ACC Football: Ranking Conference's Best Rivalries
Over the past few seasons, the Atlantic Coast Conference has served notice that it’s not just a basketball league anymore. Once thought to be a serious target for raiders during the recent round of conference realignment, the ACC instead expanded itself, formed a scheduling alliance with Notre Dame and gave doubters reasons for respect.
In 2013, Florida State won the league’s first national title since the Seminoles did so in 1999, taking the final BCS crown over Auburn. The Seminoles made the first College Football Playoff a year later, and this fall, Clemson was ranked No. 1 from the first CFP Top 25 poll to the national title game, before dropping a hard-fought 45-40 decision to Alabama.
The ACC plays good football, and the league has an improving list of rivalries that are meaningful on a regional and national scale. Here’s a ranking of the best ACC football rivalries. These rivalries made the list for their history as well as the significance to the league race and the national picture at large.
8. Virginia-Virginia Tech
1 of 8
When Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004, the Hokies already had one built-in rivalry among their new league members, and it was a big one. For the first time, Virginia and Virginia Tech were in the same conference, making an already-great rivalry even better.
The teams first met in 1895, and they’ve played annually since 1970. Now, they do so as ACC Coastal Division members, playing for the Commonwealth Cup. That cup has taken near-permanent residence in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech has never lost to the Cavaliers as an ACC member, going 11-0 in league play. In fact, the Hokies have won 15 of the teams’ last 16 meetings, with the only Virginia victory coming in 2003.
The Cavaliers have been close to a breakthrough recently. Three of the last four meetings have been decided by four points or less. Perhaps with new coach Bronco Mendenhall in town, Virginia will start carrying its weight in the rivalry.
7.. Miami-Virginia Tech
2 of 8
Six current ACC members were, at one time, members of the former Big East football conference. That meant that the new league members brought old rivalries with them to the ACC. One of the most significant was Miami-Virginia Tech.
When the ACC added both schools in 2004, it added a pair of strong football programs. Placing both teams in the Coastal Division only made it better. The teams have played annually since 1992, and since 1995, they’ve played 11 games with both teams ranked in the Top 25. In 2000, Virginia Tech was No. 2 and Miami No. 3, with the Hurricanes taking a 41-21 victory.
In their first season in the ACC, they played in the final game of the regular season with both teams in the Top 10 nationally with the league crown at stake. The Hokies took a 16-10 win. A year later, they played a Top 5 matchup, with No. 5 Miami routing the No. 3 Hokies 27-7.
Both programs have slipped from that peak, but they’re hoping that new coaches (Mark Richt at Miami and Justin Fuente at Virginia Tech) can help them regain their powerful in-league status. If that happens, this rivalry will be even better.
6. Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech
3 of 8
ACC expansion has created some great new rivalries, and Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech is certainly one of them. The Hokies and Yellow Jackets had met only once all-time before the Hokies joined the ACC in 2004, but they quickly learned to dislike each other and swiftly established themselves as perennial powers in the Coastal Division.
Of the ACC’s 11 league title games, only two have featured a Coastal rep not named Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech (Duke in 2013 and North Carolina in 2015). Virginia Tech has won nine of the teams’ 12 ACC meetings, but they’ve been very hotly contested games.
Seven of the last eight meetings have been decided by a touchdown or less, and the last two meetings have been decided by a total of five points. The Hokies have won nine of the 12 meetings, but they’re always tight and usually meaningful. Expect that trend to continue, even with a new coach (Justin Fuente) at Virginia Tech.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
5. North Carolina-N.C. State
4 of 8
The Triangle region of North Carolina is a crowded place for higher learning. Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State are all separated by less than 25 miles, with North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium and N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium separated by 23.7 miles, Carter-Finley and Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium 22.7 miles apart, and Kenan and Wallace Wade 10.5 miles apart.
Familiarity breeds contempt. The three fanbases don’t like each other very much, given their differences (Duke is a private school, North Carolina is the state’s flagship institution and N.C. State its land-grant university). Duke-North Carolina gets plenty of attention, but North Carolina-N.C. State is a hot rivalry in its own right.
The two teams first met in 1894, and the Tar Heels have dominated the rivalry, holding a 66-33-6 lead all-time. The rivalry has been very streaky as of late. Since 1979, each team holds a pair of win streaks that stretch at least five games. North Carolina won seven consecutive games from 1979 through 1985, and N.C. State followed with a five-game streak from 1988 to 1992.
UNC responded with a seven-game streak from 1993-99. Most recently, the Wolfpack won five consecutive games from 2007-11. Such streaks intensify bragging rights, which can make for some tense interactions between fans in the Triangle.
4. Duke-North Carolina
5 of 8
Nationally, fans know Duke-North Carolina as one of the best rivalries in sport, at least on the basketball court. The Blue Devils and Tar Heels’ meetings are intensely followed by college hoops fans, all televised nationally.
