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower just over the west end zone. Visitors to the venue are never disappointed.
Several publications have ranked Kenan Stadium one of the premier places to enjoy a college football game in the nation, including a paper in the heart of the SEC, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ringed by the pine trees as well as dormitories, a dining hall, classrooms, the hospital, and the Bell Tower, there is no denying the picturesque qualities of Kenan.
Best Tailgating: Clemson
There are pockets of tailgating greatness scattered throughout the ACC. However, for overall community atmosphere, there are only four true contenders.
The Tigers edge out North Carolina State, Florida State, and Virginia Tech because of the sheer size of their tailgating Saturdays in Pickens County. The spacious fields filled with RVs, law enforcement concerned more with helping and patron safety than ticketing and arresting, as well as committed lifelong tailgaters, make Clemson an environment perfectly conducive to enjoying a fall Saturday.
Generators rumble, grills sizzle, and the Southern rock blares in the air, while televisions set on tables and hung on the side of RVs show the highlights of the college football world. Solid Orange nation offers beers, bourbon, and barbecue to old friends, new friends, and perfect strangers alike.
The aromas of Carolina barbecue, fried turkey, homemade jambalaya, chili, and the rest of a veritable cornucopia of traditional Southern fare mix in the air to produce a heavenly scent that simply screams Southern Football Saturdays. It's a set up that would make any SEC fan proud.
Best Pre-Kickoff Ritual: Clemson, Florida State, and Virginia Tech
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3 months ago
It is the pine trees, can't wait to get there Aug. 30.
3 months ago
not so sure about that stadium pick
3 months ago
Cant argue with the picks, from Kenan Stadium to the U, Felder got it right!
3 months ago
Miami does have the best helmet, no question about it. Never been to any UNC games but I do like Virginia's stadium (and campus).
Good write up.
3 months ago
Ian and Matt you know I'm excited to get up there for the 30th and take in another game at Kenan. Thanks for the reads.
Daniel, UVA's Scott stadium was the only one that I was thinking of putting ahead of Kenan. The pergola and the grass hill are two of the things that I love about that stadium. Its a really great place to watch a game, again not the biggest but certainly one of the best stadiums around.
Thomas, I can understand your skepticism since I'm assuming you haven't been to Kenan. As I told Daniel in so far as best venues Scott and Kenan take the cake. Their surroundings and the way they blend into the campus' make them easy choices in my opinion. I'd be interested in discovering what you think is the best ACC stadium.
Thanks for the reads guys, love the feedback.
from 3 months ago
Mike,
I like Clemson and Lane Stadium better than Kenan.
I have been there, and I do think its the prettiest though.
--Thomas
from 3 months ago
I think you vote on prettiest stadium rather than most enjoyable experience, and in that case I think you'd be right
3 months ago
Thomas for best in game atmosphere Memorial and Lane take the cake. My personal favorite would be Memorial with the C-L-E-M-S-O-N Fight Tigers chants never ending, the solid orange on everybody in the stadium and Tiger Rag getting played almost as much as Rocky Top in Neyland.
With that said, I guess that is where our interpretation of best stadium differs. Basically we're agreeing that Memorial and Lane are the best in game atmospheres to watch an ACC football game while Kenan is the best setting in terms of aesthetics.
Glad to know you've taken in a Carolina game, when we're on Kenan is a great atmosphere, especially at night. Getting the TAR-HEELS chant 60,000 strong like we did against the #4 Canes in '04 was probably the best atmosphere in KS since the '01 beating of FSU or the '96 showdown with FSU when Gameday was there and we laid a ginormous egg.
3 months ago
Nice article...I would also like a breakdown of the high school teams that are capable of beating most of the ACC teams. SEC!!!
from 3 months ago
yeah totally, vanderbilt mississippi state, ole miss, and kentucky are just terrifying. Grow up.
from 3 months ago
Vandy is a power... OLE Miss, Kentucky, Miss.. State, S. Carolina, This year Arkansas and look at Alabama and who they lost to prior to Auburn.
turyly the SEC is great
from 3 months ago
I would like to see a breakdown of how many girls middle school basketball teams could dominate sec mens basketball, answer: a lot.
3 months ago
Nice article about football about a basketball conference.
from 3 months ago
WOW, NICE SENTENCE STRUCTURE.
from 3 months ago
WOW, NICE SENTENCE STRUCTURE. I GUESS THEY TEACH THAT AT UGA !!!
3 months ago
Man I love Kenan and UNC's beautiful camps. Matt its killin me ima miss that first game in Kenan you know this is two straight years!!!! ugh well atleast we get the fightin irish. The only thing I would say about kenan is that the fans aren't very rowdy or loud, but as far as the most beautiful and pictturesque it is definitely tops. nice write mike
3 months ago
Samuel,
Thanks for the read and I definitely hope that the atmosphere continues to improve with the team getting consistently better under Butch.
Silver and Brian,
Not sure why you felt it necessary to make backhanded comments about the ACC. The SEC was mentioned once in this article and that was in terms of Clemson's tailgating, and was a very valid statement.
I am glad that you guys are feeling yourself and felt the need to try and exert some sort of conference dominance. The SEC is currently a better conference top to bottom but, and I don't mind saying it, the talent player for player is not that far off for athletes at the top of their games.
