Criticism of the Atlantic Coast Conference has been rampant in the last few days, after Virginia Tech’s Orange Bowl loss to Kansas marked the seventh straight bowl defeat for ACC representatives.
But is this criticism deserved?
Overall records for ACC teams have been almost identical to records of the other major conferences in recent seasons. This year, for example, the ACC had two teams win 10 or more games, and three more that won nine. Only the Big 12 and SEC had more than two teams with 10 wins, and every BCS conference had exactly five teams with nine or more wins, except for the Big East with four.
On the other end of the spectrum, every BCS conference has one team with three or fewer wins, except for the Big 12 with two and the Pac-10 with none.
Those numbers indicate that the ACC isn’t significantly better or worse than any other BCS conference. Since the expansion to 12 teams in 2005, the ACC has ranked second, fourth, and this season fifth (pre-bowls) in the Sagarin conference rankings.
The best teams in the conference may not often finish in the national top five like the best teams in other conferences, but to place that highly in the Sagarin the ACC has to have strong teams finishing in the middle of the pack.
The ACC has obviously been in decline, but to say, "You’d be hard pressed to prove that [any BCS conference] comes close" to being worse than the ACC seems like a stretch.
If the primary reason for knocking the ACC is bowl records the last few seasons, then I have a question: Why do people put so much stock in bowl results?
I understand the temptation to ascribe bowls great importance. They're games played against a good opponents from other conferences—something most teams haven’t had since September.
If bowl games are really so important, then Oklahoma is one of the worst football programs in the nation, as the Sooners lost four straight BCS bowl games (two Fiestas, one Sugar, and one Orange).
But no one says Oklahoma is a bad football program...so why would anyone say the ACC is a bad football conference?
Notre Dame, meanwhile hasn’t won a bowl game since the 1993 Cotton Bowl, but until this awful season no one would call ND a bad program.
The truth is that bowl games aren't good measures of teams or conferences. Really, they’re just glorified exhibition games.
No other major sport, either amateur or professional, requires teams to take a month off before playing their most important games of the season. After such a long break, the rust is obvious—consider the numerous penalties, mistakes, and “what the heck was that?” type of plays seen in these games.
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