While the gridiron version of the series isn’t as well-followed beyond ACC circles, it certainly matters in the Triangle and to Duke and North Carolina fans. The teams have played annually since 1922, with North Carolina holding a 59-37-4 edge in the series. Since 1948, they’ve played for a traveling trophy known as the Victory Bell, with the winner taking possession of the trophy immediately after the game.
It has become tradition for the winning school to spray-paint the bell’s base in its colors: Carolina blue for UNC and royal blue for Duke. Two years ago, that celebration carried over into the locker room, with Duke sending UNC a $27,000 bill for paint damage to its locker room walls and carpets after Tar Heel personnel continued spray-painting the bell inside the visiting locker room, per Laura Keeley of the (Raleigh) News and Observer.
North Carolina has dominated the series in recent years, winning 13 consecutive meetings from 1990-2002 and 23 of the last 26 meetings overall.
However, Duke’s rise to prominence under David Cutcliffe has changed the tenor somewhat. The Blue Devils won back-to-back games in 2012 and 2013, before North Carolina routs the past two seasons. If the teams can continue challenging for the Coastal Division title, it will make an already-intense rivalry even hotter.
3. Clemson-Georgia Tech
6 of 8
A total of 116 miles of Interstate 85 separate Clemson and Georgia Tech, and the rivalry between the Tigers and Yellow Jackets is even closer on the field. While Clemson and Tech are in opposite ACC divisions, their relationship has been preserved via yearly “crossover” games built into the league slate.
And that’s a good thing. The teams have played competitive games, with nine games between 1996 and 2006 decided by five points or less. Since Georgia Tech joined the ACC in 1980, the teams have played 33 times, with Clemson holding a 17-16 edge. The Tigers are 12-6 against Tech at home, and they haven’t lost to the Yellow Jackets in Death Valley since October 18, 2008, Dabo Swinney’s first game as interim head coach.
However, Clemson has struggled against the Jackets in Atlanta, losing five consecutive games at Grant Field dating back to October 2003. That’s significant to its quest for another ACC title, as Clemson visits the Jackets this fall. If Deshaun Watson and Co. hope to finish the drill and win a national title, the road will go through Atlanta.
2. Florida State-Miami
7 of 8
When Miami joined the ACC in 2004, one of the biggest pluses was turning its rivalry with Florida State into a conference game. The Sunshine State rivals were two of college football’s biggest powers of the 1990s, and they were placed in opposite divisions with the idea that they could play yearly as crossover opponents while keeping open the option for a rematch in the ACC Championship Game.
That hasn’t happened, due largely to the Hurricanes’ struggles. But the rivalry still matters, especially in Florida, where Miami and FSU compete heavily for recruits. Miami holds a 31-29 lead all-time, and the rivalry is full of fantastic finishes, like Florida State’s Wide Right I, II, III and IV, and Wide Left, all of which were missed field goals that sealed FSU’s fate against the Hurricanes.
However, Florida State has had the upper hand as of late, winning six consecutive meetings. Miami has been competitive (three games were decided by five points or less) but hasn’t been able to break through for a win. Here’s hoping that Mark Richt can give the rivalry some of its old juice back by bringing the Hurricanes to FSU’s level.
1. Clemson-Florida State
8 of 8
In the modern ACC, there’s Clemson and Florida State. And then there’s everyone else. When the Seminoles joined the league in 1992, they immediately became the ACC’s 800-pound gorilla, pushing Clemson off the perch it had enjoyed during the 1980s.
Florida State remains an ACC and national power, and now, Clemson has joined the party again. Dabo Swinney has turned the Tigers into a national power, and Clemson is recruiting on the same nationally elite level that the Seminoles and Jimbo Fisher are.
Even before the teams both reached that elite level, the game was meaningful, as the Bowden Bowl pitted father Bobby Bowden of Florida State against son Tommy Bowden at Clemson from 1999-2007. Bobby won the series overall -5-4, which ended when Tommy resigned midway through the 2008 season.
For the last seven seasons, the winner of the Clemson-Florida State game has represented the Atlantic Division in the ACC title game, and Clemson or Florida State have won the last six ACC titles. Florida State won a national title in 2013, and the Tigers were the national runner-up this season.
As USA Today's Dan Wolken noted in 2014, the rivalry has grown in importance. Then-Clemson safety Robert Smith agreed.
"Before I even got here, I didn't really understand the rivalry between Clemson and Florida State," he said. "But that first game when I was a freshman in 2011, I understood right then how big this game really is. You could feel the atmosphere was different. The fans want it, the players want it, the coaches want it."
Neither side shows any signs of slowing down, and this is the ACC’s best rivalry. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