In the last five years (since expansion was announced and finalized) the SEC has produced 36 first rounders while the ACC has produced 33 (Not including 6 Miami 1st rounds during their last year of the Big East). The gap isn't that large at the top tier talent because the kids all come from the same places.
Clemson, Miami, UNC and FSU have recruited kids away from Tenn, UF, UGA and S. Carolina and vise versa. The biggest issue that set the ACC back wasn't the talent on rosters but rather the coaching at the member institutions. As the coaching improves in the ACC so to will the talent development, player production and the overall quality of football.
from 3 months ago
I would disagree with claiming that the ACC has comparable talent to the SEC based on the NFL draft, and the ACC suffers due to bad coaching. The truth is that ACC teams are able to retain a higher percentage of their college football players until their 4th and 5th year, which increases their pool of draftable players. SEC programs, meanwhile, recruit a lot of very talented players that are in the program for a year or two but then flunk out. Also, the ACC's reputation for producing players that are smarter and do not get into trouble means that the NFL is more willing to draft them. By contrast, there are some programs in the SEC, in the SEC West in particular, that most NFL franchises won't go anywhere near because those programs have reputations for recruiting large numbers of players that are not intelligent or law abiding. There really is something going on, for instance, when you see an SEC school go 8 - 5 and an ACC school go 8 - 5, and the SEC school will have 1 player drafted where the ACC school will have 4. More to the point: look at all the top recruiting classes UGA gets and all the games that they have won. Yet, how often does UGA have #1 draft picks? Another case: LSU. They have won 2 national titles and 2 more BCS bowl games since 2001. Yet relatively few of their players get drafted, even on defense. Not many players off that Florida national title team got drafted either. But USC goes 10 - 2 this year, doesn't even look dominant in most of their games, and they have 5 guys drafted in the first round? I will tell you: another team that benefits from this is Notre Dame. Their defensive backs have spent the last 6 years getting burned by USC, Michigan, Ohio State, LSU, Purdue ... anybody with a passing game AND THEY ALL GET DRAFTED! These were guys that would have never gotten on the field for an SEC secondary because of their lack of speed or cover skills that get taken in the NFL. I am sorry, but most ACC schools simply do not have SEC talent. It isn't their fault: it is the academic standards. SEC schools have to raise theirs. Most of the SEC programs would still excel without recruiting guys that they know will flunk out. They just don't try, and that is the frustrating thing.
3 months ago
Not sure about the choice of stadiums. Scott Stadium, Death Valley and Lane Stadium are all better. Even NC State is right up there.
enjoyed the article............. and in 2004 and 2005 the ACC was rated the best football conference and of course had more draft picks (the true measure of how good the talent actually is)
3 months ago
Great article. Kind of iffy about death valley not being up at no. 1. But besides that, on the dot.
3 months ago
Jay and Brendan,
I hear you guys, I think my choice for best stadium is getting mixed up with best stadium atmosphere, I guess I didn't make that clear. Scott Stadium and Kenan, in my opinion, are the two best aesthetic venues in the ACC. The Hill, The Pergola and the directly in campus setting make Scott rank right up there with the pines and the Bell Tower at Kenan.
I do admit Lane, Death Valley and have the best atmospheres you'll find in the ACC. The rawkus crouds and winning traditions definitely scream college football and if I'm spending my dime for a great time I'm picking one of those places to take in the whole experience from pregame tailgating to post game celebrating.
Thanks for the reads guys and with the season just a week away I'm looking forward to the ACC pushing to dispell the "basketball conference" stigma that has continued to grow since expansion.
3 months ago
The article said that Wake wears all black at every home game. this is not true, in fact they probably wear black on gold more than black on black. Should definitely do some research before writing it in an article.
3 months ago
Go Deacs,
You caught a mistake I missed, I left out ACC from "every home game." It should read "every ACC home game."
Before last season you'd be correct, especially since they didn't wear black on black under Grobe. However, last season they brought the black on blacks out at the start of the ACC season. The two home games against Army and Nebraska saw them wear the gold and black that you're talking about.
With their first ACC home game against Maryland they donned the all black and went undefeated at home for the rest of the season.
Thanks for the read and sorry I left out ACC, I missed that in editing.
3 months ago
My response was a sincere compliment to your article, but also a tongue-in-cheek comment about ACC football. I'm sorry if the truth hurts, but the ACC is known as a basketball conference (a compliment of the quality of the ACC's brand of college hoops). The football conference is competitive, but not elite as far as having a top 5 contender on the national scene. The SEC is obviously superior to the ACC in football while the ACC has the obvious edge in college hoops.
3 months ago
Silver Fox,
Thanks for clearing that up. I do agree with you that the SEC is the football king and top to bottom no other league can touch you all right now. My only point was that at the elite athlete level (i.e. first round NFL draft picks) the ACC isn't that far behind. In fact for projected starters the ACC is second to the SEC currently.
I think there are enough players around the south, from VA to LA and east Texas, to go around and I think you will see some serious improvement in the ACC status as a conference. Thanks for the reads and the kind words, sorry it got misconstrued.
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