Georgia Tech-Clemson Just the Medicine for ACC Title Game

(Could this rematch save the ACC Championship game?)

For those who haven't been paying attention or just don't care—and it would appear there are a lot of you—the ACC Championship is celebrating its fifth birthday in December.

You'll pardon us if we don't have enough cake for everybody. In truth, the Conference's title game has been lacking in such celebratory luster since, well, ever.

The switch to a 12-team league and a split-division, championship game format was a noble idea. The ACC took one long look at the dollar signs the neighboring SEC was rolling in with its yearly conference championship, raised its hand, and said, "Yes, please."

But just as Rome wasn't built in a day (or as you can't make chicken salad with chick...never mind), the going has been tough for the ACC title game thus far. But the ACC powers that be need only one more win from the Tigers of Clemson for things to start breaking their way.

All joking aside, the proverbial well has been pretty dry for the ACC's so-called headline game.

In four years, it's only featured a matchup of top-15 teams once. Attendance has dwindled to alarming levels, from a 72,000-plus crowd in its first year to last season's Boston College-Virginia Tech tilt, which featured a crowd of 27,360, a number that, amazingly, might have been inflated.

Between them, the Hokies and Eagles sold about a quarter of their allotted fan tickets, after selling just over half of that same allotment when they met the year before. Holy empty stadium, Batman!

The long-term solution to the ACC's perennial problem is to move the game to Charlotte permanently . But while it's still in Tampa, the best the ACC can hope for is a prime time showdown between two Southern teams with headline stars and plenty of storylines.

In other words: Georgia Tech vs. Clemson.

Obviously, one half of that equation has already been solved. The Jackets' win over Duke last weekend sealed their spot in the conference championship, though the ACC would surely prefer Tech run over their in-state rivals Georgia in less than two weeks and stay in the top 10.

With a win Saturday, Clemson would clinch the ACC Atlantic and book their ticket as well—and with the way they've been winning and the schedule they have left, there's ample reason to think the Tigers could be in the top 15 come Dec. 5.

It would be a dream matchup for the ACC.

Such a game would feature some of the conference's best players: C.J. Spiller, Jonathan Dwyer, Demaryius Thomas, Derrick Morgan, Ricky Sapp. It would be a rematch of a great early-season game.

And it would be the right game, played between the two teams that are clearly the best in their respective divisions.

Most importantly for the ACC, it would sell out.

After 19 wins in less than two years, Georgia Tech fans have completely bought in to what Paul Johnson is selling. The man they call CPJ has re-energized a fanbase lulled to sleep by six years of Chan Gailey, and he's got Jacket fans talking about national titles, now or, most likely, in the future.

And after years of underperforming or overperforming (it was never quite clear) with Tommy Bowden, Clemson fans suddenly have a team that looks and acts capable of beating just about anybody. Clemson fans will travel, even if the Tigers are playing on the moon.

It would be the kind of high-profile, attention-grabbing, seats-filled title game the ACC has been without arguably since its inception. It's what the ACC needs, and if Clemson wins Saturday, it's what the ACC is going to get.